Wow, what a day! There is a raging debate going on about how many people went. Some sources say 60-70,000. When we were there, we were told a couple times that it was 1.5 million. The European press is reporting higher numbers than the U.S. Press. A lady we met from Idaho told me that she talked to one of the police officers that were at the event and he said that he had never seen anything like it in the 23 years he worked there.
I can’t say how many people were there. I can just say – for sure – that TONS of people showed up.
There were people from the Capital Building clear down to the Washington Monument and on the lawns under the trees. There were so many people there that the police a hard time getting them off Pennsylvania avenue. At one point, it was announced that we didn’t have a permit to be on the mall and the police wanted us to fit in the upper part. But the problem was that the crowd wouldn’t fit there and so they had to let people spill onto the mall. They had to get off the street so that traffic could resume. Time-lapse photo of the actual march. (40 seconds long) A lot more people showed up to the event on the Capital lawn. But as you will see, there were massive numbers in this crowd.From our perspective, we were unable to move once we arrived on the Capital lawn. I tried to go to the bathroom at one point, but I couldn’t get out of the area. There were too many people. (Ironically, Gary and I had donated the money for one of the porta-potties!)
There wasn’t really room for most people to sit down. This meant that Gary and I were on our feet from 8:00 in the morning until about 4:30 in the evening. The speeches at the Capital Building location lasted about 6 hours – maybe a little longer. We were standing there the entire time.
I chose not to drink anything because I knew that I’d be in trouble if I did. Thankfully, there were thick clouds – no rain – and they kept it cool enough that it wasn’t a problem. The clouds turned out to be a blessing for all!
It didn’t seem that long, though. It was so exciting that the time zipped past us. The speakers were wonderful and everyone was so nice. This was not a rowdy crowd!
It is so irritating to hear naysayers say that this was a manufactured event attended by far-right fringe lunatics. I was there and can say for sure that this is not true. There were people from all parties, races, areas of the country, ages, and family configurations. It seemed to be a vast cross-section of the country.
Everyone I talked to told pretty much told us the same story. “We have been upset about the crazy spending, the increasing debt, the feeling that our leaders aren’t listening to us. We are concerned about our future. We are concerned about our children and grandchildren’s future. We felt led to come. We have never done anything like this at all.”
The topics I saw covered on signs most frequently were:
- No to a health care public option
- Don’t cut Medicare
- No to Cap and Trade
- Reduce the debt
- Read the Constitution
- We want our country back (meaning, we are sick of politicians who are not listening to us
- Freedom
- We are tired of being called the angry mob, astro-turf, tin-foil hat wearer, anti-American, Nazi, Racists, etc. (A lot of the signs expressed this in ironic ways.)
- At one point, they ask people who have been participating with various groups such as FreedomWorks and the 912 Project to raise their hands. Then they asked people who have attended prior tea parties to raise their hands. Most people did not raise their hands. This was the very first time they had ever done anything like it.
- Get rid of the Czars
- Our nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles
- Quit taxing us so much
- I worked for my money, you don’t have the right to give it to other people
- Vote them out
- No more bail-outs
- The sleeping giant is awake
- Apathetic no more
- We need term limits
- Cut the corruption
Of course, there were a few weird out-of-line signs. It would be impossible to get this many people together and not see some signs that were just wrong. But almost all of the signs were perfectly reasonable expressions of being fed up with big government and what the big government is doing to the country.
Here are some photos I took. As you will see, these people are the kind of people you see walking neighbors, in malls, at church, in stores. They are regular people.
Here I am in the middle of the crush. As you can see, we were all packed in.
Despite what people might think, the feelings against President Obama had to do with his policies. Everyone agreed – EVERYONE – that the excessive spending has gone on for a least a decade. This is not a party issue. It is not a Republican or Democrat issue. It certainly is not a race issue. (I think that people who say this are attempting to silence the voices of their opposition. What better slam than to hurl insults that question people’s integrity? If they can convince people that people who don’t like the President’s policies are racists, they will get people to believe that people who don’t agree with the President’s policies are extremists, effectively shutting down the discussion.)
The general agreement at the event was that if the Senate and the Congress doesn’t get it, they are going to be fired in 2010 – no matter what party they represent. People are planning to work within the system to get new people elected. People will campaign to replace politicians who don’t reflect their values.
The reason that Obama is getting the heat now is because the debt has skyrocketed since he has been president and people believe that some frightening proposals are in the works. Instead of fixing what happened under Bush, he has made it worse. It really wouldn’t matter who the president is right now. As long spending and craziness was going on, people would be mad. Everyone is scared of what this increasing amount of debt means for our future. And people are truly fed up about the dismissive attitude that is coming from Congress and the Executive Branch about their concerns.
When asked about the rally on Friday, Robert Gibbs (President Obama’s Press Secretary) said, “I don’t know who the group is.” When asked about the protest on Sunday, the White House declined to comment.
Which potty did Gary and I pay for? HA!
This guy cracked me up. The hat was a statement thumbing his nose to the bloggers and newscasters are labeling people that went to the town hall meetings tin-foil wearing racists.
There has been some discussion on the web about garbage left behind. What I observed was that people like me were picking it up as we left the area. There wasn’t much on the ground – mostly cigarette butts. (Why do smokers do that, by the way?) The biggest problem was that there weren’t enough garbage cans. This had to be due to the fact that nobody expected this large of crowd. But people were trying to get their garbage in the cans. Here’s how the cans looked. As you can see people staked the garbage around the cans, trying to be helpful, because the cans were full.
If you want to see photos that compare how it looked after the Inauguration on 1/20/2009 versus how the same spot looked after this rally, you can find them here. Big difference. As I’ve said before, this was not a rowdy crowd.
It feels amazing to be part of history and I can honestly say that I was. This morning, I got a call from one of my neighbors. I guess people talked about the fact that we went to the rally at church yesterday. She got all choked up as she told me how much she appreciated that we went. “Thank you for representing us,” she said. “I just wanted you to know how grateful we are.”
I don’t know what is next, but I do know that I’m going to be praying about what I should do in the future. I suspect that I will start looking for politicians to represent me that will truly represent me.
For instance, I'm looking forward to campaigning for a replacement for Orrin Hatch. He's been in DC too long and has lost track of how people in Utah feel. His office isn't very nice when you call them to express your viewpoint, either. They act irritated that you are bothering to call up, even though I have tried to be kind (but firm) when I expressed my opinion. Senator Hatch and his office has forgotten that he works for us. Unfortunately, we won't get a chance to replace him until 2012...
Once I find people that will represent my views, I will campaign for them. I’m off the couch now and don’t intend to get back on it!
As a note: If you wish to comment on this point, your comment has to follow my blog's terms or your post will not be published. I'm putting out this warning because there have been so many awful things posted about the Internet in response to people's true-life experiences. If you've come to my blog to slam me or the other people that went, don't bother.
