Hello, there!
Thanks so much to all who signed and shared our petition over the last few days, calling on the California state legislature simply to add "Emperor Norton Bridge" as an honorary name for the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.
Since we announced our petition drive last Wednesday afternoon, the petition has grown from 6,277 to 6,365 signatures.
This might not seem like an enormous number. But, a basic principle of grassroots activism is:
For every person who...
- likes or follows a cause on Facebook or Twitter;
- shows up at a meeting about the cause; or
- writes a letter supporting the cause
...there are exponentially more people who support the cause but who have yet to translate that support into public action.
Rest assured, there are many, many more than 6,365 people who would like to see the Bay Bridge named after Emperor Norton!
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One challenge and one opportunity we have is to "translate" believers into actors — to get the numbers of people to sign the "Emperor Norton Bridge" petition that will make the petition more representative of the actual support for this idea.
Media coverage always is helpful in unlocking more signatures for a petition like this. But, the real key is word of mouth.
So, please:
- Keep on sharing the petition on social media.
- Keep talking it up with friends.
- If you're part of any network or group that deals with the history of San Francisco, Oakland or the Bay Area — or that works on issues related to the "civic branding" of the Bay Area — put the petition on your meeting agendas and listservs.
:: :: ::
Once again, the target year is 2022 — the 150th anniversary of Emperor Norton's three "bridge Proclamations," in 1872, setting out the original vision for the bridge.
In order to pass by the end of the 2022 legislative session in September 2022, any "Emperor Norton Bridge" resolution would need to be introduced in the California legislature between February and June 2022 — which means that...
For a 2022 naming, the persuasive potential of the petition probably will peak in early 2022.
Thanks again!
JOHN LUMEA
The Emperor Norton Trust