First person report from DC March
Here’s a report on last week’s 09.12.09 March On Washington, from Roanoke Tea Party member Sherry Hearn, along with some more photos from the march taken by Tom Mealy.
Photo from the 09.12.09 March on Washington
September 13, 2009 – Washington was great!!! There were wall-to-wall people. The mainstream media will play it down as usual. ABC did not even put it on my email headlines this morning. We did not get as much attention from them as “Elton John Wants to Adopt Ukrainian Child”. (N0 comment necessary) or “Saudi Minister Undergoes Surgery in US”. Why did he not get surgery in his own country?? Could our system be better than his??
We chose to drive to DC to accommodate our grandchildren. There were so many people they had to close down the streets into the city. The Metro was jammed, and we were fortunate to get out because we left early before the rally was over because we had children with us. There were people there from all over the US. When looking from the base of the Capitol steps down the Mall, there was nothing but people. We could not even get close enough to see the stage area. It was very encouraging to see so many and to feel the support that was obvious from everyone. We had to stand in line for about an hour just to buy tickets for the Metro. Locals on the train said they had never seen this happen before.
The press did carry the story about 10,000 at a rally in California. That was nothing compared to the crowd in DC. There must have been 300 on each of the Metro cars. There were 6-7 cars per train that ran constantly all day long. One train we figured carried 2,000 every time it left the station. That happened about every 15 minutes. At this rate, it did not take long to get to 100,000 people coming in from five different directions. This continued all day. In addition, there were 450 busses parked in the bus lot in Fairfax, one of only many at the end of each line. Many charter busses took their passengers straight into the city. Read more
How many Marchers in DC?
View of the 9/12 March on Washington crowd from the top of the Capitol Building
Here is an image taken last Saturday (9/12) from the Capitol Building in Washington that puts the lie to absurdly low turnout estimates.
Does that look like 50,000-70,000 people to you?
If you hear anything from our opponents about an “official estimate,” that is a false claim. That number came from the DC Fire Department, who has no official status of any kind regarding estimates like this.
DC Metro rail ridership for that day tallied 437,624 riders, almost 250,000 above average. Bus fares were also up by about 100,000.
The people who were there know the truth.
Here is an interesting observation that comes from Kenneth Happel, via the Heritage Foundation web site.
I was the medical coordinator for the event. I believe that there were at least a million people there and a million and a half would be my best bet.
I don’t know where the “official estimate” quoted as 60,000 comes from. The event permit, and Chief Lyles fire department resource allocation, was based upon 50,000 (because we couldn’t prove more beforehand)and that number of people was supposed to be contained in the central section of the west lawn between the sidewalks extending from the freedom and grant statues.
I counted the crowd entering Penn. Ave. to determine how many first aid team people were needed and where. I made my count at Freedom Plaza after the police radio had indicated that the front of the march had reached Capital Circle. I used the following method. We counted the number of people stretching across Penn. Ave. from curb to curb for a distance down the street of ten feet. That number was divided in half (assuming that there were variations in how tightly people were packed)and multiplied by the number of ten foot intervals from Freedom Park to Capitol Circle. At 8:00 the count was 200,000. I inserted a medical team at that point and when it reached Capitol Circle the whole avenue had filled again and I inserted my team. So at about 9:30 the total attendance from the march was, conservatively, about 400,000. The avenue continued to pumo in people fopr another two hours. So I estimate about 600,000 came through that route. Read more
Poll shows “Tea Parties are racist” slander not catching on
The results of a Rasmussen poll released on September 16 offer good news to Tea Partiers across the US.
The survey indicates that the tactic of suggesting that protests against President Obama’s agenda are racist has failed to catch on with the American public.
Twelve percent (12%) of voters nationwide believe that most opponents of President Obama’s health care reform plan are racist. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 67% of voters disagree, and 21% are not sure.
In recent days, several Democrats have suggested that racism is a factor. The most prominent to make that accusation is former President Jimmy Carter.
Eighty-eight percent (88%) of Republicans reject the notion that most of the opponents are racist. So do 78% of voters not affiliated with either major party. However, just 39% of Democrats share that view. Twenty-two percent (22%) of those in the president’s party say that most of the opposition to his plan comes from racists, and another 39% are not sure.
Read the Rasmussen article online.
Creigh Deeds”answers” the tax question
Creigh Deeds, candidate for Virginia Governor, discusses his plans for raising funds for transportation in the state (9/17/09).
Roanoke Tea Party in roanoke.com
Chip Tarbutton, a member of our interim board, has a piece published in The Roanoke Times’ Round Table blog.
It is in response to an earlier posting criticizing our July 4 rally at Elmwood Park for preaching to the choir, with high profile speakers coming from the Republican Party, and also for comments about social issues like abortion being discussed from the stage.
Chip responds (in part):
At the July 4th rally, we invited every local representative and local political party to attend. This included Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Constitutional Party representatives. No Democrats chose to accept our invitation. About half of the scheduled speakers were from the Libertarian Party, the Constitutional Party or from other organizations (We had a Fair Tax representative and radio personality Brian Gottstein speak).
The second half of the agenda was open to anyone, although we ran into some time constraints and not as many people got a chance to speak as we would have liked. A few speakers toward the end did discuss social issues, but this was not a main focus of the rally, and they are not issues the Roanoke Tea Party is actively pursuing. We believe in freedom of speech, and speakers comments were completely theirs and theirs alone.
You can read Chip’s entire response here.
More views from the DC March
Here is a video comprised of images taken at Saturday’s 09.12.09 March On Washington. It was created by Erik Kritter, a member of both the Roanoke and Franklin County Tea Party groups, from the more than 1500 photos he shot in DC.
Erik also put together a live action video he shot on Saturday, seeking to answer the big question “How many people were at the march?”
Roanoke Tea Partiers in DC
All three buses full of Roanoke Tea Party members made it to DC and back on Saturday without incident. I’m sure that we will have more details from the marchers soon, but here are some photos that we have of and from our group.
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- Roanoke Tea Party buses depart for DC
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- Roanoke Tea Partiers board the buses on 9/12
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- Preparing to board the buses
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- Getting ready to board the buses
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- Tea Partiers waiting for the DC Metro
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- A REAL Tea Party Patriot!
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- Assorted signs at the DC March
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- Our Roanoke Tea Party t shirt
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- Marching on the Capitol
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- Don and Sandy Smith at the march
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- Lisa Tarbutton at the March with Caleb McAlister and Greg Honeycutt providing patriotic music
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- Chip Tarbutton in the shadow of the Capitol
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- 9/12 March on Washington
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- 9/12 March on Washington
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- 9/12 March on Washington
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- 9/12 March on Washington
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- 9/12 March on Washington
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- 9/12 March on Washington
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- 9/12 March on Washington
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- 9/12 March on Washington
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- 9/12 March on Washington
Hats off to all of you!
Congratulations to the DC marchers!
Hats off to all the Tea Party marchers who assembled in Washington today. Crowd estimates range from 1.2 to 2 million people!
Here’s a YouTube video that shows time lapse images of the march from a traffic camera in downtown Washington.
Last minute update for DC trip
Tea Party Patriots has posted some last minute details for anyone traveling to the 09.12.09 March On Washington this weekend. You can see the complete list here.
It includes helpful information about Metro stops, meeting places, parking and several other important bits of data.
Here are a few that will be of interest as our Roanoke Tea Party group packs for the trip:
What to Bring to the March
- small umbrellas, hats, caps
- bottled water, bag lunch
- lawn chairs that you can carry in
- cameras
- blankets
- coolers
- backpacks
- Please don’t litter. We will have trash cans for your use
- Everything will be inspected by police
What Not to Bring
- tents, canopies
- nothing to stake in the ground
- nothing to sell
Where do we meet in the morning on September 12?
If you are physically able to walk in the March, we would like you to begin gathering at Freedom Plaza at 8:30 am. We will march from Freedom Plaza to the West Lawn of the Capitol. At Freedom Plaza (1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20004, Metro Center Red, Blue and Orange lines, Federal Triangle (Blue and Orange lines), we will line up by state according to this list. There will be speakers at Freedom Plaza, many of whom are Tea Party Patriots Local Coordinators, prior to marching. The March ends and the Rally will officially begin at 1:00 at the West Lawn of the Capitol. To accommodate as many speaker and musician requests as possible, there will also be speakers on the West Lawn before the official start time at 1:00 but the exact start time of these speakers and entertainers has not been determined. It will be dependent on how quickly the staging and audio equipment will be setup.
Godspeed all you Tea Party marchers!
DC one day buses full – overnight trip still open
The buses we chartered to take Roanoke citizens to Washington for this Saturday’s Taxpayer March On Washington are full – at least the two one-day, round trip buses. If you would like to join us for the march, there are two options:
We still have room for additional travelers on our overnight trip, leaving Friday afternoon and returning Saturday evening. Our block of rooms at Hilton Hotel in Springfield has expired, but you can contact them and see if they will still honor the rate they had offered our group ($99). If you can book a room, the bus trip alone will cost $40.
Please contact Michael Mixon (540-793-3277 michaelmixon1@cox.net) to reserve a space on the round trip bus.
If you would like to caravan up with the buses on Saturday, you can meet the group at Tanglewood Mall Saturday morning at 5:00 a.m. and follow them to DC.
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