Inauguration Visibility Action

Written by: Keshini Ladduwahetty on Dec 31, 2008 12:05 PM EST

Thanks to Jocelyn Nieva, we started discussing how to take advantage of the Inauguration to publicize DC's lack of full citizenship rights.  A few of us met last night to discuss Jocelyn's proposal and arrived at the following decisions:

• PURPOSE: Try to capture national media attention for our predicament.  Educating out-of-state attendees and signing up supporters is not our priority, given the constraints of cold weather and people's focus being on the inauguration itself.  Even our own volunteers need to be able to enjoy the event once we're at the mall, rather than working the event.   We need an action that allows us to be clearly seen, and yet be full participants of the inaugural ceremony, rather than distract from it.

HEAD GEAR: The visual symbol must be able to be worn on the head, either a woollen cap, sticker attached to a cap/hat, etc.  Jocelyn proposed a sash, but we agreed that this would be of limited visibility in the jam-packed crowds on the mall.  The colors could be red & white for the DC flag.  If we can organize a group of several thousand, even several groups of 1,000 each, that stay together in a mass, we can create a visible effect.

LOGO: The cap or cap sticker should have a logo that is very short, so as to fit in the limited space available.  It does not have to be immediately understandable, but can provoke questions.  Examples are 1) <delta symbol>4DC (delta signifies change, or change for DC), 2) 100% (to signify 100% citizenship rights), 3)  207 (signifying the # of years we've been deprived of full citizenship rights (since 1801).  We could also add 1-20-09 to any of the logos to turn the item into a memento of the event, which would make it more desireable).

ORGANIZING: We can take advantage of the long walk (2-3 miles) down major avenues (e.g. Connecticut Ave, Massachussetts Ave, Georgia Ave) to grow our groups by passing out the gear to other folks walking with us.  The idea is to have each contingent stay together and form a recognizable mass.  This also removes the need to do much organizing prior to Jan 20th, although we can use the People's Inaugural events to distribute gear and organize volunteers.

COST: Lynda is checking out the cost of custom knit caps made by a union shop for an Obama event she heard about.  Based on some quick web research, I find the general range is $7-8 per cap, with some quotes as little as $3.80 (but with color restrictions).  2.5 inch stickers will cost about $600 per 10,000.  Cost will depend heavily on quantity.  I think we need a minimum of 3,000 (3 groups of 1,000?) to have a visible effect.

We are little time to lose!  We need to arrange financing, order the item, sell the idea to DCVote & other leaders in the voting rights movement and be ready for the 20th!

So let's collaborate online for the next few days and refine these ideas by Sunday Jan 4th.  Have at it!

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Location: washington, DC