God Bless America, folks....God Bless America. September 12th, 2009; Washington, DC. What a wonderful day.
Our bus left Wheeling, WV at 4:20 AM, and arrived in DC around 10:30, I believe it was. So many patriots were there, already. Our group had a large WV state flag, carried to more easily facilitate our sticking together in the crowd, and we moved down the street to chants of "Let's go, Mountaineers!" which had a dual meaning; WVU, after all, was playing that day, too. The crowd was so large, but controlled.
As I noted on my FaceBook status, if anyone hears any number under a million people, just don't you believe it. Not at all.
My group set up about a quarter mile back on the National Mall from the Capitol Building, and people were shoulder-to-shoulder, and butthole-to-elbow; I've never seen such a mass of humanity in one place. And there were still people packed in, hundreds of yards behind us!
I walked up toward the Capitol Building---and it took me about 20 minutes or so to thread my way through the bodies--to try and locate some friends, but was unable to get through the crowd. Sorry, guys; maybe next time.
As our group was coming down Constitution toward the Capitol with the rest of the "angry mob", a guy standing on a flower planter, filming it all, told us there had to be "at least a million people".
"They've been coming down (the street) for over and hour, and already filled up the grounds at the Capitol," he said, and they're still coming down the street behind you." This was well before noon; indeed, long into the afternoon, we could look back and STILL see people straggling in, coming down Constitution, filling in on the Mall behind us.
For my part, I saw not one person being disorderly or rowdy; at least, not enough to be arrested, anyway. Of course, this isn't true of the opposition; there was a few people there who tried to agitate the rest of us; I, personally, saw a guy with a bullhorn and another in a black "9/11 was a NeoCon Setup" t-shirt, shouting obscenities at us "Nazis", but they failed. As I told a friend, the last words my wife said to me as I left the house were, “don’t get arrested”. I laughed and replied “conservatives don’t get arrested; liberals get arrested”.
I was urged along, however, during the march. Carried along by the crowd and my own enthusiasm, I did get separated from the group, and stopped for a moment, looking around for our flag. I didn't see it, and so stepped up onto the curb, for a better look.
A guy and a woman in bright yellow "Freedom Works" t-shirts approached me and informed that I had to stay "in the street", since we didn't have a permit to stand on the sidewalk. I replied "you gotta be kiddin' me!" I had to get off the sidewalk to avoid a fine. Luckily, I'd glanced up the street before I had to step back down into the gutter, and seen our flag, way up the street. I had to re-walk about another 200 yards.+LOL+ You know, our taxes pay for virtually everything that goes on in that city; if I wanna stand on the sidewalk, I shouldn't need a freakin' permit.
Also, I wonder how much litter we left on the Mall? Obama’s environmentally-obsessed hordes left tons of litter behind, after his inauguration. I, personally, saw little to no trash on the ground, that day. Different kind of crowd, I guess.
I was pleasantly shocked at how very many young people I saw there; and, actually at the numbers of blacks, too. There is Hope, after all; people are coming to their senses.
The weather was perfect; moderately overcast, so no sun pounding down on you; temperature was just warm enough that you didn’t need a jacket, but not too warm, so you sweated like a piggy. There was a light, pleasant breeze which, I noted, kept the thousands of flags stirring admirably.
So many different signs; one of the best I saw, though, was a parody of the multi-colored Obama “Change” poster; it was a picture of Ronald Reagan, done up in the same fashion, but it said “Change Back”.+LOL+
I did, however, see one swastika; it was cleverly painted into a crossed-out Obama “O” symbol, and it said, “I don’t like Fascism, Mr. President”, so I guess it was okay. That's probably what Nancy Pineapple was referring to, anyway, when she said that. She just, typically, avoided telling us the rest.
But….it’s official; as I was coming back from the restroom at the Indian Museum, I passed a young black guy drinking a Pepsi. He looked around, pursed his lips in distaste, shook his head and said “Aint nuthin’ but a mob, man; straight up! Nuthin’ but a mob….”
So, there you have it, that officially validated it….we’re a mob. Another black woman I passed asked if we didn’t have “anything better to do with our time”.
No, actually, there was no better way to spend that day, than standing up for what the Founders of this country created.
They announced from the stage that there were 450 buses in town for this thing; now, if you multiply that by 50 (or so) on the buses, that’s around 23,000, right there. How many drove in, flew in, etc. We saw a flag from a contingent from Hawaii; something tells me they didn’t take a bus.
At around 1:00 or so, someone said they heard on the radio that the National Park Service estimate at that time was 1.2 million in attendance. Sometime later, someone at ABC News slipped up and gave the count as 1.5 million. Later, however, I checked online from my phone, and saw that they'd dropped that number to between 60,000-70,000. That’s a big drop, huh? I bet somebody must’ve gotten called on the carpet for that one.
ABC, as I said, "officially" called it at 60,000-70,000; NBC said "tens of thousands"; CBS said, simply, "thousands". Even FOX gave no actual number I could find in their online treatment. The New York Times, I heard, gave the number at 500. Yes; the Newspaper of Record called it at 5-0-0. No wonder nobody reads that fish-wrapper anymore.
The London Daily-Mail, however, said there were approximately 2 million in attendance; as one who was there, I can say that this number, from my standpoint, is much, much, closer. Much closer.
It's a shame when Americans have to count on the foreign press for the Truth. Welcome to America under Obamunism.....
I think we owe Obama a big thank you, however; his presidency has been the greatest boon to American conservatism since Reagan; especially the grassroots variety.
Thanks, Barack; we’ll thank you by making sure you get it easy after 2010, not having much to do, and then a nice, long vacation from 2013-on. Way to go, man!
What a wonderful day that was, millions standing their ground against unwanted, uneeded Change; celebrating the American Spirit and honest, decent patriotism.
I didn’t want it to end; I really didn't.