Well, we went. My wife and I and our friends. And the entire trip was a gas. From boarding the bus at 4 am to getting home at midnight the entire day restored my faith in the fact that there were enough good people in this country that want to see the government restored to accountability and to their intended mission, which is to do the will of the people.
A day later, I am exasperated. The lack of coverage by the usual suspects doesn’t bother ( although I wonder how the convergence on DC of 50,000 to several hundred thousand people (depending on who you listen to) doesn’t merit at least mentioning, the coverage even by FOX and the Tribune Review has me wondering…..why did we go to the trouble? Gibbs says “he doesn’t even know who this group is”
Some talking head interviewed on FOX labeled us as “the angry minority”…..
What WILL it take to get the attention due the Americans who do NOT want their Constitution “re-interpreted” or ignored. What will it take to overcome the consistent droning into people’s heads by the “in the bag media” that we don’t exist? The answers to these questions are scarier than the fraud and “new speak” taking place in Obama’s current media blitz.
There are so many unanswered questions….so many ignored concerns. These weren’t a hired mob of special interests marching……they had concerns ranging from health care to ACORN’s receipt of tax $$, to immigration issues, to politicians not reading bills, to the Fed, to out of control spending, to cap and trade, to taxation, etc. One theme seemed to run through however….that theme being that the government has grown out of touch, out of control, insulated, unresponsive and irrecoverably corrupted. Many times throughout the day the chant “Can you hear us now?” rang out.
There were small business owners, farmers, government employees, union workers, professionals and every stripe of productive American. I struck up a conversation with a couple from Maine who were displaced Pittsburghers (laid off from the J&L works many years ago, they lost everything, moved to Maine, haven’t looked back, and now are succesful business people). The conversation went from everything (started w/ the Steelers, they still come back for one game a year) and ended w/ him coming down here for a deer hunt and me being invited up there for a lobster dinner, but I digress.
I spoke to people or read Tshirts from Maine, Alaska, Hawaii, Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky, Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, New York, New Jersey and I’m sure their were many states represented that I missed.
I heard one or two sirens….they were mainly boop…boop as Officers strove to negotiate the crowd w/ fire engines or police cruisers. The crowd was absolutely the friendliest, most congenial and accomodating “crowd” in which I’ve ever found myself. The phrases “excuse me”, “I’m sorry”, “go ahead”, “did you drop this?” etc. were common. I saw many people in wheelchairs and older folks w/ canes or other walking aids and were given strict right of way and respect. As we walked back to our buses I noticed large piles of trash at designated drop off points. It was obvious that people went to extra pains to make sure the trash they left would remain at those spots…….it wasn’t casually tossed in that direction. I saw people picking up random trash not their own and depositing it in the designated areas.
Police officers seemed genuinely friendly and happy..I think because they knew this crowd would be respectful of the law and property and propriety, which it was……the only thing I heard an Officer say to anyone all day, was to tell people to get down from a statue near the capitol building, where they perched taking pictures. Those rowdies quickly dismounted and apologized.
Maybe we should have stormed a building and thrown trash cans through windows, or linked arms and tried to overrun an area which was out of bounds. Maybe we should have forced the police to deploy tear gas and canines and stun guns. Maybe. Maybe we’d have grabbed some headlines like that. Maybe we’d get some coverage from any media other than FOX….maybe. Maybe we should form a tax exempt/ tax funded “community organizing” group, then we could run our priorities through the back doors of Congress. Maybe then they’ll listen.
But I get the sense that those types of things aren’t in us. At least not yet. We are still willing to give the rule of law and the representative republican form of government the opportunity to do what it is supposed to do……the question is whether we still have a representative republic and whether it remembers its oath and responsibility……….defending the Constitution against ALL enemies, foreign or domestic.
