For protestors who came from out of town:

Thank you for coming to our city. This a mean place, and you got a "welcome" that was even meaner. Fear does things to people. However, you are very, very welcome with many of us.

Thank you for the puppets and the street theater. L.A. in the summer is hot, humid, ugly, and boring. You made it one of the best weeks we've had since I was too young to appreciate any of this. For six days, this city has been alive.

Thank you for the imagination, and the simple, clear music, and the love of the earth, and the sincerity. We don't get much of these here.

Thank you for hating corporate hype, and for wearing clothes without logos. Thank you for not running over flower beds in SUVs. Thank you for raging against the machine.

Thank you for the art, and the beauty you brought to the ugly streets around $taple$, a vile building meant for the rich sticking up like an obscene gesture in a poor district long abandoned to its fate.

Thank you for the bravery, facing down an army of wannabe Darth Vaders, without even a light saber. The Force is definitely with you.

Thank you for coming to our city.

To protestors that live in L.A.:

Thank you for being in our city. Thank you for not giving up. Thank you for saying, "Yes, I will get involved, damn it." You know how rare this is in L.A..

Thank you for showing me that the spirit is not dead here. Thank you for amazing me, almost hourly, with wisdom, insights, and thoughts that could have come from one of my own anguished cries for sanity. Thank you for showing me that I am not alone in this city, and that this city is not alone in the world.

Thank you for changing this place forever. Like me, you'll walk around Figueroa and Olympic, you'll go to the Con Center, you'll stare at the dorky corporate supergraphics on the walls, and like me you'll always remember 2000, the year the movement came back in Los Angeles. There is a door here, one that can't be closed no matter how much the totalitarian media try to close it.

Thank you for helping me remember, even for a week, that there is more to life here than car stereos, X-treme sports, movie publicity, and dumb TV. Thank you for the epiphany that magic is alive, that together we can make things beautiful in L.A..

To all the protestors:

Thank you for the dedication and committment. You are beautiful people. Don't be discouraged by the vicious repression that the Man will surely bring, and know that I'm beside you in the fight, if not always offering my body, then still always completely committing my quite formidable creative and mental resources.

I love you.

Hugh

Thank you for your letter, for your appreciation. We need this, too. Thank you, all of you.


Love,


Stephanie

You also remind all of us here that LA is only a mean place in spite of the people who live here. Some forces prefer ugly forgotten streets as an easier way to control their interests. They consider the (non-wealthy) population a bother at best. They prefer walled privatized citadels for beauty and investment of their time and energy.

It doesn't have to be like that. All of us who worked together, visiting and living here, proved that it doesn't have to be. We aren't ugly or mean. Our cities don't have to be. LA may very well be "the city of the future." Those of us staying when the others leave have a duty to make that better than the nightmare it could be.

My wife and a friend traveled down to LA from Napa to take part in this wonderful and terrifying experience over the past week. It's been a lot to digest and handle - but your wonderful words have been so helpful. I brushed away a handful of tears by the time I was done reading.

In solidarity and peace,



Darow

We're not ugly. We hate ugly people and we want LA to be beautiful too.

No one should have to look at anything ugly. That's what we're really fighting for. We deserve to be in a beautiful environment.

We agree with the DNC to kill anyone who uglifies us or our causes.

Thanks.

Peace and Love and good Murder.

Harry

I'm all for a Kill Ugly Campaign in this city. L.A. could look a LOT nicer, and it would help people's moods. New York shows what you can do to grey cement, even though the lighting in those Manhattan canyons is usually pretty grey too. With our bright sunshine here, we could really make this place look cool. Zappa had something like this on one of his old LPs I found. There was a flyer and everything.

Thanks again, people. You lost all the battles, and won the war.

Hugh

I was in DC and now LA. It is empowering to be in the streets, but police and media can take that high and turn it to shit in a hurry. I was particularly disheartened after LA, wondering if any of this will make the slightest difference. Thank you to everyone for posting your feelings of love and support. I have a hard time getting people to understand and support me in my efforts to fight the system. Amazing what some kind words from a stranger can do.

We could all take a lesson from Hugh. A little love from all of us could not only change LA, but the world.

Peace and Love,

Kirby