[Oct. 17 Seattle] Hempfest report

[Eric Gordan]

All --
I spent about 3 hours at Hempfest this afternoon.  I mostly stood in one place, near the port-a-potties, and then I moved near the main stage and stood there the rest of the time.  I did well in both locations.  I passed out everything I had of the SAIC leaflets -- 50 I had left from yesterday, plus another 95 of the new PDF including the Oct 17 announcement box that I printed today.  I also gave out a handful of the small leaflets, but I didn't work too hard on those. 
I got almost entirely good reactions from people.  I had never been to Hempfest before, and I expected a much less political crowd than I found there.  Of course, the majority of folks were just stoners, but the was a significant minority that were clearly pretty political.  I got quite a few positive comments, like "hell, yeah, we should get out of there" and "damn right, I'll take one of those".  I also got a lot of thanks, and thumbs up, etc. I also noticed quite a few people coming out of their way to get one, coming up from behind me to take one, etc.
Overall, it was a much more fruitful day than my time yesterday at Westlake.  Next year it would be good to remember that Hempfest is good.
I had only two negative comments, one from a guy who asked "do you really believe that?" and when I said yes, he asked "why?", but clearly wasn't interested in the answer.  
I talked with one Vietnam vet who talked about how he learned "way back then" that the official reasons we get aren't the real reasons, etc.  I also had a guy come up and ask, "so, what does it say?" I took it as a smart-aleck remark, but he said, no, he was blind an couldn't read it.  I explained what it was about, and he took one to take home to his wife to read to him.  His companion, who said he was from Denmark (I think) also took one.  
Other than that, I had no real conversations.
I ran into Phil (as he reported) and Geov, and had nice, brief interactions with both.
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