Restoring Sanity

I'm blogging from the nation's capitol today...don't know how many times I'll get to say that. Our family drove to Washington D.C. to be part of the Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear (and to spend a few days seeing the sights).

I know some see the rally as a publicity/promotional stunt, saying it was too scripted to be authentic. I'll concede it made for great television and no doubt will increase viewership for both "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," but the event was more than that, I believe. The crowd was huge (accurate numbers are hard to obtain), and only a small fraction could see or hear what was happening on stage, but that did not seem to dampen spirits.

People were remarkably polite, cheerful and the general mood was that all of us were, quite literally, just happy to be there. Many were getting reports via cell phone from friends who were watching the event on TV, and all of us knew we would be watching replays on YouTube, so the few half-hearted attempts to start a "louder!" protest in my section of the crowd died out in moments with everyone laughing and going back to getting reports from the seven-foot-tall guy behind us who said yes, indeed, that really was Ozzy Osbourne. What?!

Allen had sacrificed his attendance to drop off our daughter Tracy, son-in-law John and me at the National Mall. After having waited in line for over half an hour at the Metro station near where we're staying, we had abandoned our first plan of taking the Metro in....the lines were impossibly long and the trains were packed. Amazingly, at the rally, Tracy ended up seeing the people who were in front of us in line at the Metro. (One of them was in full Uncle Sam costume so that made him a little easier to spot.) It had taken them three hours to make the trip which on a good day (we travelled it on Friday) takes a half-hour. They arrived at the Mall just as the rally was ending.

After Tracy, John and I arived, we started working our way toward the stage, but I turned back after awhile to find Allen and our grandson; they eventually parked our vehicle and took the Metro in. Tracy and John continued on and finally ended up near enough to the front to hear and see what was going on. Call what he said what you want, but we were all inspired by Jon Stewart's words when Tracy relayed them.

The transcript is available online many places. I suggest you find it and read at least the end. Here are the last few lines:

"We hear every damned day about how fragile our country is, on the brink of catastrophe, torn by polarizing hate, and how it's a shame that we can't work together to get things done. The truth is, we do! We work together to get things done every damned day! The only place we don't is here (in Washington) or on cable TV!

"But Americans don't live here, or on cable TV. Where we live, our values and principles form the foundation that sustains us while we get things done--not the barriers that prevent us from getting things done.

"Most Americans don't live their lives solely as Democrats, Republicans, liberals or conservatives. Americans live their lives more as people that are just a little bit late for something they have to do. Often something they do not want to do! But they do it. Impossible things, every day, that are only made possible through the little, reasonable compromises we all make."

That's maybe the one main thing I want to remember from this trip. I may get tired of political attack ads and people who don't share my views, but we all DO work together every day, and we DO get things accomplished. We're all in this life together, and maybe sanity (and unity) can be restored after all.