…was in the local region today, in a trip exquisitely planned to ensure he would see and hear from the only people he gives a damn about, zillionaires and corporate poobahs.

That didn’t stop a few hundred or so regular folks from using the occasion as an excuse to gather at Victor Steinbrueck Park, for a pleasant summer Friday afternoon of speechifyin’, T-shirt-wearin’, placcard-holdin’, and down-home togetherness.

The assorted young adults, union vets, senior citizens, Democratic Party operatives, and Greens in attendance were united by a shared idea:

That we don’t have to be paralyzed into passivity by what computer writer Dave Winer once acronymed as “FUD” (fear, uncertainty, and doubt).

That people-power indeed can take back our nation from the junta.

That we can create an America that actually cares about her people and her land.

Meanwhile, life and art go on.