| July 11, 2005 | Da Governator Vs. Da Protestors |
 Da California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger came to speak at Yahoo! campus in Sunnyvale as the latest of our Yahoo! Influentials speakers (New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and Tom Brokaw were previous speakers).On the corner of Mathilda Ave there were about 35-50 people loudly protesting the Governator's policies and presence. They were in the same spot where anti-war groups loudly protested against our corporate neighbor Lockheed-Martin a year or so ago during the beginning of the Iraq War. (Lockheed-Martin builds some serious weapons.) This is what the protest against Arnold looked like. People held signs with statements like "Public Health, NOT Corporate Wealth," "Kids, Not Cuts," and "No on Prop 76." Two motorcycle cops stood watch from the Yahoo parking lot. And here's some video I shot so you can hear it too. The number of people waiting to see Arnold (all Yahoo! employees) was much much longer. People lined up outside the cafeteria an hour before he was scheduled to speak. It was quickly standing room only and some latecomers were locked outside. Arnold spoke for a little less than an hour, and he didn't say anything too fascinating. He didn't talk about the Internet or technology. He didn't directly address the fact that there were protesters outside, though he did sort of try to refute some of their points about his education cuts. Here is some video of his speech, so you too can feel like you were there (or re-experience it, if you were there). One of the most memorable things he said was "California is the best state in the best country in the world." At least he didn't boast, "California is the only state that touches both Canada and Mexico," as my geographically-challenged Vassar-educated (but usually quite intelligent) friend Mindy once said. ;) Arnold also told us how rich he is, and how we should feel good about having a rich governor, because he can't be bought by special interest groups. Yeah right. No one protested our previous Influentials speakers Thomas Friedman or Tom Brokaw. Then again, neither Friedman nor Brokaw attracted as large an audience of Yahoos either. Still, I don't know whether it's just because Friedman and Brokaw are in the field of writing and journalism that I felt like their speeches meant more to me. I felt interested and inspired by what they had to say. The same was not true of Arnold. It felt like he was at Yahoo just to make another campaign speech and plug his many movies. (He managed to slip the titles of almost all of them into his speech.) Check out my flickr photoset of this strange event. Labels: arnold, california, influentials, photos, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 8:36 PM 
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