The Zemanifesto – Sept 8, 2010

By Greg Zeman
The Guardsman

I am urging all San Francisco voters to vote against the “sit-lie” law in November. Furthermore, I am encouraging all of you—voter or not—to break that law at every opportunity should it pass.

Sit down on any sidewalk: play checkers, eat your lunch, read a book (or The Guardsman perhaps) and just generally enjoy your public space, because it belongs to you.

And because, hopefully, if everyone constantly violates this idiotic law it will become unenforceable.

Let the players play

Some of the happiest hours of my childhood were spent drafting early versions of my (terrible) column from last semester. I didn’t write these drafts with pen and paper, I used green and blue chalk on the concrete of the sidewalk outside.

Yeah, I was a very strange, very lonely child.

Still, it strikes me as unfair and ridiculous to pass any law that inhibits the ability of children to enjoy the same opportunities for imaginative play that I enjoyed growing up.

Then again, with California’s legislature wielding a hammer against the porcelain piggy bank of public education, the kids may have more pressing concerns.

Drop a line, waste some time

We have some videos and multi-media going up on www.theguardsman.com soon, and we’ll be updating the website with new content each issue. Make sure you visit us every so often to see what we’ve added and what we’re up to.

You can comment on your favorite (or least favorite) parts of The Guardsman and see every letter we receive, even those too long or obscene for print publication. Also, I’m seriously considering putting up some Flash games, but you won’t know when I do unless you check in once in a while.

Besides, how many times a day do you really need to check your Facebook account?

Drainage

If I say I am a newspaper man, you will agree, I am a newspaper man.

I am the editor-in-chief of a California, student newspaper, I have a staff of over 20 individuals working for me, I have city-wide distribution and I do my own drilling, er, editing.

You may have heard of Op/Ed Editor Nick Palm’s recent acquisition of an old gold mine in the Sierra foothills. You may also have heard that I am an avid quail hunter and that I have purchased a ranch on the plot of land directly next to Nick’s so that I can indulge in that pastime with my son and business partner P. H Zeman.

What you may not know is that I have also acquired every acre between my ranch and the Pacific ocean.

Let’s just say that Nick has a milkshake and I have a straw.

I’m finished.