All it was cracked up to be

Yes, we went to the Rally to Restore Sanity, and yes, we had a good time.

I think everyone who went had a good time.  As far as I could tell (from the middle of the mob) no fights broke out, no one got hurt, no one was significantly upset about the content, well, at least those who could hear it. 

Everyone is now aware that the turnout was way underestimated.  And therefore, while we were hanging out by the last set of monitors, we were still about halfway from the stage.  Anyone beyond 7th street was out of luck.  But they are still able to say "I was there" even if they didn't find out what happened on stage until they came home and watched it on YouTube.  No one necessarily has to know you showed up late. 

Many of the comments, blogs and articles I've been reading online seem to think that the Rally was a complete failure.  I respectfully disagree, but I still don't think you are Hitler.  (Ha ha).  Either people felt like it didn't have a strong enough political agenda, or that it had too strong of one.  I read on one page that because Yusef Islam (Cat Stevens) was a guest, Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity has become the Rally to Restore the Reputation of Islamic Extremists".  Really?  Where as another person said something to the effect, that being in the middle and not being on one side or the other, nothing can get done.  "The Civil Rights movement knew what side they were on."  (After re-Googling the news articles I was reading earlier, I no longer get the same results, so I can't give the exact quote).  I don't think that the Rally meant that we should be on one side or the other, or that we shouldn't have opinions, I think the purpose was to show that people from all sides can hang out in the same room together, without fighting, and have some fun.  It's okay to not have a 'strong' political opinion, but still have an opinion that matters. 

Another person complained there were too many white people there.  Well, I can attest to the diversity as I had the monitor blocked most of the time by a rather large black man standing directly in front of me.  (I'm short.  Everyone seemed to be blocking my view of the monitors).  I thought the diversity was pretty good.  Even Stewart said that it was a reasonable sampling of our demographics.  I really do hate to say this, but there are still more 'white' people in the U.S.    They said "where are all the poor, unemployed, homeless black people who live in the DC area?"  My guess?  Looking for a job, house, food, and taking care of their families.  Not everyone has time to go to even a 3 hour event.  Part of me had hoped I'd be working by then, and unable to go.  If we didn't live in the DC area ourselves, we wouldn't have been able to afford it. 

This post is starting to sound too political even to me.  I feel like I have to defend the Rally, though.  It wasn't supposed to be anything!  It was supposed to be fun, and to put into perspective the serious problems others have blown out of proportion.  Things are tough, but they will get better, just not overnight.  

"These are hard times, not end times."

I think Karl did a much better job of explaining how our weekend went on his blog.  He also took many more, and better pictures.