Saturday, October 30, 2010

The Rally To Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington DC






Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert know comedy but their rally organization skills leave something to be desired. If you saw any of the rally on the internet you got a much better view of the proceedings than me and I was actually there. I'm so glad I went, I had the most amazing time, but the rally itself would have been more enjoyable with a few extra speakers and an extra screen midway through the audience. One thing that was quite obvious to anyone who was there, Jon Stewart is more than "just a comedian" as he claims. He is able to mobilize hundreds of thousands of twentysomething males in a way that would make Lame Cook jealous.     

The crowd was greater than any I have ever seen before. The closer we came to the National Mall the realization we would not be seeing much became quite apparent.
Greenman, on top of a van 
monkeys in a tree,

It was really cramped, and then it became even more so as we crushed forward to let through passing ambulances. A lot of people climbed into trees to get a better view, one jackass even climbed up a streetlight.

We could sort of hear, but couldn't see the stage or the screens. I heard Jon Stewart introduce Father Guido Sarduchi who performed the benediction. I was the only one in the vicinity who knew who he was, which I shrugged off saying "It was before your time," to which a guy nearby who was older than me said "It was before my time!". True.

Then Cat Stevens played Peace Train, until he was interrupted by Colbert who wanted nothing to do with a Peace Train. We then heard the familiar call "ALL ABOARD!". Ozzy Osbourne was rocking Crazy Train, which Colbert was glad to be on. The two legends dueled until a compromise was reached and the O'jays came onstage for Love Train. Colbert was fine with a "Love" train, since love involves "heartbreak and STDs", sticking with his FEAR theme.
Free Marc Emery was the one legitimate cause I did see

Bears are threatdown #1
We decided to bail since we could neither hear nor see anything, and most of the crowd had the same idea, we walked back to the hotel amongst throngs of rally folks, with even more signs and costumes. It took a while to navigate the crowd, and cell reception was nearly impossible due to the overloaded network.




Some signs were really funny.Although many of the signs were quite clever, alot were just a waste of the paper and sharpies used to create them, and only served to obstruct peoples view. If I'm ever in the need for a sign in the future it will read "THIS SIGN IS OBSTRUCTING YOUR VIEW!!!"  

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous11/04/2010

    Yeah, I more speakers were needed. Thing is, I don't think anyone really thought the rally would be as huge as it was so Washington had no extra speakers or more metro trains so people could get there on time.

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  2. Amazing what we stumble upon while google-ing...

    That Free Marc Campaign was organized by myself, I'm in Rhode Island, USA - with help from Marc Emery and his wife Jodie.

    Glad you got a photo & THANK YOU SO MUCH for the support....

    My Blog about the campaign/rally can be found here: http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/node/25399

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