You could do worse than become known as a land of love and peace, a group of Marinites decided last week. That’s after comedian Jon Stewart referred off-hand to a “Kumbaya Patrol” in Marin County.
“Finally everyone from the NRA to the Marin County Kumbaya Patrol is ready to talk about gun violence, although, to be fair, the Kumbaya Patrol has been ready for quite some time now,” he cracked on the Jan. 8 “Daily Show.”
The Marin remark comes toward the beginning of this segment:
According to the Marin Independent Journal, the remark took on a life of its own:
The next day, Iron Springs Brewery in Fairfax saw Marin’s national exposure as a chance to have some fun with its customers, posting on its Facebook page an offer of complimentary fries to “anyone from the Marin County Kumbaya Patrol from noon to 4 today.”
Of course the brewery didn’t have to worry about a run on fries because there really wasn’t a Marin County Kumbaya Patrol. But there would be soon enough. After one of his friends was refused free fries, Adam Ladwig, a 32-year-old San Rafael accountant, created a Marin County Kumbaya Patrol Facebook group page that became an instant hit.
As of noon on Tuesday, 646 people have “liked” the Facebook group. So far the group has not announced any actual patrols. But Stewart has it right when he calls Marin County a place likely to control guns. A recent gun buy-back program in Novato was a huge success, the San Anselmo-Fairfax Patch reports: