Like most of the people I know taking the time to travel anywhere can be a monumental task. Taking the time to travel to DC to march in protest of our government takes even more of an effort, especially in terms of a financial effort. In these times of economic downturn, mass unemployment, and rising taxes, it is very hard to muster the necessary time and funds to make a trip like millions did this past Saturday, September 12, 2009. I am not going to point out in detail the mis-representation of the numbers of people that attended by various media outlets because it is a moot point. My wife and I were there and we along with the other two million people know how many people were there. And those two million people will tell their friends and relatives, about another 6-8 million people, just how many people were there. So you in the MSM can keep reporting to the couch potatoes of this country. We don't need or want those people in our cause anyway.
I would like to start by describing the people we saw, meet, and conversed with. From our first encounter with people at the hotel on Friday evening to the time we left on Saturday afternoon there was an obvious commonality. We are ordinary people of many stripes and political origins, but all held the same theme in describing the reason for making this trek to DC, and many came from as far away as Hawaii and Alaska. It is my understanding that every state was represented buy at least one person. An incredible circumstance. We all have reached a point where We The People have had enough.
We stayed at the Courtyard about 2 miles from the starting point. We decided to walk there so at 8:00am we started our journey. It was an interesting walk. We were asked by a guy for some money so he could buy breakfast. He was wearing new sneakers, jeans, a printed sweat shirt, iPod, and did not smell and looked clean. I said "ask the guy in the white house" and kept on moving. There are quit a few homeless in the area but he was not one of them.
My camera was broken and so I was only able to get few shots using my cheap cell phone. The march started about 2 hours early as the capitol police were concerned as the back up for the march started to roll back to the white house. So at about 9:30am they started to march down Pennsylvania Avenue.
That is my wife Janet's cheek. As you can see the people that were there just all sorts of normal folk. The walk to the capitol was approximately 2 miles. We chanted all kinds of stuff like "U S A U S A" "Can you hear us now" & "Throw the bums out" and more. We sang the Battle Hymn
and the Star Spangled Banner. Upon arrival at the steps of the capitol they, the capitol police, were directing everyone to the north lawn. We stayed at the entrance to sit on a ledge adjacent to the stairs to rest. Our backs and legs were sore and sitting on the ground was not an option. The stage was set at the top of the north lawn. They made an announcement that we could not gather at the mall across the street until both the north and south lawns were full. It was clear to me that they had relegated these two areas for the rally. It didn't take long for those two areas to fill up as the people just kept coming. When we left at 2PM people were still coming in! The mall was just a sea of people. The police blockades had been pushed further back as the crowd grew. To the west we were shoulder to shoulder all the way to 3rd St SW. We walked out to get a bite along Independence Ave by 4th St. at about noon. The walk back past the mall and reflecting pool and out to 1st St SW took over an hour!The signs were just incredible. There were no two signs, except a few pre-printed commercially made ones, that were the same. There were of course the "Where's The Birth Certificate" signs and few clever acronyms for ACORN.
Part of the march went by this building that was labeled NEWSHISTORY and when I looked up and realized what the inscription was on the front of this building for all to see just a few steps from the Capitol Pub was the 1st amendment to the Constitution.
So many thoughts raced through my mind when I saw that, one of which is "our representatives have to see this everyday!!" I was swept over with anger and sadness at the same time.
This parting shot was taken from Constitution Way as we were leaving. That is the north edge of the crowd.
Some random shots...
Update: Amy Beth, on the right, emailed this picture of Orly Taitz with me in the back ground in the red shirt...Thank You Amy! I did introduce myself and shook her hand and asked God to bless her.
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