Our Big Trip to Washington
So, the Friday before last beau_nidle, rhysfaber, stringwoman and I all got into geodesimagining's car (which she loaned to us at some personal sacrifice, since their truck proceded to crap out on her, making her weekend Very Difficult) and drove and drove and drove until we got to Our Nation's Capitol (with a brief detour in Staunton, Virginia, where I got us lost looking for food, and another detour on the Maryland side of the Potomac, where Emily, the somewhat befuddled Garmin, sold beau_nidle on taking the wrong exit. Then we checked into the Cheap Motel, and crashed like the USS Akron.
Saturday we got up and went to the Metro station, where we and a few hundred others got onto the Metro and rode to L'Enfant Station, where we got out and headed off to the National Mall, there to rally on behalf of reasonableness, except for the few fear=lovers among us. While we were waiting to go through the exit turnstiles, one of the best moments of the day occurred: someone raised a sign above the crowd, a small one that said "This is also what America looks like" with small arrows pointing down to the crowd below. Everyone cheered.
The rally itself has been pretty thoroughly covered, so I'll leave that to the reports already out there. It was pretty cool to be in a Mythbusters experiment, even as off-hand a set as these were.
We got to the Mall fairly early, and found a place to set up our bag chairs (we're in the SCA, did you think we'd be sitting on the ground for several hours?) behind the set of big screens that were near Seventh Street. There was already a good-sized crowd there, so we settled in and pretty much stayed put. It was surprising, in some ways, to hear how big the final crowd was. I have to say, it was generally a good-natured and well-behaved crowd. We did not come even close to seeing all the signs and costumes--although I did see the guy dressed up as Jesus riding on a dinosaur, and also the signs--and occasionally, rising above the crowd, the signs and jump rope for Jump Rope with a Muslim. There were also a lot of people dressed as Waldo, down to the silly hat.
When it was over, we made our way (sort of like working your way through a salmon run) over to Sixth and Pennsylvania, where we met some friends of beau_nidle for food (the restaurant was in the process of running out of food), and then went with them out to Fairfax, via a solidly-packed Metro--we shared the car with three people from Chicago who had decided to dress as an All-American breakfast. It took several stops to get things down to the point where we weren't all standing on top of each other, and a few more--almost to the end of the end of the line--before there were enough seats to go around. We did some serious hanging out there, and then went back to the Cheap Motel (which was a clean and tidy Days Inn, which had advertised an excellent special for the weekend) and crashed pretty much like the Akron again*, and then got up and drove back, stopping so beau_nidle could find copies of the papers and snark at the Washington Post's hostile attitude to the whole proceding.
We did stop at a Barnes and Noble (our nearest Barnes and Noble flooded in May) in the Shenandoah Valley, where I scored a copy of the Kyoto Costume Institute book for under $20. Then we got home before midnight and crashed like the Akron> all over again.
There's been a great deal of commentary about the rally, including a fair bit of snark about how it will take more than a monologue by Jon Stewart and some skits to get things moving among progressives. I think most of this misses the point pretty badly. This rally was not so much about the current Progressive movement, or American liberalism and/or leftism, as it was about affirming a certain point of view that's been getting short shrift these days--the notion that it is possible to disagree with people without demonizing each other, and that reasonable people may, indeed, differ about various issues, and still find a way to work together. Well, that, and hating on Fox News. Many of the people there probably do identify themselves as progressive, or old-fashioned liberals, but I suspect that some are closer to what used to be called moderate, and is now, as stringwoman observed about herself, some kind of commie-pinko traitor. There's not a lot of positive recognition for either the attitude of collaboration (in the non-World War II sense) and collegiality, or of moderation in American public life any more. A lot of people really miss that.
*The USS Akron was filled with helium, so despite its four "accidents"** in 18 months, it didn't burn.
**Amateurs such as myself would call these "crashes".
Saturday we got up and went to the Metro station, where we and a few hundred others got onto the Metro and rode to L'Enfant Station, where we got out and headed off to the National Mall, there to rally on behalf of reasonableness, except for the few fear=lovers among us. While we were waiting to go through the exit turnstiles, one of the best moments of the day occurred: someone raised a sign above the crowd, a small one that said "This is also what America looks like" with small arrows pointing down to the crowd below. Everyone cheered.
The rally itself has been pretty thoroughly covered, so I'll leave that to the reports already out there. It was pretty cool to be in a Mythbusters experiment, even as off-hand a set as these were.
We got to the Mall fairly early, and found a place to set up our bag chairs (we're in the SCA, did you think we'd be sitting on the ground for several hours?) behind the set of big screens that were near Seventh Street. There was already a good-sized crowd there, so we settled in and pretty much stayed put. It was surprising, in some ways, to hear how big the final crowd was. I have to say, it was generally a good-natured and well-behaved crowd. We did not come even close to seeing all the signs and costumes--although I did see the guy dressed up as Jesus riding on a dinosaur, and also the signs--and occasionally, rising above the crowd, the signs and jump rope for Jump Rope with a Muslim. There were also a lot of people dressed as Waldo, down to the silly hat.
When it was over, we made our way (sort of like working your way through a salmon run) over to Sixth and Pennsylvania, where we met some friends of beau_nidle for food (the restaurant was in the process of running out of food), and then went with them out to Fairfax, via a solidly-packed Metro--we shared the car with three people from Chicago who had decided to dress as an All-American breakfast. It took several stops to get things down to the point where we weren't all standing on top of each other, and a few more--almost to the end of the end of the line--before there were enough seats to go around. We did some serious hanging out there, and then went back to the Cheap Motel (which was a clean and tidy Days Inn, which had advertised an excellent special for the weekend) and crashed pretty much like the Akron again*, and then got up and drove back, stopping so beau_nidle could find copies of the papers and snark at the Washington Post's hostile attitude to the whole proceding.
We did stop at a Barnes and Noble (our nearest Barnes and Noble flooded in May) in the Shenandoah Valley, where I scored a copy of the Kyoto Costume Institute book for under $20. Then we got home before midnight and crashed like the Akron> all over again.
There's been a great deal of commentary about the rally, including a fair bit of snark about how it will take more than a monologue by Jon Stewart and some skits to get things moving among progressives. I think most of this misses the point pretty badly. This rally was not so much about the current Progressive movement, or American liberalism and/or leftism, as it was about affirming a certain point of view that's been getting short shrift these days--the notion that it is possible to disagree with people without demonizing each other, and that reasonable people may, indeed, differ about various issues, and still find a way to work together. Well, that, and hating on Fox News. Many of the people there probably do identify themselves as progressive, or old-fashioned liberals, but I suspect that some are closer to what used to be called moderate, and is now, as stringwoman observed about herself, some kind of commie-pinko traitor. There's not a lot of positive recognition for either the attitude of collaboration (in the non-World War II sense) and collegiality, or of moderation in American public life any more. A lot of people really miss that.
*The USS Akron was filled with helium, so despite its four "accidents"** in 18 months, it didn't burn.
**Amateurs such as myself would call these "crashes".