A report from the "front". DC "March"

[Atticus]

You should know that the "March" turned into the "Rally" which sort of slid into the "Vigil".

My wife and I drove from Illinois. We met folks from Florida, Texas, California and all points in between. We had been advised to assemble at the Lincoln Memorial between 10 and 11 this morning for a march to the Capitol at noon. When there was virtually NO ONE at the Memorial steps by about 10:45, we called our daughter who got on line to find out that "plans had changed" and there was a "rally" in Senate Park from noon to five. It was difficult to judge the turnout since some folks left when they arrived to find maybe 300 people there at noon. But, folks did continue to trickle in till after one o'clock and there MAY have been close to a thousand present at the peak. Disappointing, to say the least. But, you know what? Some of the stories we heard and the people we met made it worth the trip.

They are hoping for an October gathering to be coordinated by several large organizations, but no details yet. IF they organize it and IF they have some leadership and publicity, we will try to go back.

As far as the Teabaggers' 9-12 event, there were quite a few people here. Some of them were at our hotel when we checked in and went out to eat in our George W. Bush photo "Worst President Ever " t-shirts. Got "up close and personal" with a group of four as we walked out. I laughed as they said the were positive Obama was not a US citizen and then they added that the worst president was "that mongrel". Well, that just flat pissed off this redneck liberal and I called the comment "racist" to their face and tried to walk away before things got out of hand. "Coward" was called after me when I was a quarter block away and when I went back and inquired, "no one" said "coward" and "no one" said "mongrel".

Had similar run-ins on the street, was called a "traitor" and, at breakfast, had to tell a Freeper I wouldn't discuss my shirt with a Freeper.

These people need to be taken on, every time they start spewing this fascist(and, yes, I do know what fascism is) bullshit. Most of them are counting on not having to actively defend or explain their "guano crazy" nonsense.

In closing, the teabaggers actually had PROFESSIONALLY PRINTED signs that read "Let's bury Obamacare with Ted Kennedy!" This isn't something I heard about, I SAW THE SIGN! Classy bunch of "Christians", aren't they?

ADDENDUM: I don't know all the facts, but we were TOLD that the reason we could not march was that Congressman Fattah, who had been "advertised" as being one of the participants, had the permit for a march down the Mall to the Capitol for today's date. He(once again, we were told) withdrew from the event Thursday evening, essentially taking the permit with him. (ie, if he not a participant, permit wasn't valid) That left some good people holding the bag and scrambling to get a rally or assembly permit for Senate Park.

[formerroadie]

1. That's sad.

Argh. Why didn't the liberals of our nation show up?! Only 1000? That is horrible. I know there is a rally in Dallas tomorrow. I wish I could go and do my part. I may end up doing it now since it seems the DC thing floundered.

[intheflow]

2. The liberals of the nation showed up in much higher numbers

every other year during the Bush administration. It wasn't worth our time to organize a counter protest for a FauxNews created event.

[TxRider]

8. War protesters aren't only liberals

Lots of independents and even some rethugs are against to too.

[intheflow]

10. I never said anything about anti-war protests. That's entirely your assumption.

There there were some sizable protests in addition to the massive war protests during the Bush years:

January 20, 2001: I can't find a protest count for Bush's first inauguration, though I was there and it was quite sizable, if dispersed widely between a steady march surrounding the Supreme Court building and protesters lined up along the parade route. CNN says it's the largest protest since the Vietnam protests in 1973 against the Nixon administration. That wasn't about war, it was about unfair elections. That puts it easily in the 100-150,00 people range.

September 24, 2005: This anti-war protest had a huge boost in attendance after citizens witnessed the disaster that was FEMA's disaster response to Katrina. That march was easily as much about racism, lack of emergency response, FEMA malfeasance, and affordable housing as it was about Iraq. An estimated 100-200,000 people attended.

The 2004 March for Women's Health (reproductive freedom) drew 500,000 at a conservative estimate, 800,000 is generally considered an accurate count (and well under the organizers' claim of 1.1 million).

I was at each of these marches, plus Obama's inauguration. I would guess these are all pretty accurate crowd counts in terms of percentage of masses of people. I thought there were a lot of people at the first Bush inauguration until I went to the reproductive rights rally, and then I thought that was huge until I went to Inauguration '09.

But you just stay home tomorrow when you could be out in the streets. That way you can continue to moan about how the liberals aren't able to organize themselves to do shit. :eyes:

[lunatica]

3. We saw photos of that sign

There have been plenty of photos so we know what kind of people you were around. I admire that you went and took them on. Thanks, but please don't get hurt or in trouble. They're not worth it and they are a minority.

[barbtries]

4. thank you for going, and for sharing

i rented a car but couldn't find anyone to go with me and after scouring the web all weekend looking for information and finding very little, i just stayed home. i will keep my eyes open for another chance.

those freeps/teabaggers seem to be just 24/7 mean, nasty and hateful.

[luvspeas]

5. thank you...

Next time somebody uses the term mongrel to mean any human being, just tell them they are referring to my 3 year old girl. assholes.

[Maureen54]

6. I attended

I also went to the vigil/rally/march. I was disappointed by the lack of organization.
I'm hoping the original organizers can pull off a true march for October.
It would have been nice if they could have given us a date today instead of "waiting for the emails" with the date.
If we are to have a large turn out in October we need to start planning now ( with a confirmed date)

[Atticus]

7. Thank you for showing up after you had to hunt us down.

I totally agree that SOMEONE needs to select a firm date/time/location now and start organizing and publicizing tomorrow. I have to believe that a "name" speaker or speakers who can speak with authority and some "personalities" plus a few interviews and mentions on high-profile TV shows would give us a scene at the Mall to rival Obama's inauguration.

"Name" speakers could include Elizabeth Edwards (if the brave woman is able), a prominent physician (many have endorsed Public Option) and maybe a Congress person.

"Personalities" could feature Mike Farrell, Susan Sarandon, ---Michael Moore?

One of the "several large liberal organizations" mentioned as participants in October was MoveON. If they are willing to help, others will materialize out of the woodwork.

I will pass on any info I get as I get it.

This is damned important, people.

[JustAnotherGen]

9. October 18th

The issue is - every time I typed in March for Healthcare - tea bagging came up on the search engines. I had already reached out to Bob Reich - and actually got an Email back!

So where else can we go? NY was not largely attended. It's gotta be 100k of us in D.C. And not just MoveOn needs to be involved - the Democratic Party leadership needs to get this going. The grassroots people - we tried. We really tried.

But I think Bill Maher was right Friday night - we are much more content to to sit at home and yell at our t.v.s then get out and do anything.

Soooooo - I tried to get people fired up. Someone else lead the charge. Lead it to D.C. and I'll come down on the 18th.

March4Healthcare.com has a poll about 10/18. Go click yes. please.