I was at UCLA today to support health care reform. It seemed about 250 or more were there to support reform, and about 9 or 10 were there to protest reform.
I'm including pictures of the pro- group and the anti- group, although it's hard to get a feel for the numbers from the pictures. The forum organizers had set up two "pens" or corrals for free-speech, and, at first the pro- group went to one pen, and the anti- group went to another. However, it wasn't long before the pro- group started moving into the anti- group's pen, because it was hot and the pro- group pen was so crowded, and the anti- group had such a nice, large, empty pen. In fact, by the time I took a picture of the anti- pen, the pro- people were already starting to move in.
Additionally, and unfortunately, there were even more pro- people than appear in these crowd shots, or that will appear on TV. (CNN was there.) There were quite a few people, like me and my friends, who thought they had signed up to attend the forum, but who were not on the official list. We spent most of the time away from the pens, queueing for check-in, then queueing to sign a wait-list, then standing around to hear the lucky wait-list winners. Also, despite the e-mail and internet billing we had received (from Firedoglake and other groups), we were told this was not a town hall and the topic would not be health care. As a result, I have no report on what went on inside the event, but I thought you might enjoy the pictures.
Pro- People
Anti- People