One last thought - In my life, I never thought I would be marching on Washington. This weekend, I met many wonderful people from across the country - just regular, tax-paying citizens of all ages, sizes, and ethnicities - who said the very same thing. I realized as I was marching down Pennsylvania Avenue that these are the people who have always made this country great. These are the people who win wars and who keep this country running. It's not Washington insiders, or pundits, or lobbyists, or Congressman, or Senators, or Generals, or even Presidents. It's us. I met this elderly gentleman walking in the middle of the crowd and he turned to me with tears in his eyes and said "Isn't this the most magnificent thing you have ever seen?" Yes, it was, so many people engaged. This is what has been missing. Somewhere we forgot that "We" are the "We" in "We The People"! Okay, President Obama was right - this is the Hope and Change!
Question: What happens when a million people show up in Washington ?
There seems to be a major difference of opinion about how many people showed up at the National Tea Party in Washington this weekend. I attended, so, of course I have my opinion. But I scoured the papers and internet this morning on my train trip back from Washington DC and, according to the MSM, I must have been hallucinating all those people. It must have been those evil "Repuglicans" using the same holigraphic technology that they used to convince us that planes had flown into the WTC towers before Bush had the towers blown up. CNN, New York Times, Washington Post and Huffpo have reported that there were from 500 to "tens of thousands" who showed up. Fox said 1.5 Million and the UK Daily Mail website reported up to 2 Million. I saw that CSPAN actually showed the rally live! Yey for them!!
Here's one of the few aerial shots from CNN (I think). There was one helicopter that flew over during the rally.
Judge for yourself. The next is a graphic from USAToday published before the Inauguration:
Are you beginning to see where I'm going with this? Someone can't count. The NYT for one - here are headlines in today's NYT:
"Thousands Rally in Minnesota Behind Obama’s Call for Health Care Overhaul" (reported 15,000 attended)
And the headline for the D.C. rally:
"Thousands Rally in Capital to Protest Big Government" (estimated 1.5 Million attended)
All I can say it was closer to 1.5 Million than 500 and it is definitely being marginized by the MSM. The NYT reported that "the White House claimed it was unaware of the planned rally. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters with a shrug."
We'll send them a note next time...
Anyway, here are some of my picture from the ground -
I just got off the Metro to go to Freedom Park for the March to Capitol Hill. This is the crowd I walked into!
I thought that there would just be a few hundred people by 9:30am, but look what I was walking into - MANY, MANY MORE PEOPLE!
Yep! Pennsylvania Avenue - Now we march! We were supposed to start the march at 11:30am. They started the march at 10:15 or so because the crowd was getting so big at Freedom Park that they had to start moving people out to get more people in!
And march we did right down Pennsylvania Avenue to the steps of the Capitol Building...
I finally made it to the right side of the Capitol Hill Lawn next to those majestic marble stairways. This is looking down the lawn at the crowd.
My favorite sign
Yes, there were signs that I thought were highly offensive, and the MSM managed to find every one of them (about 100 out of 1,000,000).
Now it's over and we have to go home. BUT WE WON'T BE IGNORED!!!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
National Tea Party 9/12/09
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18 comments:
Nice Bev. I'm really thrilled that you went. I think it's absolutely wonderful that so many regular Americans turned out to stand up for what this country means.
In the end, I don't think it matters how many people were really there or what the MSM says, the point is that average Americans know what happened and that Congress knows.
And I assure you, nothing will wake them up more in Congress than a huge turn out by average people who have regular lives. That shows a serious passion, of the kind that they know will lead to them being turned out of office if they don't listen.
Thanks.
Cool. It's awesome that so many regular Americans showed up. When I see the leftists march, they all look like professional activists to me. This is a fantastic display of power by the American people.
Ultimately Andrew I think you are right. But it is frightening and stupid how they dismiss it. It's kind of like "Fatal Attraction" - "I will not be ignored, Dan." If they continue to be so dismissive and belittling, I am afraid that there might be boiled bunnies to come.
Thanks Bev for sharing your tea party story and pictures. I had to laugh about the "thousands" used by the A.P. That is what my local paper used. Looked like more to me based on your pictures. After reading your article, I got a chuckle out of Chris Muir's cartoon over at B.H.
Very cool Bev! That was amazing, and regardless what the MSM says, or the politicians say, if you’re in the political business, the marchers on 9/12 are not a group to ignore or piss off. The MSM is so attached to Barry they’re shaking in their tailor made suits we could affect them by organized boycott. Using the same tactics of the left but to real effect, after all when you get past the talking head persona of the MSM, it’s still a business with shareholders. Very cool Bev, I’m jealous I’ve been to three Tea Parties but that was the Big Daddy Tea Party, God Bless America, wow!
Bev, it is amazing to me that the MSM would try to dismiss the American people as much as they do. You see it in interview after interview, and in the fact that they didn't cover this fully.
If Code Pink had turned out even 15,000 people, every major media outlet would have been on top of the story. But this much larger one gets dismissed.
Still, as I said, the media isn't what matters -- the people matter and the Congress matters. And they both know the truth, you just can't hide it.
And what this rally had that is so uncommon is (1) an unexpectedly large number of people and (2) an unusual mix of people. Both of those things will wake up Congress.
AND, in fact, let me point out that Gibbs all but surrendered the public option this morning (along with several other Democrats and Snowe). They know what happened yesterday.
Bev, thanks so much for your post. And let's not kid ourselves, the Dems are more than worried about this. The more they demean and belittle, the more frantic they get. I also think that ten times as many people saw these pictures and read the blogs and wished they were there. I imagine if another march is held, there won't be a state big enough to hold everybody.
I agree with you: This is the hope and change many of us have been waiting for.
Thank you, Bev! The first pic was amazing and thrilling! The others were so wonderful as they showed normal citizens. I loved seeing them on TV with red white and blue clothes and gear! People who were interviewed made perfect sense and done us proud!
Thank you and everyone who went.
I think it is just the beginning.
Best,
Chris
Bev,
If you want to see the effect this rally had, check out these quotes from the following morning (it's called fear and surrender):
*****
Congressional Democrats took care to say the idea, backed by liberals and targeted by conservatives, is not a deal breaker in a debate that has consumed Washington for the summer and shows now sign of abating.
"I think that's a reasonable way to go. But I think it's important to stay focused on what we're trying to accomplish," said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.
Presidential press secretary Robert Gibbs stressed Obama's commitment to choice and competition and declared the public option "a means to an end, but it is not all of health care."
Echoing that sentiment, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said the focus on this specific issue has become a distraction in a debate over how most people receive health care coverage.
"That's a small part of this," McCaskill said.
And Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said there's "more than one way to skin that cat" when it comes to lowering health care costs, stopping short of insisting that the overhaul include a public option.
Great article Bev! I was there too and was just shocked to see so many people. It was great! I have no idea how many people were there, but I sure like to think we had an impact.
Bev: Great report. I love the crowds. No matter what lies the MSM tells, this event will be memorable to friend and foe alike. "No army is so powerful as an idea whose time has come." And the idea of freedom and justice, and relief from governmental interference lives and breathes.
Hi Bev Great Pictures,
You are obviously misinterpreting the lefts definition of the word "material". One point five million is 1000 times greater than 15 thousand and is 1/200th of the population of the country (300 million). This is material from a material perspective however democrats don't limit their understanding of what is important to simple numbers.
Obviously the word of one Progressive Statist is much more important to a New York times reporter than 1,000 other Americans who want to keep their own freedoms. I hear that if you read certain medicinal magazines such as Time magazine that there are logic mnemonics that will help you to gain an enlightened view that will help you to understand this line of thought.
Liberalism is quite confusing and it is often difficult to see how it makes any sense. So it often requires a willingness to just accept that the enlightened such as say Michael Moore are simply correct.
bev! thank you so much for going! seriously, I would have wanted nothing more than to go and I am so glad that I know (of) so many people that got to go. it doesnt matter what any of the news media says, what matters is that everyone there saw that WE ARE NOT ALONE. i think that's the main message of gatherings like this. I always come away feeling exhilirated and confident that "tomorrow" will bring a change. I think this mass gathering only strengthened our cause. again, thank you so much for being a sincere patriot.
also...if the million man march only had 100,000...we should name this the (predictiably) trillion man march.
Individualist,
I realize that Lib-Math is skewed somewhat. I think it's the same math that makes a Conservative trillion dollar deficit bad, but a Liberal trillion dollar deficit good.
Writer X: I hope all of Washington were quaking in their boots.
CrispyRice: Where are your pictures? What's your story? Where were you in the crowd? What did your sign say?
Next time EVERYONE has to go! We'll have a Commentarama-rama!
I think Washington was quaking, I really do!
I've got some pictures, and I'll try to get them posted online this week. :) I just went and got lost in the crowd. I heard very little of the speeches as it was hard to get close. But I loved talking to people from all over the place.
Definitely a place for a Commentarama-rama next year!
you've been link'd!
This is a beautiful sight to behold. We watched this from our television because sadly the money I would have used to go was spent to fund socialist programs ran by the federal government. Excellent report and Individualist I completely agree with your math.
Thanks for standing up for America!
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