Sanity: Restored
Oct. 31st, 2010 09:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyspriteAnd we are home again from our whirlwind attack on D.C., hopefully not to stir too far from our hearths for the next month or so - both vacation and the rally were good and needful things, but it'll be nice to settle in and get stuff done here at home for at least a little while.
I had no idea of what to expect from the rally, having never been to anything of the sort before, and to be honest, if I had tried to guess it wouldn't have been anything close to the reality. It was crowded and loud and energetic and surprisingly polite and fun and friendly and heartening and just everything I could have wanted it to be if I had known.
We were, blessedly, lucky enough to wind up sharing a hotel room with friends that was within walking distance of the mall, meaning that we bypassed all of the crowds and lines at Metro stations. We made it down to the rally site by 10:30, and even at that point were lucky to find standing space within sight of the Jumbotrons.
Amazingly, in spite of the huge numbers of people crammed into the space, it never got creepy-crowded or rude. People stepped aside when others were moving past. Folks offered us space on their blanket, and moved in to so we could fit. There was chatting and grinning and thumbs-up at clever signs. And, much to my delight, most of the signs - and people - were more positive than negative. This was an event that could easily have degenerated into right-bashing, and it didn't.
Large parts of the rally were just shtick, and guest-flaunting (not that I'm complaining at the chance to see the Mythbusters, or watch Cat Stevens and Ozzy Osbourne share a stage), but ultimately there was a message, and it was a good one. When he turns off the sarcasm and comedy, Jon Stewart is an amazing speaker, and his bottom-line message - that we are living in hard times, but not end times, and that the raging dichotomy is mostly untrue and manufactured - is an important one. Watching a crowd that large come together to support that idea was a powerful and awe-inspiring thing.
And then... we all wandered off slowly. There was something surreal to wandering through the middle of the streets in DC at midday with no cars, and with no further need to hold still and save your space to watch stuff, people started mingling and chatting and snapping pictures of each others' signs and generally having fun. I wandered into a drum circle and spent a blissful half-hour or so dancing with strangers, ran into a couple of Free Hugs folks, had at least a handful of people take pictures of my "Things Are Pretty Okay" sign, and generally meandered slowly back to our hotel.
There were a few down sides, mostly pertaining to not being able to get together with friends. I had no comprehension of just how many people were going to be there, so hoping to randomly run into them failed, and trying to call them was just as ineffective since cell phones weren't even able to make or receive calls due to the sheer overwhelming mass of humanity and tech. And traffic trying to get in and out of town was abysmal. But I'd do it again, in a heartbeat, and words can't say how glad I was that we went....
I had no idea of what to expect from the rally, having never been to anything of the sort before, and to be honest, if I had tried to guess it wouldn't have been anything close to the reality. It was crowded and loud and energetic and surprisingly polite and fun and friendly and heartening and just everything I could have wanted it to be if I had known.
We were, blessedly, lucky enough to wind up sharing a hotel room with friends that was within walking distance of the mall, meaning that we bypassed all of the crowds and lines at Metro stations. We made it down to the rally site by 10:30, and even at that point were lucky to find standing space within sight of the Jumbotrons.
Amazingly, in spite of the huge numbers of people crammed into the space, it never got creepy-crowded or rude. People stepped aside when others were moving past. Folks offered us space on their blanket, and moved in to so we could fit. There was chatting and grinning and thumbs-up at clever signs. And, much to my delight, most of the signs - and people - were more positive than negative. This was an event that could easily have degenerated into right-bashing, and it didn't.
Large parts of the rally were just shtick, and guest-flaunting (not that I'm complaining at the chance to see the Mythbusters, or watch Cat Stevens and Ozzy Osbourne share a stage), but ultimately there was a message, and it was a good one. When he turns off the sarcasm and comedy, Jon Stewart is an amazing speaker, and his bottom-line message - that we are living in hard times, but not end times, and that the raging dichotomy is mostly untrue and manufactured - is an important one. Watching a crowd that large come together to support that idea was a powerful and awe-inspiring thing.
And then... we all wandered off slowly. There was something surreal to wandering through the middle of the streets in DC at midday with no cars, and with no further need to hold still and save your space to watch stuff, people started mingling and chatting and snapping pictures of each others' signs and generally having fun. I wandered into a drum circle and spent a blissful half-hour or so dancing with strangers, ran into a couple of Free Hugs folks, had at least a handful of people take pictures of my "Things Are Pretty Okay" sign, and generally meandered slowly back to our hotel.
There were a few down sides, mostly pertaining to not being able to get together with friends. I had no comprehension of just how many people were going to be there, so hoping to randomly run into them failed, and trying to call them was just as ineffective since cell phones weren't even able to make or receive calls due to the sheer overwhelming mass of humanity and tech. And traffic trying to get in and out of town was abysmal. But I'd do it again, in a heartbeat, and words can't say how glad I was that we went....
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