Flippin' Off Osama

I am filing some photos at a Kinkos and there was this guy sitting two chairs away from me who keeps mumbling to himself. I think he is reading something that he is writing, but he is also making some weird sounds. He’s a relatively normal looking guy, appears to be a business man. I’m looking down at my laptop and all of the sudden he blurts out “we’re so involved in our laptops we haven’t even noticed all of these beautiful women in here.” I look up and over towards him. He’s looking at me and nodding. I look around and there are about 4 soccer mom types. I look back at him and nod. What the hell was that about?

It’s the anniversary of 9/11 today. I’m doing the proverbial anniversary feature. The search for the said feature has brought me to Lafayette, California. There is a privately owned hillside in Lafayette across from the BART station that is adorned with thousands of wooden crosses that honor the troops that have been killed in Iraq. Some see this as a disgrace. Others see the display as a harsh reminder of how ugly war is.
Today, there is only one man at the crosses. Self-described “pro U.S.A.” activist Mark Kirby is standing alongside in a costume that he says depicts Osama Bin Laden. He has Vietnam era camouflage pants and a dirty white t-shirt with O.B.L. and 9-11 written in black magic marker. His makeshift beard is crafted from a woman’s wig and he is using a grey sweatshirt as a turban. He is attracting a mixed reaction from passing cars ranging from the middle finger to honks as he waves a homemade sign on a broken hockey stick that says “never forget 9-11” and a Styrofoam airplane. The airplane thing was, well, creepy. The honks and flashing of the bird were about equal. As I was standing next to him taking pictures a car honked, he said “I think that one was for you.” I told him that it couldn’t have been seeing that I didn’t have an awesome costume.
My next stop was a few miles down the road where the Lafayette Flag Brigade had set up their annual flag display on the overpass across highway 24. Flags adorned the fencing along both sides of the overpass and people stood between them and waved to traffic on the freeway. An audio system blasted contemporary country tunes and every now and again some local person would sing a song. It was like a small town version of the republican convention. One elderly Chinese man came up to me and asked if I had heard him sing. I told him I had not. He said “that’s o.k., you can just watch it on You tube.” He went on to tell me that I “could tell my friends that I met that guy.” If only I could remember the name of his song. Oh well. The event received a lot of attention. So much in fact that on my way home traffic heading towards the flag vigil was backed up for about 5 miles. Glad I wasn’t going that way.