I have lived in Los Angeles over 35 years, but I confess I never went to a Rose Parade until today. The event was organized by Carlos Marroquin (white t-shirt and microphone left of center in picture). Carlos and his team relied on Facebook.
Feel the Bern Rose Parade March Facebook page
We gathered in Singer Park very early. By the time I got there at 8AM there were about 250 berners. When we got moving around 9:30, more than 300 walked the 6 ½ miles of the Rose Parade after the floats and the fire department, the sheriff SWAT teams in their two armored cars and four Jesus freaks.
The spectators stayed on the sidewalks and on the bleachers all the way. Nobody else was behind us.
One of the bleachers was full of Iowa fans as you can see on this picture wearing yellow. I hope the word gets back to Iowa millennials, they hold the key for Bernie on February 1st. Sorry about the game Hawkeyes, but you were at the Rose Bowl.
This initial report may be off on the multiple driving forces beyond immigration that brought the volunteers together for the march. But it reports that there were 700,000 spectators.
During the march, I think we had 4-5 blocks of berners with all sorts of interesting things beyond banners. There was a giant Bernie that escaped my pictures. Drums, guitars, music, masks, etc.
The good thing is that nothing happened and the handful of times that some spectators started saying bullying things against Bernie, we completely overpowered them with our chants.
The whole thing was a lot of fun and the day was great. And we got the word out about Bernie to thousands of people.
There was one official rep from Bernie’s campaign, Becky Bond. She spoke in Singer Park before we started the march and she said that this was the best all volunteer event so far. Becky speaks for 10 minutes at 0:50:00 (minute 50) in the video below.
In a certain way we were breaking new ground. Never before had the “Peoples Parade” after the Rose Parade been politicized. So be it, we are ready for a political revolution. Bernie’s campaign is becoming the movement he proposed.
But, in the MSM, what will be talked about is the anti-Trump skywriting by a Rubio bankroller.
This video describes the whole message; “America is great Trump is disgusting”;
So the Republicans also politicized the Rose Parade.
This initial raw unedited video from FeelTheBern.tv shows the Singer Park gathering and then the march starting at 1:20:00 but the first hour will get you a feeling of the spirit of the movement and it has some great scenes;
Go Bernie go!