We had quite a day in DC.

Here is a crowd shot I took…(I stink as a cameraman) but it gives you a sense of the crowd size. Beck said that filling the mall from the Lincoln Memorial and around the reflecting pool was 200K. The crowd was all the way back to the Washington Monument!

Plus there are 2 fields to each side of the reflecting pool with jumbotrons set up that had huge crowds. I am no crowd expert, but based on that there had to have been 500K there at least. It felt (from a chaos standpoint) very similar to 9-12 last year. The Metro system gave up and let everyone ride for free that day….thats how hopeless the situation was from a crowd perpective.

I did get a chance to see the Sharpton rally in passing….there was a VERY small crowd…hundreds maybe. They had CANNED APPLAUSE for their speaker. Pitiful.

Logistically the town was a mess. We got to our Metro Station on time but the wait was 2 hours just to get on the train. We got there after it was started and the crowd was massive. Most of the travelers got a chance to see at least a portion of Beck’s excellent speech.

We did have one of our travelers have heat exhaustion. It was a rough day of walking and waiting in the hot sun.

He is fine after excellent care from the Sibley Memorial Hospital. He and I missed the bus ride home, but we rode back to town in style in a fancy rental car

What are the takeaways from this trip?

We had some great laughs on the bus and what a great group of people to travel with!

Michael Mixon, Greg Honeycut and Hank Benson were awesome in keeping this traveling circus together

A lot of people feel the same as we do.

Glenn Beck is touching a nerve with people.

But most of all:

You need to get involved Now.

CNN called this the “Wingnut Superbowl of 2010.” Marching alone isn’t going to get it. Speeches alone won’t do it. Action at the local level can do it.

What can you do??

Here is one path (there are others…so please do SOMETHING if this doesn’t float your boat)

Join the Roanoke Tea Party. Support the Freedom For Virginians Act.  We will be meeting this Thursday at the Ramada Inn on Franklin Road at 6:30 PM….I pray a lot of the folks that trekked up to DC will take the next step and join us in the fight to secure our Constitutional Freedoms!

Join the Resistance…Join the Roanoke Tea Party

Chip Tarbutton

Roanoke Tea Party