we rallied... but what for?

Yup, we were there, technically.  What can I tell you about the rally itself?  Not a whole lot.  It's been four days since the event, and I still haven't watched any of the clips online.  Honestly, I'm not sure that I'm going to.  I've read about it in the paper and online; I've seen many, MANY photographs of costumed attendees and hilarious signs, and I think I've moved on.  I'm not sure what I expected our experience to be, but the day was full of surprises, and a bit of disappointment, and I'm trying to reconcile what my hopes were with what we actually got.  For the sake of record-keeping, one intent of the bloggy business, here's our story.

With the rally starting at noon, I didn't think it unreasonable to plan to show up at the Metro station around 10 am.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

In hindsight, there are some key factors that I, a resident of the DC Metro area for thirteen years, should have thought of ahead of time and planned for:

• The metro station in our town is the end of one commuter line, with a large parking area, and is the most commonly chosen station for folks who come from northern PG County and other local counties.  And, that line went directly to a stop a block away from where the rally was being held.
• This rally was attracting LOTS of national attention, with tons of people pledging to come to the area from out of state.  Not all of those people would be able, or would want to stay in Washington, D.C., and would in fact, be staying in suburban Maryland.
• All of these out-of-towners would not be in possession of fare cards with which to pay for their train rides and would have to stop in the station and purchase cards before boarding the train.
• This was going to be, as Mr. Vice President himself would put it, one big effing deal.

If I had indeed considered these factors, I would have done a few things differently:

• Gotten my ass out of bed earlier than 8:30 am.  
• Hired a babysitter so I could attend the event with hubby, sans little people who don't like crowds, standing around, and waiting.
• Loaded money onto our SmarTrip cards, avoiding the need to do so in the station.
• Purchased a bunch of other fare cards to have at the ready to sell for a profit to poor schmucks who came from Wisconsin and don't know any better.

Okay, okay, I probably would only have done three out of those four, but I'll let you choose.  Either way, we were greatly unprepared for the lines that awaited us at the Metro station.  The line that we could have avoided had we had money on our cards.  Alas.  We stood in line instead, for just over an hour to get up to the station, and thankfully, we did have cash on us, so we could buy pre-loaded $6 cards from the Metro employees at a table in the station instead of getting back in a different line to reach the fare machines.  (Thank you Metro for that foresight!)

That hour-plus saw us all in mostly good spirits.  The kids' mild whining brought forth the beginning of snacktime, and JAM and hubby did one of their Circus Camp tricks, much to the worry of some folks in line near us.  We chatted for a while with the couple in front of us who drove down from Rochester for the event, and were staying with their nephew in Columbia.  Once we were up on a sidewalk, the kids frolicked around in the grass, and we only lost someone once, when Pudge didn't realize that the line had moved and ran up to some other nice tall people.  (Don't go calling CPS on me, we were watching him- and calling, LOUDLY- the entire time.)  All in all, it was a very pleasant and happy crowd, no kvetching (other than a couple times from our own kids), and the time went by rather smoothly, mostly spent talking about how we couldn't believe the size of the crowd.  The entire time that we waited, the line of traffic kept steadily streaming in, also to our disbelief.

We lucked out that an empty train was waiting for us when we got up to the platform, so each of us got a seat and we even had a place to put the jogging stroller.  Only two stops later, and there was hardly any breathing room left.  We made room for a lovely woman from Charlotte, NC, who was pregnant with her third child (but left her other two at home with her mom).  We chatted about being moms, both us not working outside the home, and the challenges that having a brood home with you can bring.  The crowd all around us was friendly, and happy to be there- the UMD student originally from NC, the other UMD student with her mom who came up from Nashville, TN, among others.  The mood changed a bit as we got closer to the MD/DC line and folks were trying to cram onto the train that was already dangerously full.  Red freaked out for a minute, but she was easily calmed and I was uber-thankful to have a seat.

We had planned to get off at the Archives-Navy Memorial stop, but when the doors opened and some of the crowd streamed out, there was literally not an inch of platform left to step onto.  So, we figured we'd just go one additional stop and get off there.  Hubby was worried because L'Enfant is a transfer station, but we really had no choice.  You can imagine the gigantic cheer that went up among those of us still on the train when we arrived to an empty platform at L'Enfant less than a minute later!

After elevator trips and such, we finally were on the street and the buzz was palpable.  We walked toward the Mall and came up at the end of the "defined space" for the rally at 7th Street, where we were met by security people telling us to keep going down the road before trying to get onto the Mall, because it was full there.  So, we walked.

When we finally got onto the Mall, we just pulled up a piece of rocky path in front of the Hirshhorn's Sculpture Garden, because there was no way we could bring the kids into the huge crowd.  It was dicey for a little while, wondering if we were going to get crushed, but eventually, the grassy area right across from us was opened up (I believe by officials, but at the time, we wondered if people had just taken it upon themselves to tear down the fence), and we had a little bit of breathing room.  (Some of us still decided to have small hissy fits and thus were not included in Mama's photo-taking.)

The heart of our rally experience was in the people and sign watching.  From where we laid our blanket down, we couldn't see any of the main rally area or stage, and I could only hear vague music coming from the stage, since there weren't speakers set up any farther down the Mall than 7th Street.  (Again, I believe.)  What we were left with was taking pics of the massive crowd and the signs that I kept annoyingly repeated to hubby which prompted him to ask something to the effect of,  "You realize I can see everything you can, right?"  Here's what we saw:

Rally Crowds and Signs on PhotoPeach

One highlight of the day was when a woman stopped next to us to make her own sign:

In addition to liking her message, I loved her sweet southern drawl as she asked if the kids would like her extra poster boards and markers, since she could only handle one sign in the huge crowd.  (I also liked that someone with a southern accent would make the trip for an event like this.)  Having those materials filled quite an amount of time for the kids, allowing us to do more sign/people-watching.

All that sign-watching got to JAM, too.  By this point, it was obvious that stuff was happening up at the stage area from all the applause and general "WOOOO"ing, and we lamented the fact that we had no idea what was going on.  JAM decided that he would make his own sign, which went through some different versions:

 "I'm clapping but I don't know what for"

JAM's first version, expressed in tiny form.

 "I'm clapping but, I don't know what for, Yeah!"

His second version, complete with his very own punctuation and capitalization.

 JAM's representation of his sign in body expression form.

 "Why Am I Clapping?"

Version three, on the other side, illustrated by group scribbling effort.

 "I'm Clapping but, WHAT FOR?"

Version four on another piece of poster board.  This was by far his favorite.

 The same version, but with added arrow, 

just in case any passersby were uncertain to whom the sign belonged.

What I loved best about his sign was that it could be interpreted in his intended way, or as a statement about parents who drag their kids along to events for which they are too young to understand simply because they couldn't secure or afford a babysitter for the entire day and all of their friends were going to either be away or at the event itself.  Ahem.

After a couple of trips to the bathroom (who needs port-a-potties when you're right next to a museum?), and a consumed picnic lunch, there didn't seem to be much reason to stay sitting where we were.  So, we walked through the Sculpture Garden at the request of  a girl-who-gets-whiny-without-nap Red, where a whole lot of other people were hanging out with even more signs.  After a bit of touristy-strolling outside, we decided that it was time to call it a day.  Back to the metro, more elevator rides, smaller crowd than the morning, but still a more crowded than usual train ride, and we were back at the Metro station and ready to come home and collapse.

So, we can technically say that we were there, but I was left as uninformed about the rally after we left as I had been before we went.  My gut feeling was that this was going to be a gathering for folks who are sick and tired of rallies filled with ignorance, hate and anger, where the average sign-holder isn't able to speak to the nuances of their political frustrations but can repeat the talking points issued by their favorite sly "news" channel.  I wasn't going in with any expectation about serious discussions or speeches, and I fully expected a backlash against the "Right" in the form of some signs that could probably be declared as disrespectful as theirs.  There was some of that, but there was mostly what I consider logical frustration, expressed with a bit o' snark and sarcasm, which is something to which I can ABSOLUTELY relate.

While I was really bummed out that we didn't get to experience the official rally stuff that day as we boarded the train to head back home, upon reflection over the last few days, I've come to the point where I'm really happy that we made the effort.  Our time spent waiting in lines, squishing in crowds, and simply claiming our own five square feet of space on the Mall that day will stay in my memory.

We were approached by a woman from the Washington Post while we were hanging out on our blanket.  I've done some searching online, and I don't think that what she got from us ever made it online, but that afternoon she took a video of the kids drawing while she recorded Scott's answer to her question:  "In your opinion, do you think this day was about politics or entertainment?" 

My first response-- Is there a difference?


All rallied out,