July 14th does work, and green always looks like growth to me, sprouty and determined and fiece and blithe at once. Kind of like you, Anne. Duality has to make way for the x factor; the unifying Stand For All Of Us. Somehting seedy and prolific, but whole and passionate like a pomegranite says it all, fruitwise, for me.

We're expecting a baby sometime around then, and I think that the thing to do just before welcoming someone new to the planet is to try to make it a better place. Lay out the green carpet, if you will. So I'm there. With bananas.

We definitely do need a revolution of kindness in this country. There has to be a way for all the people who profoundly disapprove of what is happening to this land we love to actually change it.

So exactly where do we turn up?

I'll be with you in spirit, from the bottom of the Pacific.

First, I don't know if this is serious, but I really like it. Has there ever been a call via the internet to no one and everyone at the same time to protest? If so, I never heard about it. So, if there are any bloggers out there and they are as attracted to this idea as I am, link to this article!

I'll be there.

Wonderful idea. Democracy in action. It seems beautiful that people would unite in the spirit of kindness. Everywhere we look is more discouraging news of corruption and ego-centrism. In light of the mobilization of the citizens of France and the opponents of immigration law proposals in the United States there seems to be a "Storm Front Brewing" Your idea is reminicent of peace and love movements of the 60's. I think we would all enjoy a day experiencing the company of our brothers and sisters as we did in a simpler time. I will give your celebration support in my blog tomorrow and begin efforts to schedule an event in my home town and encourage others to do the same.

Would you be interested in acting as a centralized point for information should this celebration resonate with a strong grass roots appeal?

"This land is your land,

this land is my land,

from California,

to the New York island,

from the Red Wood forest,

to the Gulf Stream waters,

This land was made for you and me!"

I've got spare farmland to rent.

Um hi, Anne Lamott, I pretty much love you.

I will show up with my knitting group. We're taking suggestions for appropriate things to knit...

I'm up in Canada, and we're sorely failing humanity as a whole too. Why limit the revolution: Canucks be kind!! Do something Canadian-ly nice...like giving your free roll-up-the-rim coffee prize to a stranger.

Anne alluded to the protests of the 3rd anniversary of the Iraq invasion, and to how smallish and disappointing they seemed. They were smallish and disappointing here as well, and I may know why. We lined our town streets a few weeks earlier to cheer for our returning National Guardspeople. Some of them are grandpas and grandpas, lots are moms and dads, all went to Iraq and did a hard job as well as they could. We are proud of them and their families. All of them looked windburned and tired and older, and we just want them to be OK, so we cheered loud. Even those of us who hate this war with abiding conviction cheered for the folks in desert camo. We are just so glad they came home.

So the idea of gathering in support of kindness and libraries (could we add the Constitution?) seems right, seems like something a person in a small town could come out and do without insulting the assistant night manger of the grocery store, or the fire chief, both of whom we just got back, or the second grader whose mom just returned. In fact, it even seems safe enough for them to join us without causing the guys down at the VFW to shake their heads in disbelief.

Well, some of them are gonna shake those heads, no matter what. We know that. But some are gonna think, like we do, "Yup, this all just can't be right."

Thanks for the invitation Anne!

Okay.

btw: Can Salon unPremium-ize this request, so that we can link to it without guilt?

Oh, you brain-dead hippies entertain me so! Yes, yes --- let us have a vague, squishy, and completely meaningless revolution that doesn't even have a fucking rhyming hippie CHANT! That will make you feel sooooo much better about losing the White House twice, and the whole country tilting right, and your party a tattered remnant of victim's-rights groups and loud, ugly, unelectable feminists!

Anne Lamott, that was weak. SUPER weak.

I can think of no better place than Millennium Park on Chicago's lake front. I would love to celebrate Chicago's beautiful public library and a city of cultural acceptance and appreciation.

I'm IN.

Sounds like somebody's been watching "V for Vendetta" (which was a kickass movie, by the way) -- very touché about fascism. Yep, I'm gonna join Sorlie to spread green across rural Canada for the 14th. This whole world smells of something not right anymore. Kindness? Indeed. Libraries? Absolutely. Now, about the fruit... do they have to be in vegetable form, or can they be my homosexual friends too? :) Oh what the hell, I'll bring ten drag queens dressed as Carmen Miranda for the shindig and then we'll have tonnes of fruit to spare for everyone.

Anne,

Oh, how we've missed you! I've already passed along your article to many friends and family...I'm bringing Mangos and Pineapple!

Peace, Passion, & Much Love

Lisa

For San Francisco Bay Area folks -

How about July 14th at the Cupid's Arrow on the Embarcadero in San Francisco (about where Folsom Street ends)?

Noonish on Bastille Day? The Embarcadero is so lovely and accommodates children and dogs, too.

No signs. No yelling. No confrontation. Shall several of us just show up, be friendly to one another, smile, and maybe share some fruit?

I'm happy to bring plenty to share.