After a spirited but futile bid for the presidency, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis now has more time to pursue one of his favorite (though little-known) pastimes: visiting out-of-the-way bookstores and newsstands. An inveterate reader with a special interest in phenomenally popular religious publications, Dukakis was recently spied in our own Sojourners Resource Center.
After our initial shock at discovering a celebrity in our basement, we quickly seized the chance to pummel him with questions about his failed campaign: Why didn't you choose Jesse Jackson as your running mate? Why didn't you respond quickly and directly to George Bush's smear tactics? Why did you wait until three weeks before the election to run on a populist theme? Why don't you answer us?
Turns out it wasn't really Mike Dukakis after all. It was just a cardboard cutout that staffer and practical jokester Jim Rice found discarded on a downtown Washington, D.C., sidewalk. Apparently street photographers thought they couldn't make any more money posing tourists with the candidate.
Well, at least we can do it ourselves for free, we thought, so we called all the staff members downstairs and said anybody could pose with him that wanted to. Then we took this picture.
Ed Spivey Jr. is art director of Sojourners.
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