Yesterday M- and I along with a couple hundred thousand of our closest friends went to the National Mall, the long beautiful stretch of green space between the capital and Washington Monument, for The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.
We went with the hopes of a beautiful day, a fun event, and maybe, just maybe, something more. The Rally delivered. From the best house band around --The Roots, Ozzy, 4 Troops singing a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, The Mythbusters, John Legend, Jeff Tweedy, Mavis Staples, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kid Rock, Tony Bennett singing 'America the Beautiful', R-2 D-2, Sheryl Crow, Father Guido Sarducci, Anderson Cooper’s Tiny Black T-shirt, and the list goes on, not to mention our hosts Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert.
We weren’t there to say “WE are right, YOU are wrong”. We were there to say, just because we are different doesn’t mean we can’t respect each other. To my right stood a couple in their mid seventies, behind us, a young Muslim couple, and around us everything in between, even a robot, Santa Claus, and Elmo were there. In our little area there were folks from New York, Alaska, Minnesota, Virginia, Maryland and Arkansas.
As much as the media would have you believe the Rally was a total Liberal Love-fest, the Rally wasn’t about partisanship; it was about each demonizing the other. Yes we will disagree, no we won’t always see eye to eye, but we are in this together, and we are not each others enemies. It was amazing to be a part of this. I was so proud to be there, to see so many like-minded moderates asking for something often left out of our modern political process—civility, reasonableness, and decency.
--One of the moderate (slightly more liberal than some, but more conservative than others) majority. JWMG
P.S. Thanks National Parks Service and National Park Trust!
