Rally to Restore Sanity Didn’t Meet in the Middle
And, it should have. My God, with the expansiveness of the National Mall at its disposal, one would think the organizers of the Rally to Restore Sanity would’ve used it intelligently……by putting the freaking stage IN THE MIDDLE. Instead, it was up toward the Capitol in the same-as-every-other-event-ever-held-there spot.
Okay. Okay. Maybe they have rules about that sort of thing. Maybe all stages have to be set with the Capitol in the background.
Still, in the spirit of moderation, we ran our middle-aged bodies through a basic-training-worthy obstacle course to get to the middle of the crowd. We dodged a giant turtle man. And, a pseudo Lady Gaga decked out in “Telephone”-esque crime scene tape and little else. And, people who decided they were going to sit down. And, the Cookie Monster. And, one of the Teletubbies. Seriously. It was more costume party than rally. It was THAT important to us to be in the moderate part of the crowd.
Yet, the organizers failed us, setting up the show on the left and/or right of the Mall, depending upon one’s vantage point. Right-leaners were incensed that the stage was on the left-hand side. Lefties thought the right-loving placement extreme.
The happy people were all in the middle. Here are some shots from our day at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. Enjoy.
I know how I would have felt if I had been there. I would have thought, “Oh, my wonderful Lord God. You gave your only begotten Son because of all this. By all that is holy and pure, I do not belong here and I would have fought my way as far away from it as I could.” And I would have taken a bath when I reached my destination.
I took a shower, actually.
The only logical answer is they never thought of putting the stage in the middle! How did they miss that?
Maybe it just wasn’t reasonable.
one of my friends from back home went to the rally. not entirely sure why, but i suspect he probably thought it would be a good party
It was very funny. I mean, I think The Daily Show is funny, but I never thought they could translate that to a three hour outdoor rally as well as they did.
It appears that you two had a very nice time at this event. Thanks for taking the effort to share your thoughts and pictures during your attendance.
I am sitting here thinking that the placement of the stage probably was decided with security concerns in mind. If the stage were placed in the middle of the National Mall then it would have been a logistical nightmare to provide adequate security and paths of ingress and egress for security and emergency workers should there be a problem that required that they get to the stage in an expedient manner. There are also electrical issues to consider as well. Maybe they have their electrical and sound setup placed in that area for a reason? I guess those are the only two reasons that I can think of other than the general “that is where we have always put it so that is where it is going to go no matter how stupid it may appear” reason.
That sounds like a reasonable explanation, James. I didn’t think about the electrical issues.
enjoyed all the pics and, of course, the foodiness of same. Read a number of recaps and it seemed to go over very well and glad to see it draw some attention to the need for some sanity in our political world.
I absolutely hate the few days leading up to an election because of all the phone messages and leaflets….as if that’s going to determine how we should vote.
Thanks again for sharing your experiences there and sorry about your phone reception, but, as I said, the government may in fact be out to get you.
I abhor the nasty attack ads, although I’m not 100% sure how I will vote on Tuesday just yet…
I do, too, Vera. I do, too.
Lou, MTM and I were talking about this earlier today. I really wish that all politicians were required to tell me why I should vote for them only, instead of giving me all the nasty, insidious reasons why I should not vote for their opponent. Almost every person running for office, regardless of party affiliation, is guilty of this behavior, and it makes me very sad. I don’t even pay attention to any of it anymore. I read about the different candidates and make decisions about them based upon what I choose to read.
Thanks for sharing the photos. There were some creative signs.
People were very polite with them, not holding them up so others couldn’t see and so forth. It was actually a very civil, considerate gathering of people.
Where is the girl in the Lady GaGa police tape? We can have a pile of poop but we don’t get to see her?! I thoughtI trained MTM better than that.
Oh, and just came across this post that reminded me of your trip. “The 100 Best Signs at the Rally to Restore Sanity.” – http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-100-best-signs-at-the-rally-to-restore-sanity
It was such a zoo. It was hard to take photos of anything much. I saw her as we were leaving, and the crowd was pretty much moving us along.
Love the show!!