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| These women from NJ are not keen about a Republican plan to extend tax cuts for the very rich. |
On Saturday, various unions, churches, minority, environmental and gay rights groups staged a massive rally in Washington D.C.. The sponsors of the rally, called "
One Nation Working Together," had billed it as the largest coming together of different groups ever on the Mall.
Jotman was there, plotting to compare the atmosphere of this event to the large Tea Party rally he had witnessed firsthand at the same location less than a month ago.
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| This couple knows what took it away, but do the people? |
Attendance at the Glenn Beck rally was larger. That rally had been paid for by
Freedom Works (a front for Koch Industries) and publicized in advance by Fox News.
This Saturday's rally was two-thirds, perhaps only half the size. But judge for yourself: Compare the following photograph to another
photo I took from almost the same location (the Lincoln Memorial) at the Glenn Beck rally.
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| It was a big crowd but not the biggest. |
The tone of the gathering was upbeat, not solemn like the Glenn Beck rally. Participants seemed to be having a genuinely good time. Well over a third of the demonstrators gathered Saturday appeared to represent one union or another (judging by the t-shirts so many were wearing).
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| These people liked what they were hearing. |
MSNBC television host
Ed Schultz (pictured below) gave an impassioned
speech. "We may not have got all that we wanted in the first four years, but we have to stand behind our leaders on the progressive agenda that is for the people and not always the corporations," he said.
When I snapped this photo, Schultz was saying that "forty people,
forty people in the United States Senate has held down the working man of America." That's the Democratic Party's narrative -- as if the large checks that corporate lobbyists wrote for the Democrats in 2008 had bought them nothing. If only progress was as simple as not electing Republicans...
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| "Conservatives are holding you down." - Ed Schultz |
I thought the finest speech was by rapper and beat poet Black Ice. He spoke of his hometown where budget cuts had forced the closure of Boys Clubs and community centers -- social services that had been keeping kids off the streets and out of jail.
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| Thank you President Obama. |
Glenn Beck's rally was calm, relaxing, honest, respectful and wasn't a media grabber! Your photos tell the entire story... considering the first photo! The fact that MSNBC was at this rally tells the other part of your story and had as many people on the Mall as they have viewers to their station of misfits! I have to wonder how many of the Union workers were actually there by choice?
ReplyDeleteLOL blog owner approval! Seems you want to post only those that are for this messed up Admin's agenda! Ah Well... We the People will put the country straight come Nov. and will finish the job in 2012!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteI would describe the people participating in both rallies as "respectful."
It was evident that far more money had been spent on the Beck rally.
I can't believe the dfference between the people of the "we the people" rally, which left not one piece of trash and the one held 10/2/10, there was trash all over the place! Tells you what kind of people they are. And the tea party movement is NOT political. It was started by plain old americans tired of all the crap being doled out to us. The politicians just joined after it was started!
ReplyDeleteI couldn't beleive it when I saw a video clip of them (10-2) marching along singing "Obama ain't no socialist...we are we are" over and over.
ReplyDeleteThe Beck ralley had over 5000,000 people, this one looked like just a few thousand.
Photo's of the aftermath of the rallies showed that the Beck event left the grounds clean when they were done. Photo's of Obama's 10-2 event show that signs, banners,and all manner of trash tossed on the ground and left there.
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThe Beck rally was well-funded and well-organized. I saw that they had hired crews of young people to pick up garbage and keep everything in order. Saturday's rally wasn't as well planned.
Interestingly, Koch Industries, the major corporate backer of the Glenn Beck rally, is a notorious polluter. It's a lot cheaper for Koch to pay to kids to "clean up" a political rally than comply with emissions standards on coal plants. By helping to elect Tea Party candidates, Koch gets the regulatory environment it wants. We get more polluted lakes.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer