Hi,
My wife and I went into DC today to the Glenn Beck rally. It was called "Restoring America" with huge monies being donated to the wounded warriors fund which helps provide for soldiers families for those who are wounded or killed in serving the country. Certainly a cause all Americans could be supportive of. This report will be more of our personal feelings and observations.
I found myself a bit excited, actually woke up around 3:30 AM and did not go back to sleep. While my wife had mentioned to me several times about the fact that there was plenty of potential for conflict, I reassured her and tried to calm her fears every time she brought it up. My feeling was that someone has to step up and stand for what they believe in. Well it did concern me more than I let on. I found myself daydreaming about things like what happens if we are greeted with thugs at the train station like some did when they went to the polls to vote. How would the two of us, senior citizens, handle a situation like that. Came to no conclusion other than to realize, in a small way, just how many of the civil rights protesters had to feel the night before they went to march, they had to be really apprehensive.
Well the alarm went off at 5:00 and I watched the clock tick over on the digital clock and was immediately out of bed. The hotel restaurant breakfast did not open until 6:00 so we dressed, packed the backpack with pb&j sandwiches and around 5:50 started loading up the car. Well the door in the two rooms next to us opened and there were folks from New York and PA and darned if they were not wearing patriotic shirts and immediately we became friends realizing they too were going to the event. We went into the breakfast area and there was some 30 of us from five states all going to the rally. We left in a caravan to the train station. All fears I had the night before seemed to vaporize by the time I was finished with my Raisin Bran, this is going to be fun. We are not alone.
We got to the train station at 6:45 as the first train left at 7:00 AM. What a shocker! There had to be 10,000 people waiting in line to buy a ticket, the line was out of the station and down the block. We realized that if we already had tickets, which mercifully we did, we could go right in so we left our friends and ended up on the 7:15 AM train. We talked to one lady who arrived at the station at 8:00 AM and she reported waiting two hours to get a ticket and they did not arrive at the event until after 11:00 when it was over an hour old.
Got off the train and it took about 15 minutes to get up the escalator and on to the mall. When we got there, around 8:00, two hours before the event started, there were thousands of people there. As we walked along we saw all races, kids carrying American flags, people smiling and talking with strangers, and people from all over the country. We walked around a mile and the crowd was so thick we decided to park our chairs where we could see a monitor and hopefully I could hear the speakers with my hearing aids. People in front of us had arrived at 3:00 AM and several others had arrived at 6:00 AM. We got the last row before the blacktop walking road where they said you could not set up chairs. It was crowded.
My wife braved the crowd to go take pictures and then went to the porta-potty. She was gone long enough for me to worry. Then it was my turn to make the porta-potty trip and I waited in line for almost 45 minutes despite the fact there were hundreds of them set up all over the place. Had to really wedge my way back to my seat as the intensity of the crowd was amazing. The only thing I can compare it to is the crowd you might experience in leaving a full football stadium after a game where they have to wedge together on the way out, there was no spare room.
The crowd was orderly and respectful. Other than one lady who we had to yell at to sit down....she did not want to get her white slacks dirty...all sat down and we could all see and hear. One guy gave her his chair and he sat on the ground.
I cannot tell you how many times I had to wipe tears from my eyes. Palin was exceptional, but the thing that really got me was talking about the soldiers and the marine who was there with hooks for both hands. As I listened to his story I once again had to pull out my handkerchief.
Beck and others introduced several speakers and it was a well coordinated event. There was quite a few black clergy members there and most felt that Dr. King would have very much approved of what was going on. The political remarks were really a bare minimum,counted two remarks, very subtle and that was about it. Dr. King's niece was a very powerful speaker and was impressive to say the least.
While CNN reported that the crowd was not angry, I would disagree somewhat. The mood was excellent, however I made the comment to several people that I doubted that the ruling class had any idea just how pissed off the public really is. To a person, that remark was met with affirmation in the least and reinforced many times over. One person echoed that the crowd today was the tip of the iceberg. We will see in November, but I feel the public is fed up with an electorate who forget their job is to represent those that hire them.
After it was concluded, there was one more interesting observation. Recall the photos of the trash left behind from the Obama inauguration.....we saw folks picking up their own and their neighbor's trash what little there was. The park looked as clean as it was when we arrived. The crowd was estimated by a park service employee to be around 750,000, was very orderly, filed out and folks were talking and laughing with strangers as we started our walk back. Again folks were from all over the country, many flying in, or driving on busses for hours to get there. Took over an hour to walk the mile back to where we started at 8:00 this morning.
When we got back to the Metro station the line was huge, figured it would take a couple hours to get to the escalator just to go down to the train. We walked over to the Smithsonian Castle, used the rest room, the relaxed for over an hour. The line at the ladies room got so long they actually changed the sign and they used both the ladies and mens room for ladies. There was a small, and I mean small, men's room down a long hall which was ummmm, crowded and friendly. Again people were courteous, there was seating and folks were glad to share benches etc.
Took my wife almost 45 minutes to wait in line to buy a coke and cookie and we sat and rested before going back to the Metro. The line was somewhat shorter and in about 30 minutes we were in line to get on the train. Now the train was crowded. My wife found a seat and darned if a nice young man offered me his seat and chose to stand so I could sit. My first thought was, "Do I really look that old?" I have been on busses going to Cub games and seen teen agers sitting while little old ladies with canes stood in crowded busses so the offer was a pleasant surprise. Turned out the young man was from PA, father of four, and saw fit to come to the rally.
Arrived back at the hotel at 4:00 PM, tired but energized. Our country is going to be OK folks, real hard working Americans are determined to take back our country from the special interest and something for nothing crowd. I seriously doubt that any of the adults would argue with Beck when he said we have to protect our freedom and insure that our grandchildren have those same freedoms we have enjoyed our entire lives.
Glad we came, now the trick is to not let the spirit of the event die; but rather it must become a beginning or continuance for many of us to take the political class from both parties down to size, they work for us, we are their employers and they need to be reminded of that daily.
Hope this has not been boring, hard to capture the emotion one feels when they attend an event with 3/4 million of their best friends. In the words of Sara Palin, "We are not alone!"
Best personal regards,
5412
