The historic 9/11 Truth billboard in San Luis Obispo was organized, designed and paid for by a small group of SLO activists.  The idea of trying to buy commercial billboard space was one of many ideas generated during a “brain-storming” session hosted by our patriarch, Don Koberg, professor emeritus of Architecture at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA.  Koberg, an AE911Truth member, said in his signing statement, “The facts are clear, the cover-up is unmistakable, the traitors are among us.”

The “Billboard Brigade” began implementing the “Billboard Plan” immediately after we learned that Don had been diagnosed with stage-4 pancreatic cancer.  This entire project has been a gift to Don, who also participated in its creation via his e-mail comments.

We contacted the local rep for CBS billboards and learned that the cost for a 24-foot wide by 12-foot tall billboard would be about $2800 for an 8 week run.  One member of our group had recently inherited some money so this cost was within reach.

 After several weeks of discussions, our group came up with the following text:

•Wake Up!
•9/11 Lies = Endless War
•Learn the Truth

When the project was presented to CBS, they immediately turned us down and at that point this project was dead.  With nothing to lose, I called the Market Manager to find out his reasons for refusing our text.  In a conversation that could have gone south had I started it by hammering him on our free speech rights (which don’t exist in the corporate world in which we were dealing anyway), it got off to a very good start when I simply asked him what his objections were.  He explained that our message was too confrontational and that CBS did not want to get into the middle of a hornet’s nest of controversy.  So I asked how we might be able to alter our message in a way that would make it less inflammatory for his organization as well as the public we were trying to reach.  He suggested a billboard that simply had the website but I said that was a bit sparse and eventually got him to agree to:

•9/11
•Learn the Truth

Over the next few weeks this text morphed into what was finally installed:

•1,200 Architects and Engineers say:
•Examine the Evidence
•ae911TRUTH.org

The billboard would be part of a group of billboards in the city of San Luis Obispo and on highway 101 just north of town that rotate through their system on a regular basis.  We had no control over where our billboard would go as that decision is based on what locations are available at the time it is erected.

We were pleasantly surprised when we found that it would be in town, at a location on South Higuera Street.  It seems appropriate that it is directly across from the cemetery given the countless thousands that have died in the name of 9/11.  The billboard squarely faces the relatively slow southbound traffic so that folks will get a good long look.

The billboard went up on August 5, 2010, and will remain in its current location for 8 weeks.  We expect it to generate some discussion and hopefully some thought.  We will use this as a focal point for at least a trickle and perhaps a flood of letters to the editor of our local papers.  We will use this extended period to gently but firmly explain the science behind the 9/11 Truth movement.

No one can tell what effect all of this will have, but there is already one rather heart-warming story.

I was staked out along the cemetery with my video camera hoping to get lucky and catch the crew as they put up our sign when 3 leather-clad bikers showed up and expressed their disapproval of my bumper stickers.  I have several, so I wasn’t sure if it was the one that said, “War doesn’t decide who’s right, only who’s left” or “If you aren’t outraged you’re not paying attention” or “In a time of universal deceit, it is a revolutionary act to speak the Truth,” but they were clearly not happy with me.  But the spokesman for the group did not start yelling; he just calmly told me about his dad who fought at Normandy and that I should be more grateful for my freedom.  So I told him I WAS grateful for what his dad had done for my freedom and that I was using mine to speak the truth about 9/11.  I’ll spare you the details here, but we both stayed pleasant and respectful, and in the end we all agreed that we probably had more in common that not.  As he was leaving the big guy said, “when I came up here I was going to piss on your car, but you’re OK.”  I don’t think they were convinced about 9/11 when they left, but they took an AE911Truth 9/11: Blueprint for Truth DVD, so who knows?

It was sometime after we received final approval for our text and artwork when Don, who had been keeping up with our efforts via e-mail, passed away.  While he never got to see the billboard he knew what it looked like, that it was going up and that it was dedicated to him.  When I spoke to his wife she said that keeping up with our progress gave him great pleasure during his final days.