I was, alas, unable to attend the post-rally book sale and signing because I was dehydrated beyond all belief. The hot and sticky deep summer of Washington is just beginning and many at the rally were exhausted after walking the length of the National Mall, often with no more than a single water bottle.
What the turnout lacked in numbers (I estimate 2,000 to 3,000) it made up for in spirit. Many of the speakers would call each other crazy, and some lived in their own little worlds. Naomi Wolf came and spouted nonsense about Bush war crimes, a Texan talk radio host talked about colored stickers on your mailbox that would indicate whether the government would shoot or enslave you when martial law came, and one speaker indicated that the United States was losing the protection of God.
I'm sure everyone at the rally had one alienating moment. It would be easy to call it "FreeDUMB" or something and I'm sure Wonkette will have an article like that if you care to read it. But in the end, we were all honest people, trying to discard whatever illusions we have and embrace respect for each other's freedom and a true understanding in a complicated world.
Well, except for the Libertarians who were networking. They don't count.
The turnout included the anti-Fed folks, Truthers, numismatic hobbyists, the Free State Project, ultra-right neo-Confederates rejecting McCain, Code Pink librarians and teachers, peace protestors, Holiness Christians from a commune, and many veterans speaking forcefully against a war that has caused much pain.
One story I think you might like is about my favorite group at the rally. Last night I was chatting with my best friend about the crazy people he's met in Silver Spring. "There's a group that starts with a Z," he said, "Zeebadee or something like that. They would come to the middle of town and try to change people's minds about totally random crap. They wanted people to join their art commune/cult in West Virginia. They got banned from Silver Spring illegally because they were being too annoying."
Well, those people were at the rally. They're called Zendik ("Easy to remember," I was told. "Zen plus dick. Without a C. But it's Sanskrit really.") and they were actually very friendly. They were persistent but not annoying, and when I bought their magazine I was surprised by the relevance of their ideas. They easily seemed like the most amiable people at the rally. They got kicked out of Silver Spring not by annoyed people, by the corporations along the street-- you know, pamphleteering neo-hippies are the sort of quirky local culture gentrification tries to stamp out. And they live on a farm, not a commune, but it seems like the kind of place I'd like to visit.
Everyone was waiting for the man himself: the Hon. Dr. Ron Paul, M.D. Here are some more examples of the kind of enthusiasm one might either ridicule or appreciate. One thing I could not get a photo of was a little girl on the metro, roughly 8 year old, who was jumping up and down because she got to see Dr. Paul, and pointed and smiled at me when I took his book out of my backpack.
The above picture was taken without permission. The picture below will make you smile if you know the background story.
Finally at 4 PM, Dr. Paul came and spoke. It was real exciting to see the man in person, but his message had no surprises-- it was about liberty, beating Rudy Giuliani in a national election where he got 6 months of constant press attention. A group of Capitol Police and volunteers barricaded the stage so he could get to his vehicle without being swamped by adoring fans. Here is my photo of him which is in the public domain.
It was a great afternoon. Well, I did eat at a taco place where they ran out of lemonade and a piece of ceiling fell into my lap. But they were very nice about it. And the entire thing cost me only $25-- $16 for lunch, $8 for Zendik literature which I will be happily reading this evening.
