Taking It To The Streets!
History was made at our nation’s Capitol on September 12, 2009 as the nation descended on Washington D.C. The March on Washington was described by the National Park Service as the biggest event that the District of Columbia has ever experienced. There is a question of how many actually attended the rally. At one point the Daily Mail, a UK newspaper, estimated the turn out to be more than 2 million. I’ve read estimates from the National Park Service at 1.5 million, and the Albany Herald reported “tens of thousands.” Whatever the final tally is, the crowd was undeniably huge!
A traffic camera helped to produce this time lapse video of the rally.
Several people from the greater Albany area made the trip to Washington and participated in the march. Among those was Donna Driskell who traveled with Debra Swindell. Locally we had a gathering of people at Beef O’Bradys that could not attend the march. 40 people watched Glenn Beck’s coverage of the event at the restaurant, and they got several updates live from Driskell. She called to say that there were clearly more than a million people in Washington during her first call. The restaurant exploded in applause. Towards the end of the event, she called again and reported that the roads were blocked and people were still trying to get off of buses and to the rally. The enormous crowd in D.C. could be heard on the phone.
Another person that traveled to Washington D.C. was Jeff Korson. Jeff said, “We filled the paraded route from beginning to end and keep it filled with people marching until 11:30a.m. Then from that point on there was a steady stream of people. We filled the grass way in front of the Capitol and all the way back to the Washington Monument.”
Here is a photo of Jeff with some of his friends from our area at the march. (Note: Jeff is in the white t-shirt and white hat on the left.)
Becky Worsham was another south Georgian that attended the rally. She reports, “All of you need to feel so encouraged that there are people fighting out there (just like us) to bring this country back to what it used to be. For those of you who have been to D.C. the protesters stretched all the way from the Capitol building back to the mall area, which is an 8 block area! (And these are not small blocks like we have here in south Georgia!) Our group was very lucky and actually had a spot on the lawn of the Capitol building itself!”
Charlie Prochaska made the trip to Washington too. Prochaska took the time to visit Congressional offices about support for the FairTax. His wife, Susanne, reports that Charlie educated the Blue Dog Democrats and others in Congress about the FairTax idea. Many did not even realize that FairTax bills have already been introduced in the House (HR 25) and Senate (S296). Here is one of Prochaska’s photos. This one was taken at the reflecting pool in front of the Capitol building.
Lee Larko was also at this historic rally. He reports, “We lined up to march at 8AM. The crowd swelled so much that we started the march at 9:30. That’s two hours earlier than we were supposed to! I got to the end near the Capitol and watched for the next 4 hours as people streamed in! A Capitol Police officer that I spoke to said that a conservative estimate was 2 Million! People were everywhere! You could not imagine the vast numbers of people crowded together!”
I have heard that certain ways that we communicate with our legislators carry more weight than others. For instance, 1000 e-mails equals about 100 phone calls which equals ten faxes which equals one hand written letter. If a hand written letter equals 1000 e-mails, I wonder how much weight a personal visit carries? What if about 2 million people stopped by to pay a visit? Bob Rehberg spoke to his wife on his cell phone after we left Beef O’Bradys on Saturday. She had just gotten through to the switchboard of the White House and asked, “Do you hear us now?” She said that they replied, “Yes, we hear you.” Let’s hope that is true. Do you want to hear 2 million people? Here is a clip of the crowd singing the National Anthem.
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September 14th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
I wish I could have been there! I watched every second and felt so incredibly proud. We need to do the same thing again — and bigger — to demand that ACORN be unfunded, unstructured, and wiped off the face of the Earth! And impeach Obama while we’re at it!!
September 14th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Wow. Just wow. The sea of people was amazing and heart warming.
September 14th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
OH, FYI, CSPAN will have the whole thing on at 8pm tonite (Monday).
September 14th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Here is the answer to how many where there on 9/12. Don’t think you’ll find better then this.
http://thunderpigblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/tea-partiers-to-politicians-listen-or.html
September 14th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Pete Skiba, reporter for the Albany Herald, misquoted me in the paper when he reported that I said back in March that Glenn Beck “…urged people to get together in six months and march on Washington.” I left an online comment to correct the misquote. Beck didn’t even know that this was planned until about a month ago! Skiba told me at Beef O’Bradys that it was “ironic that we were having this gathering at a bar since Beck is a drunk.” I corrected him by saying that he is a recovering alcoholic. Skiba said, “There is no such thing.” Makes you wonder if there is media bias even in little ol’ Albany.
September 14th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I am happy to see the turnout, but discouraged there was a need for the uprising. It is heartwarming to know that Americans have not lost the will to resist tyranny.
Bill, thanks for the info on Skiba. Unfortunately its no surprise.
September 14th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
And, for the record, Beef O’Bradys is a restaurant as well as a bar. I can legally take my 8 year old son in there, so it ain’t a “bar” like so many others.
September 14th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I arrived in DC Wednesday morning and there were already people there gathering for Saturday’s event. We had some classes Thursday morning and spent that afternoon and Friday visiting Congress. We have a lot of work to do there. Many there need to go home. There are a few that still have the determination of our founding fathers that this can once again be a great country.
With Tom and Jeff’s okay I will try to post a review of the weeks events. I am definitely more energized than ever before and believe a ‘revival’ is coming to the U.S.-both religious and political.
September 14th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Donna,
Shoot us an email and we’ll get it up under Publius.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Donna,
I’m so proud of you and all of the folks that traveled to Washington DC from our area. I would love to read a first hand account from you here!
September 14th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
By golly I won’t miss the next one. Hated to miss this piece of history. Folks are starting to come into the game from the sidelines.
I plan to write our Senators asking for an investigation of ACORN by the GAO–can be requested by any Congressional member without having to get approval of anyone in power so it can’t be snuffed by Pelosi et al. Plan to encourage them to join in Glenn Beck’s request for 56, shall we say, “honest” folks in Congress.
Need to strike while the iron is still hot. And is it ever hot!
September 14th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
I’m hoping for the 56 to start coming forward, too. We already have several heroes who have stepped up bigtime — Joe Wilson, Michele Bachmann, Mike Johanns, to name a few. If someone will just start it, the others will come. Look at how many Democrats voted for the amendment!
September 15th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Jeff and Bill, I posted DC protest pics on my facebook. If you would like to copy them and post here, feel free to do so.
September 15th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Debra,
You too have some great photographs! The crowd was huge and I can get a sense of the energy that was there just from looking at your pictures. I did want to share one of yours with our readers. There is a young man that I know from scouts and he has been joining the reenactors in Brunswick for their Tea Parties. He had been invited to join them in Washington as they headed the parade, but we didn’t really see much of a parade while we watched at the restaurant. In case you are reading this, the photo of Debra’s that I just posted at the bottom of the post shows where you would have been! Thanks Debra for attending and speaking up for all of us. Thanks also for sharing your photos on Facebook and with us here!
September 15th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Fascinating
September 16th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
What did they march for again?
December 28th, 2009 at 5:57 am
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