[1]Stand up to the political machine
Gotta raise money for those yard signs. So, get your special “Stand up to the political machine” poster, [2] with an incredible illustration by local illustrator Geoff Smith, for $10 each on 80# cover stock. They are 11×17 and available for pickup at 100 Bonner Street, but if you donate $25 or more, I’ll hand deliver.
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Jesus, David. It’s a cool poster, for sure. But honest to God, did you think about the implications beyond the image. Did you run this past your Dad, for instance? You cannot possibly compare your run for City Commission, no matter how stressful it is for you, to the events at Tianamen Square. The image of a lone person standing before oncoming tanks will forever be associated with the massacre there. In fact, here’s the image: http://aroundtheedges.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/tiananmen-square-tank1-1808.jpg
You cannot begin to compare your campaign for the City Commission to that terrible event. This is offensive to me, not just as the wife of a Chinese man, but also as a sentient human being. What were you thinking, man?
Haven’t you been getting the message, both here and on Facebook. They are loud and clear. Nobody cares about you taking on the political machine. Nobody really cares about what the others have or may have done that’s wrong, illegal, immoral, illogical or what have you.
They want to know what you are bringing to the game. In order to even begin to be effective, you will have to get along with others on the Commission and in City Hall. Politics is not ice hockey– you can’t win by always being on the offensive. I know that you are an intelligent, thoughtful man with a raft of good ideas. You need to take a day (or however long it takes) and set everything aside and think about what your strategy needs to be, not just to win, but to be an effective Commissioner if you do win.
Thanks for weighing in Larkin. $100,000+ is hard to beat. In fact, it’s almost impossible. I look at that image and I see a hero standing up for what’s right. I don’t see a massacre.
My father has the poster hanging in his window, btw.
I was thinking how to graphically depict the audacity of challenging the McLin, Whaley, Williams “Team”- hence 3 tanks instead of 4. This image does that.
Wow. What’s next, are you going to depicted yourself nailed to a cross?
Gene wanted to marry me, but I’m starting to get sweet on Larkin. She is right on. No one cares. No one cares. No one cares. People expect political parties to raise money and win campaigns. You’ve lost your mind and decided to make this whole race about- what? The screening committee? No one cares and no one will vote for you because of that.
You clearly have nothing important to say about the real issues people in Dayton face. I thought you might run a real race with new ideas for Dayton, but I can see that is not happening here. You are focused on b.s.
@Lynn- it’s a poster. Go look at other campaign lit- would you want to hang it on your wall?
Wow….tough crowd on the poster. I am not offended by it, if it empowers you then use it, that is my two cents. Running for commission against the status quo is a tough sell, add that to a very racist city….blacks voting for blacks, white for whites and you don’t stand much of a chance. The preachers will get their flock to the polls with a pre-poll prayer breakfast and a church bus that drops them off and picks them up. They see the city falling down around them but will vote for the same old, same old. White voters are apothetic, unless it is going to cost them money, they won’t bother to show up and vote. You have some good ideas but you can’t sell it to them by shoving it at them, they have to be romanced and convinced. Good luck with that.
@Lynn and Larkin
Just a note – the poster isn’t comparing David or his run for Commission to the events at Tianamen Square. It is comparing you and any other resident of Dayton to the man that stood up to his government at high costs, saying YES YOU CAN stop it etc etc
The posters message is “Stand up to the political machine and VOTE on Nov 3rd”
Now, you may still find it as offensive as before, but it seems that no one read it is all.
YES WE CAN.
Hope. Change. Hope For Change. Change For Hope.
BELIEVE. BELIEVE IN CHANGE. BELIEVE IN HOPE.
YES WE CAN.
Theresa Lea,
Since you are David’s GF, you must have been one of the people who counseled him that this poster was a good idea . . . or as he said on the telephone this afternoon “Everyone around here saw it as heroic.” Yes, it was heroic in Tianamen Square. (The designer lifted the image directly from the AP photo, it hardly constitutes original art… maybe just more Faireyism) But I digress. Municipal politics is not about heroism. Dayton may need a hero, but it sure as hell doesn’t need a martyr. David’s struggles to represent the community cannot be measured against the struggles of students in Beijing who gave their LIVES in a futile bid for intellectual freedom. Your argument (and David’s) is a specious one.
Want to use a famous image? How ’bout the marines on Iwo Jima raising the flag– you could replace the flag with the city seal . . . but no, that’s a military image, so its a sacred cow. Hmm…. maybe the falling man from the Twin Towers ? No, too much room for misinterpretation and unintended defense. Maybe Washington crossing the Potomac? (Especially since David thinks that the water is one of the region’s greatest assets.)
The thing is that many white Americans regard the Chinese as something slightly less than human; which is why we as a nation hardly blinked when nearly 70,000 people (people!) were killed in an earthquake in Sichuan province 13 months ago– and why other people feel like it’s no big deal to hijack this image to use it for a political campaign and to promote it as a “groovy poster.”
Your last sentence doesn’t make any sense by the way. Perhaps you left a word out?
Gene, that’s perhaps the most cogent and quietly brilliant message you’ve ever posted, and I echo it. It’s not enough to campaign on how bad the other guys are. David, I beg you, please embrace that notion before it’s too late.
Sure beats the rest of the political advertising though, which is basically pictures of homogenized suburbanites with their perfect little family on the lawn wearing argyle. Usually.
I think it’s pretty damn cool.
Damn those homo-burbanites. GD, they send their kids to schools to actually learn, they are clean, they put trash in a trash can, they have jobs, they volunteer, they pay taxes, they generally do not commit crime ( like murder or rape or burglary.) Those GD MF homo-burbanites – WTF are they good for, other than a productive society and jobs and responsibilities, they are the worst. Yeah, we should all love the Urban losers who steal and who are dirty and who think it is unique to be…. unique. We need more of that to get us going………
Go paint a paint brush on a paint can with your toe and call it art.
Gene, your counselor, worried that you’re off your meds again, wants you to call.
Whatever. It just get old thinking that Urban folk are so damn important and talented and worthy, while the people who live in the suburbs are bland and boring. Most people in Dayton (and elsewhere) that think that never leave the city limits to find out that is simply not true. When did the “Urban folk” become so unique and talented and interesting?
You can be like the lady that said ” I am different.” Ahhhhhh, not really. You are so like everyone else it makes you want to kill yourself.
Drexel Dave . . . its a sad day when one puts aesthetics over humanity. John Ise, [redacted for name calling]
@David L- and Larkin- borderline name calling- Larkin, I took out your retort to John Ise- you can do better…
You can all call me an idiot- but, leave each other alone- unless it’s a high brow beating. This isn’t the DDN boards.
David, don’t be so pedantic. Remember the pen, like the sword, cuts both ways.
John Ise, it is very disappointing to read that you believe that Mr. Esrati’s poster is “cool” particularly as it makes light of a tragic event. Perhaps you would also think it would be “cool” if Mr. Esrati’s poster showed him liberating Auschwitz or in turn out gear at the World Trade Center? No? Maybe not so cool? Of course, Mr. Esrati referred to his poster as “groovy,” which was similarly sophomoric. My apologies for questioning your chronological age on a public forum.
@Larkin- I don’t see my use of the word “groovy” anywhere above. And, if the poster makes people think- one way or another- that’s a good thing.
@ Larkin “many white Americans regard the Chinese as something slightly less than human; which is why we as a nation hardly blinked when nearly 70,000 people (people!) were killed in an earthquake in Sichuan”
Race again? Please…
FY 2008 HUMANITARIAN FUNDING PROVIDED TO DATE IN RESPONSE TO THE EARTHQUAKE
USAID/OFDA Assistance to China: $2,672,698
DOD2 Assistance to China: $2,204,900
Total USG Humanitarian Assistance to China: $4,877,598
The above is just the monetary funding that was provided. There is a lot more in humanitarian assistance. You can find more about what the United States did for China during there time of need by going to the following link below.
You are right Larkin are great nation didnt blink, we reacted and helped another nation in need. Food for thought, how much money or humanitarian aid did China send us after the Kartina?
http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia/countries/china/earthquake/
I should have checked first before the Katrina – China comment. They offered disaster relief up to 5 million US dollars along with emergency supplies to the people in the the United States victimized by Hurricane Katrina. My bad!
Just because you dont see it on the evening news or in the paper, doesnt mean it didnt happen.
Seems like I’ve heard of Geoff Smith before somewhere?
It’s JUST a poster.
Larkin- “Jesus, David. It’s a cool poster, for sure.”
Anyway.
As someone who votes Independent more often than not, this image speaks to my thoughts about politics. Big government is big government. Nicely done.
This poster does make me think. It makes me think your sense of self-importance is too strong to get anything productive done with the city commission. And this series of comments makes me think that if you’re too stubborn to concede to the poor judgment and taste of this poster, you must be too stubborn to ever admit to being wrong, which is a dangerous characteristic for someone seeking political office.
Giving up your life for a human rights protest. Building Sportsplex. Yeah, I can see the parallels.
Actually, my exact words were, “…your message gets lost with the image.” Assumptions…
I didn’t leave a word out, or spell your name wrong.
@Ron- as if the current City Commission is getting anything productive done?
And, I hate to tell you- there isn’t anyone else running in this election that has served their country- who was willing to give up their life for it. I spent almost 7 years with Special Forces.
I’m also the only one here willing to go to jail and fight in court for 2.5 years (winning five times) to protect free speech and to challenge the City Commission on secret meetings- so, if you want to see it as me in that picture, willing to go to bat for you in that poster- you’re right.
Now, if you really had any balls at all- sign your whole name. That would be a start for a stone thrower.
Go Esrati Go!
I’m an Army vet too, and all of these holier-than-thou protests make me like you even better.
We shall destroy the giant as Lilluputians!
Ultimately, here’s what the poster says to me:
David Esrati is about facing down the power structure.
If that’s a REAL problem, then you pansies need not be involved in America at ALL. As a vet, people who hate rabble rousers and political gadflys are the kind of people I want to go after, not defend.
Dayton’s political power brokers all need to be in muddafuggin diapers if they consider David Esrati to be a threat.
The attack site that the Montgomery County Democratic Party launched is now attacking me too. They don’t like my spray chalk, they don’t like my “Crazy” “Insanity” door hangers-
they think Nan’s one page site with a video staring Carolyn Rice and Karl Keith- is the answer.
Geoff Smith. The Frugal Gourmet? He did your poster?
My opinion is that the graphic design is mash. Your logo reminds me of the old ACT UP graphics (which were done by Gran Fury, an activist bunch of advertising guys). But it doesn’t match the graphic style of the guy and tank. The black bands and white italicized text remind me more of Barbara Kruger.
Teresa Lea–Sorry for “misspelling” Theresa. (I also spell Brittany the correct way.) Your last sentence still does not make sense. Try again. :-)
Brilliant, there’s a remarkable amount of racism towards the Chinese. (And yes, “Asian” is different than “Caucasian” and is considered by all to be a different race.) I’ve forgotten more about the last 150 years of the Chinese -American experience than you’ll ever know. While improved from the time that “coolies” were imported for cheap labor (and the women weren’t allowed at all) there remains a prejudice constantly on simmer.
Teri G– what else do you say to a friend who proudly announces his relatively well-designed (there are font issues) poster when the subliminal message behind is offensive.
David– you tweeted (and thus posted on FB) which appeared at the top of your website “Check out my groovy new poster.” Please, you think I’d make it up??
I stand by my original position that this poster is a mistake. I hope that it remains simply a point of contention among people working on the same campaign, and not something on which the election is lost. And I mean that absolutely sincerely . . . we’re not talking aesthetics here folks, we’re talking electability.
Well, that’s what you think Larkin. And there’s no line outside the “What Larkin Thinks” building.
I apologize for that Larkin. Grumpy Sunday morning no-cofee blues. Should have thought longer before typing.
Maybe you could replace the tanks with Nan’s bulldozers.
@KaleF- actually thought about that- and considered it. But, I like your thinking. Welcome to the site.
Hi David, I have been out of town since my last post. So, I am getting caught up on my reading. Read the “Plan”. Interesting – I don’t agree or disagree, just found it interesting. I don’t get the sign at all. What are people suppose to do with it? Is it a yard sign? window sign? What?
I have more reading to do. I will post again later.
you pansies need not be involved in America
Much as some people would like that, we pansies aren’t going any where.
@Roxie- the sign is for your window if you have a business- for your wall to show your friends- for your office cubical to show your co-workers, to help put some money in the campaign treasury so we can afford the one color yard signs that will be coming in two weeks.