August 9, 2026
I lived in Ocean Park, California for 20 years and was a member of the Church in Ocean Park during much of that time.In the mid-1980s, two murals were painted on the sidewalls of the embankments supporting the Fourth Street overpass at Ocean Park Boulevard. About four blocks of Ocean Park Boulevard had traffic detoured to side streets when the murals were finished so that all of us living in Ocean Park could celebrate their completion and what they stood for.
I remember talking with Jim Conn, the minister of the Church in Ocean Park, at the formal celebration about the mural’s symbolism. At one point in our conversation, he said that this mural would be immediately understood in the Philippines, where political turmoil led to a people’s revolution powerful enough to drive the corrupt Marcos family out of power and into exile.
I drove by my old neighborhood the other day and noticed that the murals are still up and emanating their message of revolt against the panopticon.
About Bill Mohr