Thursday, October 14, 2004

Imagine That

On the way into downtown on the heavily-travelled central freeway, a strange constellation of messages and sponsors has been raised over the city: a huge banner hangs from the undulant wall of the modern jailhouse.  The banner features a large photo of John Lennon kissing Yoko Ono.  On the right side is a replica of a cop’s badge, and at the bottom a crimson border reads “San Francisco 49ers.” Superimposed over the Lennon photo is this text: “John Lennon today.  Imagine that.” Beneath, it continues: “Violence hurts us all.  Resolve to end it.”

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people see it each day, and I’ll bet every one of them thinks, “what the hell is this bizarre melange of identifiers and messages?” Anyway that’s what they’d all be thinking if I were scripting it, but then again, they wouldn’t be so damn violent either and we’d probably just put up a big sign about the dangers of snail bait abuse, or reminding people not to mash their fingers between shopping carts.  And that building it’s draping wouldn’t be a jail, it would be the gleaming new municipal moonbounce facility.  And then we’d all have pie.