So it turns out that there was this little event on Saturday, October 30th, at the National Mall, and I just happened to be in town to attend with a few friends. According to CBS news, those friends numbered somewhere around 215,000, compared to Glenn Beck's "I have a gold-selling scheme" rally, which CBS estimated at 87, 000. Some party, hmm? Word on the street is that Neocons are seething about it.
I'm from Orlando, Florida, and my sweetheart Steven and I drove 16+ hours to get to Washington, DC, for this massive event. We also had a friend of ours, Mike, along for the ride. And we didn't exactly have a whole lot of time to make this trip. We took Friday off of work, drove all day, went to the rally on Saturday, and then Steven and I started the drive back to Orlando on Saturday night, doing the last 9 hours of it on Sunday. I had to get up bright and early Monday morning at 6am for a long day of work. I'm one of those folks Jon Stewart talked about, you know those people who have sh*t to do.
Anyway, I wanted to post all the great pictures, mostly of signs, that I took at the rally. Follow me over the fold for a trip to DC...
Right off the bat, I want to comment about the entertainment content of the rally itself. The Mythbusters were goofy, although I suspect the experiments they did might help them get a pretty decent estimate of the crowd size. I didn't care about the band that played with John Legend, I mean they were okay, but meh... I didn't come to the rally for them. I loved that Ozzy and Cat Stevens were there, dueling over trains, although I really really wish they had both been allowed to play a full song, at least. I don't care about Sheryl Crow, and definitely not about Kid Rock. I totally missed Tony Bennet because by then I was running back to the Metro to try to get out of DC so I could get on the road, and if I didn't beat the 3pm crowds to the Metro, I was going to be stuck in town until like 6pm at least. So I sort of missed the end of the rally, but got to see it on the internet later.
The entertainment stuff wasn't that great, but that wasn't the point of the rally. I drove nearly 2000 miles round trip for the express purpose of being in a huge crowd with people who share some of the same ideals I do when it comes to what we want for this country. It amazes me that there were at least 200,000 people there, and yet everyone was polite, and having a blast, and all around just awesome. We were packed into the Metro like sardines, but people just grinned and bore it, they did their best not to literally tread on anyone, lines were generally orderly, and at the rally itself folks were great despite the packed conditions. The only certifiable douchebag I saw was a guy who climbed in the trees and was drinking like a fish, and yelling and calling attention to himself.
Anyway, without further ado, the pictures:
On I-81 heading towards DC, we encountered our first fellow rally-goers, a couple of lovely ladies in a black VW Jetta with stuff written on their windows. I love the driver side message:
Parasailin' Not Sarah Palin! Love it!
Around 9am we got onto the Metro at Vienna/Fairfax, and met these wonderfully friendly people from West Virginia, with whom we had a political discussion while we waited for the train to head out:
Well after a harrowing trip on the Metro, we emerged onto the Mall around 10am. It was a gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky, about 65 degrees, and there were tons of people streaming towards the Capitol building.
We paused to have Mike take a picture of myself and my sweetie, with our rally sign:
The inspiration for the title of this diary comes from someone who came to the rally dressed as Gandalf and walked around with a white stuff with this sign on it:
Regretfully I didn't get Gandalf himself on film. I am a mere 5'3" and all I could see over the massive crowd was that sign. My boyfriend had to take the picture of the sign for me, he's much taller. I later glimpsed Gandalf himself through the crowd. Whoever you are, Gandalf, thanks for the laugh!
Anyway, here are many of the signs we saw while wandering around waiting for the rally to start.
One of my absolute favorites of the day:
and this guy has some medical advice:
More crowd images:
Despite what the Teahadists might say about how they are the real patriots, I saw a whole heckuva lot of patriots in Washington DC on Saturday. During the national anthem, everyone was singing, and showing America some love:
If we aren't patriots, if we don't love America, why did any of us show up to advocate for sanity and with all these political signs?
I just find it really hard to believe that Teabaggers have the monopoly on wanting what is best for this country. And I find it incredibly arrogant of them to think they do.
Thanks to Jon Stewart for throwing a party we won't soon forget. Thanks to every polite person on the Metro despite the cramped conditions. Thanks to everyone who tried to throw their trash away in the right place, even though the Mall doesn't have anywhere NEAR enough trash cans, so folks were having to pile their trash around the cans instead of in them, once they were full and overflowing. Thanks to the fun people we had around us during the rally.
And thanks to America, an imperfect nation that is still one of the best in the world, where we have the freedom to make silly signs and gather to have our voices heard.
Now get out and vote tomorrow, if you haven't already. Please. Swandive into a better America.