Rally to Restore Sanity - Washington, DC

This may be my longest entry yet! Fair warning: go get a snack and sit somewhere comfy. Ready? Ok.

As some of you may already know, I opted out of New York Halloween festivities over the weekend in favor of a trip to DC to attend the much-anticipated Rally to Restore Sanity. Jon Stewart of The Daily Show organized it as a response to Glenn Beck's earlier Rally to Restore Honor, also held on the Mall. Stephen Colbert, "representative" of the conservative right, was quick to announce his corresponding March to Keep Fear Alive.

I say that the Rally was "much-anticipated" because everyone I talked to seemed to have heard about it and to be jealous that I was going. Nevertheless, no one seemed to know what it would be about. Stewart was very cryptic in his promotions, saying only that it was not political and that he was just trying to get a bunch of people together because that's what rallies are. I figured, knowing Daily Show fans as I do, that it would be one heck of a party if nothing else and booked bus tickets. The night before the Rally, I enjoyed hanging out with Shannon, a friend from second grade, the night before the Rally, and got to meet her boyfriend, her good friend, and her bulldog.

The morning of the Rally, I had just gotten out of the shower when Shannon's phone rang. A friend of hers had just gone by the Metro station and reported that there was a line to get in. Yikes. An online search revealed that every Metro line was running behind schedule. Shannon, who was not planning to come along, called a cab company for me instead, and after being on hold for at least 10 minutes, we arranged to have one come as soon as possible, which was apparently in 30 - 40 minutes. After an hour had passed, however, no cab had showed up, and Shannon called again only to be put on hold for another 20 minutes. At that point, we started making plans for me to start the 4-mile walk to the Mall, with the hopes that I'd run into a cab on the way. Forty minutes after placing the call, still on hold, Shannon and I set out with Parker, the bulldog, in tow. She was going to get me started on my trek before heading back home. Shannon lives in a residential area, but unbelievably, within minutes of leaving her house, we spotted a random cab coming down the street. Shannon, who is tall and gorgeous, authoritatively flagged it down. It stopped, the driver looking a little bemused, and we asked if he could take me to the Mall. So away we went, the driver explaining that he was off duty and was actually on his way to the gym. Phew.

Minutes later, I was heading toward the Mall. I'll let the following pictures tell the next part of the story for me:

Early sign-wavers encountered en route to the Mall. I'm not sure I get the bacon thing, but the other sign is hilarious: "Progressive Agenda: Coffee, Cash Welfare Check, Brunch w/ Obama, Rally to Restore Sanity, Pray at Mosque, Cocktails!, Gay Sex With my Boyfriend." As you will see, one of my favorite parts of the Rally was photographing signs.

Crowds were already beginning to form, even ten minutes' walk away from the Mall.

Closer and closer.

"Stop the Insani-Tea"

There were LOTS of anti-Tea Party signs and t-shirts.

"The Price of Weed is Too Damn High"

Some people came with serious political messages. Others, not so much.

Kind of spooky twins with identical pro-Obama signs.

Finally on the Mall! At this point I realized there was little chance of my getting even remotely near the stage.

"Corporate Robot Says More Blood for Oil!"

Corporate robot needs to learn a thing or two about punctuation. I wonder if he wore those stilts for the full three hours.

There was no charge to attend the Rally, but Steward recommended that people with money to burn donate it to the preservation of the Mall. The grass was blocked off, and after Stewart's introduction in which he asked us to pick up our trash, be nice to the Mall, etc., people were very protective of the lawn. Occasionally, someone would hop the fence and cut across, only to get yelled at from all different directions. ("Keep off the grass!" "You're not special!" "C'mon, let's preserve the lawns, man!") But from the middle of the Mall, it was difficult to hear and even harder to see the show. The sound kept cutting out and the screens were too far away. The organizers had not expected the crowd to be so huge - I was able to count 300,000ish before I got tired of it - and were ill-prepared. So when someone finally knocked down a section of fence, all the grass protectors left their morals on the gravel and flooded the area. I did not, but I took advantage of the space they freed up and moved forward, very, very slightly.

"This sign makes an important point"

I saw several of these.

"Who would Jesus stomp on?"

"I believe in sanity" or "I believe insanity"? Hmmm.

If only I were actually this tall... This is what I would have seen if I could have gotten my head as high as I got my camera. Alas, I ended up admiring a lot of scapulas instead. Tall people around me chimed in from time to time with reports of what they could make out on the screens.

I may not have been too close to the front, but at least I had all of those people beat.

Not sure when/how he did it, but that guy sat on the stoplight for hours. From this vantage point, he enjoyed the show, took pictures, and fielded phone calls. Others climbed trees along the edges of the Mall. The crowd "aw"ed when someone attempting to climb slid down, and cheered when someone reached a good branch.

The show, from what I could catch, was hysterical and had some impressive guests including actors, musicians, and athletes. Some of my favorites were Cat Stevens, Ozzie Osbourne, Sheryl Crowe, Kid Rock, The OJs (all the aged hippies in the crowd started singing along with them), John Legend, Tony Bennett, Mavis Staples, and R2D2 (yes, the robot from Star Wars). This was not nearly everyone who performed in the 2-hour show. The guys from Myth-Busters led the crowd in a wave, which must have been really cool from the air, but wasn't too impressive from my vantage point. I managed to catch most of the audio, although I spent a lot of time chanting "turn it up" with my fellow ralliers.

Stewart's speech at the very end was about not allowing the media to make us afraid of things that weren't really reasonable. He encouraged people to get the facts, the real facts, and to get along. All of this sounds really simplistic, but it sure must be hard to do based on the amount of discord and crazy anxieties that are all over the place. It was a good message, one that I think is very relevant and which seemed to resonate with the crowd. And then things wrapped up and 300,000 people started trying to get back to wherever they were going. All at once.

Green: "I made a (c0)sine!"

I LOVE this girl, whoever she is.

The street lining the Mall, post-Rally.

One of many Waldos I saw throughout the day. Kinda clever.

Finally sitting down after hours of standing.

The view down the hill towards the Mall.

"Private health insurance is like a hospital gown: Chances are, your ass ain't covered."

One look at the Metro stations even several blocks away from the Mall told me I was walking the three miles back to Virginia's apartment in Columbia Heights. That was fine with me - as a New Yorker that's no big deal, and it was a gorgeous day. The sidewalks stayed full really until about half a mile from my destination. Along the way I passed Starbucks with 40-minute lines and jam-packed restaurants. I held out for Virginia's, where I was just in time for tea and a slice of cake. Love her.

Despite the fact that I didn't hear/see everything, I had a great time at the Rally. I thought Stewart's message was a great one, but what filled me with the most hope was simply the quality of crowd around me. People of all ages were engaging in intelligent conversation and showing the kind of wit, open-mindedness, and insight I don't get to see all that often. Sometimes I feel like there are precious few people around who really think about things, but I was surrounded by a whole bunch of them on Saturday, and I'm more optimistic about the potential for positive change than I have been in a long time.