Peregrinator Mark: We Kept Fear Alive: because 'reason' is one letter away from 'treason'

Perhaps as a means to mock Glen Beck's 'Restoring Honor Rally'- which included Sarah Palin and occured on anniversary of Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech in practically the same spot and drew about 80,000 people on August 28, 2010 (though Beck claimed on Fox News that there were 300,00 to 650,000 there)- and Al Sharpton's 'Reclaim the Dream'- which occured on the same day this year- Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert created the 'Rally to Restore Sanity' and the 'March to Keep Fear Alive.' Since I could watch The Daily Show in the UK on a regular basis thanks to Channel 4, I had known about this event for some time but thought I wouldn't be able to go. After returning to the United States where I could watch Stewart's show and the Colbert Report without much problem thanks to TiVo, I heard more and more about the event. Towards the end of summer I decided to move to DC to look for work there, and at this point I realized I would actually have the opportunity to go to these events on October 30. I was kinda excited. Thus, I went with a group of new friends into DC that Saturday morning to see Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart perform live.

One friend warned everyone to leave early, but we didn't exactly understand by what she meant by 'early.' The musical performances started at noon, so we thought we could leave by 9:30 am since it took an hour and a half to get into downtown DC from Centreville. The math made sense until we tried to get onto the metro in Vienna. The traffic was stalled as everyone tried to get off the exit and into the metro station's parking lot. The line included cars from all over the country, including Nebraska and Florida. It was quite obvious that most of these people were going to the rally since they had dressed up in costumes (which Stephen Colbert suggested) and were genearlly young (in their 20s, more or less). Since the cars weren't moving anywhere, one guy behind us got out and ran up and down Interstate 66 while wearing a huge afro wig. In an hour we had only driven 2 miles. Finally, we arrived to the exit for the metro station, but both parking garages were overflowing. People were parking in the grass along the roads or in grocery store parking lots that were barely within walking distance. The pedestrian bridge over the interstate connecting the parking garage to the metro station in the middle of I-66 was clogged with a long line of 20 and 30-somethings trying to get on a train. A friend further down the same metro line near Fairfax said that every train going into DC was too full to allow any more riders, so the lines there were worse. Another friend told me that she tried to go to the rally but gave up once she realized how horrible the congestion would be. Though there is a lot of controversy about the number of attendants to rallies on the National Mall so that the government does not issue official numbers, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority announced that this day set a record for the number of riders on the metro system with 825,437 trips when the typical Saturday only has 350,000 trips. Even though we thought that the roads going into DC would be more crowded, a group of us abandoned the idea of taking the metro because we were afraid of missing the entire event. The interstate was practically empty. As long as we avoided the long lines of cars trying to exit the interstate for the metro stations, we could easily drive around 60 mph all the way into downtown DC. Finding a parking spot took a while, but we arrived at the rally around 1:30 pm, whereas our friend who went to metro station long before we did arrived at the rally closer to 2 pm.

The crowd was epic. Analyzing a satelite photograph, CBS News determined that around 215,000 people attended the rally (CBS News determined that around 87,000 attended Glen Beck's rally using the same methods). Even at 2 pm more and more people were flowing out of the metro stations and onto the National Mall, and everyone pressed against each other to get closer to the stage near the Capital. For a while we tried to move slowly through the crowd along the Mall, but then we decided to use the side streets to get closer, which was much easier. This way we got a lot closer to the screens just in time to hear Stewart and Colbert's final speeches around 2:30 pm. The crowd was so large that people were crawling on top of delivery trucks and portable toilets in order to get a better view. I couldn't actually see the stage, but it was cool just to be in a huge crowd like that with the backdrop of so many iconic buildings.

Peronally, attending the rally was not a political statement. A lot of the people there did carry signs that mocked Fox News and conservative pundits, but I think that is to be expected amongst a crowd that is rather young; the younger generation tends to be more liberal than older generations. For instance, there were several people with signs promoting the legalization of marijuana. However, I'd say most of the signs were a joke. Some said, "I may disagree with you but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler." One lady carried a sign that said, "My son told me to carry a sign." A couple of guys carried one sign of a pointing finger and a complimenting sign of a bare ass. A teenager had a sign that said, "Speak softly and don't be a big dick" with a photo of Teddy Rosevelt. Stephen Colbert's website told attendees to dress up as their biggest fear, so there were numerous costumes. Some dressed up as basketball players, banannas, insects, and Waldo. It was a specatcle, and that's the main reason why I wanted to go and see it. This past year I read an article about why poor Argentinans attended radical rallies, whether it was because they agreed with the politcal leaders or not. A lot of the people interviewed said they attended because they lived in poverty and couldn't afford entertainment, and these rallies were great entertainment with concerts in parks or beach resorts they couldn't afford to go to unless the party sponsoring the rally paid for their transportation. They barely understood the rallies' political meanings. The article's point was that those attending a rally do not necissarialy agree with the rally's message. It's entertainment. It's an exciting social event. In the same way, I don't think this rally necessarialy meant anything political, whether it be a shift in voters' sentiments or voters' aggitation with the news media or whatever.

If there was a message, it came from Jon Stewart's keynote speech that ridiculed the 24-hour news media for not properly reporting the news; instead of educating the public about what is really going on and how to fix the problems, the news media makes everything sound like a disaster. In response to this ridicule, some news shows changed their format a little or defended their reporting. I don't expect significant changes because a lot of these news shows want to boost ratings, and sensible news shows that professionally report the news or represent reasonable arguments for both sides do not necessarialy get more viewers than those shows with loud, irresonible pundits who rant without really understanding what they are saying.

It was really cool to attend this event, and here are some photos and videos: