I want to tell you about the amazing DC rally, but to completely understand the comments forthcoming it seems only appropriate to give you, the readers, a bit of history of whom I am and where I have come from.
My name is Collin, and I am 29 years of age. I have a disabled brother, a sister with a chronic pain syndrome and parents that will soon have to be concerned about end of life care. I was brought up in a home where my Father was a Republican Legislator for twelve years in the county of which I lived and a Town Councilman for 10 years prior. Politics were a part of my daily upbringing and because of my father I was always taught that the search for the truth behind our government was of the upmost importance. I had conversations with my dad nightly, the typical “how was your day?” even at my young age would be followed with thorough details on what it was that he was fighting for at the time, how he was going to do it and how what he was doing would enrich the lives of the people around me. My father put his heart and soul into his job and my admiration for what he did and how it influenced my life was only fully appreciated by myself as of the last ten years. Given all of that information, I can rest assured that you know just how important attending the 9/12 rally was to me, and that being active with our present day issues, especially health care, courses though my veins.
Anyway, back to the journey. After seven and a half hours of driving through the night with my good friend Scot, I now have a greater appreciation for the amount of road signs we have in NY (the one thing I can point to that Gov. Patterson has actually has done right). Boy, did we get lost in DC. At one point, the GPS actually calculated our turns after we passed the exits; of which were only labeled as “EXIT” none of which had a destination on the sign, ha! Oh well, we ended up taking a break in the middle of a poorly lit section of the new Eisenhower Park expansion. On a map, we were only 5 minutes from the hotel and in actual drive time; it was almost 45 minutes of confusion.
The night was restless; the anticipation of the event was growing larger inside me as every moment passed. I ended up not sleeping at all. I wanted to start marching immediately. I was inspired; I could feel the energy that filled the entire D.C area. It was electric.
Upon arriving at the mall I was completely awe-stricken. The sheer quantity of people I saw was incredible. I realized then that this was bigger than anything else I have ever been a part of, including all protests I have participated in before and all music festivals… COMBINED. The only thing I can even compare the crowd to… Woodstock ‘94 x 5 (minus all the hippies, ha-ha). As soon as Scot and I joined the crowd we received more “hellos” and “thank you for comings” than I have been given in the last month of my life. I realized at this point that the quality of the people here was as equally impressive as their size. There were families, of all shapes, sizes and colors. Children, infants, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Native Americans… I would also see the occasional family dog or two (Scot loved the dogs; he would pet each one we saw). The first thought I had “… grab the BlackBerry, you NEED to document EVERYTHING!” And document we did.
I actively engaged the people around me. I met people from all over the country, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, California, and Utah. I even met people who lived close by to my hometown, which really hit me especially hard. I would have never known that these wonderful Patriots were even nearby if it had not been for the effort they placed to travel to support our Constitution. Ahh, the ties that bind. The first person I engaged, Ralph, was from Rochester NY. He is wonderful man and very talkative. He, as well as all the countless others I encountered before the march began, all had the same concern… our beloved Constitution. Patriotism is very much alive and well.
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America”
The word spread quickly that the march was to commence earlier than expected because The Mall was full to capacity… WOW! What an inspiring feeling, we had so many of us in attendance we had to “move immediately”. As the march began, I heard somewhere in front of me a very young group of Patriots reciting the “Pledge of Allegiance”, over and over again (pictured above). They didn’t stop until we reached the Capitol. I was so proud of them that I took their picture. Before this moment I was very concerned about our youth being involved with the effort, that concern was squashed immediately; our future looks very bright. The chants of “YOU LIE, YOU LIE” got the most media coverage but those were not the only words recited by this goliath of a movement. I heard the opening lines to the Constitution, “USA, USA, USA!”, “Can you hear us now?!?”, and my personal favorite “na na na-na, na na na-na, hey hey hey, GOOOD BYYYYEEE”. The feeling that I am sure we all shared was like that of being with your family (a very, very big family) for a Thanksgiving dinner, warmth, love, and support.
Scot and I kept a live feed of pictures and videos to our Twitter accounts throughout the day, and it dawned on me… I need to send these pictures back home to my family; they need to know just how much a difference we are making on that lawn. My Mother was in awe at the “full to capacity” status we had attained, my sister wanted the pictures too but the cellular networks were so bogged down due to the giant upswing in activity I couldn’t accommodate her. She turned to my Mother to forward the photos along. The complex array of emotions I was feeling, happiness, anger, love, brotherhood, I was on the best “high” of my life. My Uncle, Buster, responded to a picture I had sent his way with this “I am so proud of you for standing up for our Country”… I would be lying if I told you I didn’t get choked up. It was at that moment Scot asked me what was wrong so without saying much, I showed him my phone as a tear ran down my face. Just as that was happening I heard the total count of Patriots on the lawn broadcast over the P.A. system, 1.5 million. It was at then that I realized that we ARE going to get through this, WE ARE BEING HEARD. This battle has been won, but we need to keep on fighting the good fight. Even now looking at Buster’s message as I write this, I am still overwhelmed.
“This is going to hurt”
I looked behind us down Pennsylvania Ave, and there were still thousands of people piling in to get their voices heard. People in costume dressed as George and Martha Washington, people carrying signs of Barack Obama (BHO) dressed in scrubs holding a syringe with the slogan “This is going to hurt”, more signs of George Washington saying “WTF?” in a speech bubble. Children carrying posters with statements like “I now owe $38,000 to our Gov’t and I’m only 8yrs old”, the elderly carrying signs with the Grim Reaper with the title of “Death Panel Czar” above the image. College students with shirts saying “OMG… Obama Must Go”. Despite the numbers, and the noise, and the applause that would rival all cheers that KISS has heard during their career as musicians… not one fist fight, not one arrest, not one car flipped. The “ANGRY MOB” was a textbook example of civil disobedience, we were loud, and we were proud, very courteous and well behaved. I have never been so proud to be an American ever before in my life and that feeling is carrying over into today as I am sure it will stick with me for the rest of my life.
Thank you to all of you who were in DC on Saturday. Those of you who cancelled family events, called in from work. Those of you who dropped everything on a moment’s notice, for those of you who spent your hard earned wages to travel hundreds of miles (in some cases thousands) to be a part of the demonstration. Thank you to those of you who held your own tea parties in your hometowns, your neighborhoods, even in your own homes. Thank you to those of you who participated at home on the web, following along and blogging, tweeting, using your social networking sites. It did NOT go unnoticed, and we ARE BEING HEARD!
An amazing patriot
We cannot stop here folks. This was a victory, and a wonderful example how a Democratic Republic is supposed to work. With that being said, I have an idea for our next course of action. In response to BHO’s remark during his speech last Wednesday when he said “…this plan will not add one more dime to our deficit”, being that we all know that was a lie… I propose that we round up any of our “monopoly money”, go to the dollar store and buy a bag of fake plastic coins, and mail them… one at a time to the White House, to your Senators, to your Congressmen with a note enclosed simply saying “NOT ONE MORE DIME”. Keep the “fires” burning my fellow Patriots. We are being heard and after Saturday we CAN NO LONGER BE IGNORED, WE CAN NO LONGER BE CALLED “CRAZY” OR “RADICALS”. This is what our Forefathers would expect from us. Uphold our Constitution before our current administration takes that from us too.
Thanks again Patriots. Keep fighting the good fight.
Here I am, marching loud, marching proud!
If you would like to see more of my DC 9/12 pictures and video clips from, please feel free to follow me on Twitter and check out my timeline. I’m @ZombieShootOut
Scot, added you to my blogroll here http://www.thats-right.com/ Left column.
I myself went through a 6 year stretch from 18 to 24 in the dizzying haze of liberal stupidity. Walking out was like being reborn.
We're all in this together. Let's go get 'em.
Russ
AWESOME! AWESOME AWESOME! The report and the pictures are just great – I am so glad that you and Scot were there representing those of us that could not be there!
Thanks Russ. Added you as well. Keep up the fight. I see cracks.
Hi Russ,
True That! I, Too, was a liberal, straight through college. I learned the hard way that my arguments were specious at best, emotion-based at worst.
Glad to know we walked a similar road.
Hey, listen, I'm launching a podcast soon, with some folks you probably already know. Do you own a BlackBerry? If so, shoot me your PIN and I'll keep you posted.
Scot