Upon looking over my last entry, I cannot believe that I
forgot to mention an important milestone, at least to me. It has been a little
over three years since the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. This was the
only political “rally” I’ve ever attended and, as such, has great significance
to me. For one thing, it demonstrated the power of people to get together and
formulate ways to reach a rally that took place in Washington, D.C. for people
all over the country. People can pull together for great things if they have
the time, motivation, and money.
At the time, I had only a learner’s permit and no way to get
to D.C. While checking ColbertNation’s forums, I discovered a group calling
itself DC Rally Bus organizing multiple buses for multiple areas all over the
country. All of these buses had the purpose of getting to D.C. for the rally
and then back in one day. People from places as far as Florida reached D.C. in
one day thanks to DC Rally Buses’ planning, time, and willing participants
giving their money in order to secure a trip. The further one lived from the
rally, naturally, the more it cost, but it was still considerably cheaper than
driving to DC and booking a hotel room (assuming one could be had).
Simply the undertaking of finding all these buses and
securing transportation for people was one demonstration of democracy.
Attending the rally presented another one. After arriving near the National
Mall, I saw signs ‘protesting’ things. These signs mostly related to FOX and
were facetious. Since this was supposed to be a political rally, these signs
were political in nature, though relatively nonsensical in message. People
appeared in costume and marched around.
Yet, for all that, most of the crowd seemed civil. (We’ll
omit the part about the rally attendants destroying Porta-Potties that Comedy
Central rented). Jon Stewart reminded us, in his final speech, that politics
should civil and not one person against another. It should be like on the
highway, where people let one person in and the next person lets someone else
in. This way, people are courteous and remember that, regardless of what
happens, we’re all heading in the same direction. Unfortunately, although this
was a rousing speech about the idea of returning to sanity, I fear that it didn’t
have much power.
For one thing, Comedy Central only ran the rally once, when
it actually happened. For another, although I and hundreds of thousands of
others attended the rally, I didn’t see it. The crowd was so thick that even
though there were multiple TVs placed around the area, I could only hear it.
This diminished the impact, as one might imagine.
Still, I liked the idea that the rally had. I believe that
we should cease fear mongering, as Stephen Colbert did in jest during the
rally, and try to approach politics with a calm and rational mind. Certain
things can be joked about in the right light and I believe a lot of people have
trouble understanding that. Then again, how many people take two pundits that
seriously?
I would love another rally like that, one that demonstrated
so powerfully the potential that a large group has to stick together and make
things happen. DC Rally Bus, along with other communities, managed to transport
thousands of people who couldn’t have gone to the rally. People from Canada and
other remote areas were able to reach this rally thanks to concentrated
efforts.
I would love them to do another rally like this, but due to
budget problems and the fact that people really trashed the National Mall…I
doubt it’ll happen. I guess a girl can hope.
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