9-12 March on Washington, DC
The Patriot Flag I am flying today is the Flag of the United States of America! Here’s why …
Flown for 9-11 Remembrence
9/12/2009 Today, I am at the 9-12 march in Washington, DC. I’ve never participated in anything like this, so it is a first for me. I’ll be keeping a log of the day and will be taking many pictures and videos of the activities. Below are links to the Patriot Flag’s Gallery so you can see what the march and rally looked like from “ground level.” I put comments on each of the pictures. Below I’m giving you a sort of hour by hour summary of our day at the March on Washington, DC. It was certainly an event I’ll never forget.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE PICTURES IN THE 9-12 Album
Click here for our video on YouTube: Part 1 (Getting there)
Click here for our video on YouTube: Part 2 (March on the Capital)
(Part 3 coming tomorrow)
8:30 am … We started off by driving from Sterling, VA to the Dunn-Loring Metro station.
Click for YouTube Link
As we got out of the car, we saw a couple of ladies get out of another car, and they were carrying posters. They saw our T-Shirts and realized that we were “friendlies” and we were surprised to find people getting out of a car with posters. The surprise got larger as we walked into the Metro station to get our tickets and found a sizable line waiting to buy tickets from the machine. When we got down to the platform, it was about 1/3 taken up with people carrying posters and flags. When we got on the train, many people were already on board from the 2 stops ahead of ours. By the 2nd stop after us, nobody else could get onto the train … it was jam-packed. What was amazing (and you’ll see it in the pictures) … getting off the train was when we realized this thing was much bigger than we had ever imagined. The platform at Federal Triangle metro was completely filled with people waiting to go up the escalators. Then at the final escalator, there was a good wait as the huge crowd came up from below and out into the open (pictures show this).
Emerging from the Metro
When we emerged from the Metro, we were in another crowd which was slowly moving forward. This crowd merged with a crowd already walking up Pennsylvania Avenue. (We were supposed to turn left and go to Liberty Square, but there were so many people they started the march early to move the people along). So we merged with the march and continued toward the Capital. Along the way toward the Capital building which loomed larger and larger on the horizon ahead of us, we again had to re-adjust our image … this thing was MUCH BIGGER than we had imagined, people as far as you could see ahead and behind.
We finally got to the Capital grounds, but they swere already full so we “parked” our chairs across the street from the grounds … a good viewing point for the activities. There were basically two forms of entertainment, the speakers and activities from the podium area, and the crowd milling around us. They had some fine speakers and some good bands playing patriotic music. One of the most stirring moments was when a lady began to sing the Star Spangled Banner and the entire crowd … from the Capital steps to the Washington Monument (2 miles?) all sang along with her … that was amazing and we captured a little of that on the video. My favorite speech was our South Carolina Senator, Jim DeMint. He got a great welcome, was well-cheered during his speech and made a big hit with the crowd.
About 3:30 Dan and I walked away from the Capital area around the reflecting pond.
Patriots Everywhere!
Again, our focus had to widen. We hadn’t seen the people behind us, probably 4/5ths of the entire crowd. The area all the way around the reflecting pond was filled as was the entire mall down to the Washington Monument.
We finally found a Starbucks, got an iced coffee, and headed back into the Metro for a long, (tired) ride home. Many people were with us from the rally … everyone was tired but still having a good time.
There were no swastikas, there were no “angry mobsters” … what we saw was a helluva lot of people … darned concerned about the direction of their government, and doing their best to make a point … HOPING somebody would listen. (Of course the White House mentioned Friday, that they were “unaware of the march”. That figures). When you see the aerial shots of this event … which we did not see until we got home … you realize a statement was being made. But you would have barely noticed it if you were not watching Fox News.
We are all Sons of Liberty
My favorite “moment” was THE picture I missed. On the mall, a gal sitting in her lawn chair, here dog lying by her side, with a poster that read: “I’m off the Sidelines! I’m a First-Time protester. And I’m here to stay!” I think that summed it up for many people there. The people who sat beside Dan and I were in their 80′s … he was a WW II vet. These folks were not “professional” protesters by a long shot.
This was a PLEASURE to have attended this event. Sometimes we are thinking we are “all alone” in this struggle. As Dan and I got out of the car we were kidding about being the only two in the march … then the two ladies showed up, then the people in line for tickets, then the packed subway, and into a Pennsylvania Avenue crowded with people from end to end. I came away feeling that being a “conservative” doesn’t mean you are “alone” … you’re actually in a pretty good group that is growing, and growing and growing. I’d rather be on the RIGHT side of this whole issue than the LEFT!
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE PICTURE GALLERY
From the Podium, it was announced that CNN had stated there were “Over 1000″ people at the 9-12 March and Rally. For once, they were correct! When this was announced, the crowd boo’ed then started chanting, “They can’t Count!” Below is the time lapse video of the march … are there more than 1000 of us there?
Here is the WORLD NET DAILY summary … great summary with pictures.
Your comments are welcome.
