nude lecture about Bennie Bufano

Here's an update on my work by the Benny Bufano statue of Saint Francis des Varennes at Beach/Taylor at Fisherman's Wharf. In May, I was arrested 3 times (including a few hours at 850 Bryant). I call it martyrdom-lite. In each case, the DA's office immediately discharged the citations, because unless there is lewd conduct, a jury would have to consider my conduct at the same level as the conduct of a person who is clothed. In other words, the citations are deservedly non prosecutable.
[...]
I have written very telling letters on the illegal police harassment, filed at the Office of Citizen Complaints (OCC), and other legal procedures. The police for now are giving me a bye.

For what it is worth,
we tend to forget even with all the police harassment
that the majority of the public supports our work.

None of the Wharf merchants within eye shot have a problem with my being there. In fact, a few are very supportive.

Now that I have achieved my right to be at Taylor and Beach,
there is the issue of what to do with it.
I have been standing there from about noon to 2pm with a sign saying, "2:00 Lecture."
This is to take away the creepiness of
"Why is this person just hanging out there?"

Now that the police are no longer a major issue, the first big problem with that approach is that I am kind of a softy. Standing still, I am only good long term for a wind-chill temperature above 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
That's a windy corner and section of town. The other big issue is that's currently a walk-through block of people heading somewhere else and not interested in being engaged, so there is little dialog on what I am doing.
Agreed my being out there speaks for itself
and is spreading the message,
but it's still kind of a "Bushman" type of performance.

So, I have elected to change what I am doing
at Beach and Taylor.
....................


At 2:00 pm, I am going to give
a lecture on Benny Bufano,
sculptor (1888-1970) of the statue
at that corner, of Saint Francis des Varennes.

Benny Bufano was a pacifist and internationalist.
He was famed for his protest of U.S. entry into World War I
by chopping off his "trigger finger"
and mailing it to Woodrow Wilson.
There many stories attached to Benny about his being a friend of
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, living at Gandhi's ashram [ in India],
getting the San Francisco Art Commission's approval
to build a 200-foot statue (taller than the Statue of Liberty)
of Saint Francis on the top of Twin Peaks,
and his pro-nudist viewpoints and practices.

This statue of Saint Francis des Varennes (near Paris) was worked upon for over 3 years during the late 1920's and has an interesting history up to today. (Who owns it? The Catholic Church or the Longshoreman's Union?) The animation of giving this lecture takes away the temperature issue. This presentation has the added advantage of making my nudism common place instead of unique, which is probably a better idea.

The lecture series will begin 2:00 pm,
by the statue of Saint Francis
at the Southeast corner of Beach and Taylor daily.
Starts Tuesday, June 10, 2008.
Everyone invited.
By donation.



Naturally,
George Davis
(415) 722-2968

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[ Comment by Tortuga Bi LIBERTY:
Mailing a body part to the President??!
I wish I had known about Bufano
during the Vietnam anti-draft resistance years
(in the Sixties).
All I did was burn my draft card;
and sit-in at Selective Service..
Oy!
I coulda been a contendah... }
.....