The Rally

I know, I know, it is Tuesday already and I haven’t posted about my trip to Washington, D.C. yet. Lucky for me I’m not a journalist who has to file a story by a certain deadline. If I was, I probably would have either been fired or reprimanded by my editor for being so lazy about getting this done.

Not to make excuses or anything like that but I really didn’t feel like I should take the time to write a lengthy post while I was at my friend’s house. We only had 46 hours to catch up on a 29 year separation. It wouldn’t have been right to take some time away to write about the experience. I would have posted yesterday but all I wanted to do after work was to get my laundry done, put my feet up and relax (doze) before I had to go to bed.

So here it is. Tuesday, November 2, 2010. (Election Day – just to make note of that). And I am finally getting around to writing about my weekend. I am planning on just writing about the rally today. I will write about the reunion tomorrow because that deserves a posting all by itself.

The rally that I am referring to is the Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear that was led by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert which was held on Saturday, October 30, from 12:00 to 3:00 on the Mall in Washington. That was the event.

How did I end up there? My brother and I were talking about it when it was announced and he said, much to my surprise, “we ought to go”. Okaaayyy…..who are you and why did you steal my brother???? Ted only goes away twice a year because he runs his own business and has to take care of it pretty much seven days a week. So it was completely out of character for him to suggest that we go away for the weekend to a rally in Washington.

But, plans were made, tickets purchased and off we went. As I mentioned before, I will write about the reunion tomorrow so let’s start with Saturday morning. Actually I think I will just write about my experiences at the rally itself since the journey to and from the rally was eventful enough to fill a posting.

Have you ever been in a crowd of over 200,000 people? Have you ever SEEN a crowd that large? Here is a picture from the top of the Washington Monument:

Needless to say, the crowd was HUGE!!! But, and this did surprise me, very well behaved and nice. Everyone was there to have a good time. There wasn’t any anger, shouting, hatred or mud slinging (literally or figuratively). Just a whole group of people wanting to restore sanity to this crazy country.

Once we picked our spot, directly in line with the police lift (a little smoked glass room that rose up above the crowd), we settled in for the afternoon.

We were about 1/3 back from the stage and had a pretty good view of the screens. My brother could actually see the stage (he’s pretty tall). At least, he could see the edge of the stage since there was a big screen right in front of his view of the stage.

When we arrived, they were showing parts of the Daily Show on the screens, just to keep the crowd entertained before being entertained…and informed. We decided this would be a good chance to have lunch. I’m glad we were able to get that out of the way since, once the festivities began, we wouldn’t have been able to eat since the crowd became denser and closer.

The first part of the official rally was music and, frankly, I didn’t pay much attention to this. I was a little sore from the ride in and sat for a while on the park bench to people watch. After a little while, my friend decided she couldn’t take the crowds anymore and was nervous about having her four year old son there so she apologized and headed out to go home. I was sad to see her go after all the effort we took to get there but we had persuaded her to come against her better judgment so it was understandable that she would want to leave.

I’m not going to give a play-by-play of the rest of the rally but there were some things that stood out for me:

• Stephen Colbert made his first appearance in his bunker of fear and, after Jon Stewart convinced him to show himself, he rose to the stage in a container like the miners in Chile used to be rescued. That was a nice touch.
• The Myth Busters were there and used the prime opportunity of having over 200,000 people in one place to run some experiments. Among them, they had us do the wave from front to back, then women vs. men and then left side to the back and up the right side to the front. That was cool. They also had us all jump at the same time to see if we could create a seismic event. I don’t think we did. At least I didn’t feel it.
• The fact that they managed to have Cat Stevens play was pretty amazing. If you remember, he couldn’t travel to the US during the Bush administration because he had been placed on the “no fly” list. So it was nice to see him back in America and performing on stage.
• Jon Stewart dispelling Stephen Colbert’s list of fears was funny. And the fact that he did it without calling him an idiot was a testimony to how to handle things with grace. Something to think about next time any of us are confronted with an opposing point of view.

Finally, the speech that Jon Stewart made at the end was profound, poignant and very well spoken. You can read the speech here (and get someone else’s perspective on the rally):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/30/rally-to-restore-sanity-huffington-post-_n_776541.html

I especially liked when he said – “We hear every damned day about how fragile our country is, on the brink of catastrophe, torn by polarizing hate, and how it’s a shame that we can’t work together to get things done. The truth is, we do! We work together to get things done every damned day! The only place we don’t is here (in Washington) or on cable TV! But Americans don’t live here, or on cable TV. Where we live, our values and principles form the foundation that sustains us while we get things done–not the barriers that prevent us from getting things done.”

Why did I like that part so much? Because on the journey to the rally, while there and on the journey back, we all worked together to gather together. People gave other people directions, they made sure that everyone knew where they needed to go, they politely stepped aside so that strangers could work their way through the crowd, they helped security hold the crowd back when a woman fainted, etc. Over 200,000 people were polite, kind and considerate. Because we were there to show that the American people are not those who shout, spread venom and hatred or are angry towards everyone who doesn’t agree with them. That isn’t the American people. America was represented by those who attended this rally. All of us looking out for the other person so that everyone had what they needed. Quietly, calmly and sanely.