Thoughts on the Rally to Restore Sanity

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Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on October 30, 2010 at 8:06pm

I did. It had some funny moments.

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Permalink Reply by LarryL on October 30, 2010 at 8:32pm

I was there - it was awesome. I saw at least 3 spaghetti monsters and a bunch of pastafarians. I also saw this guy. He was a very popular photo opp

More to follow

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Permalink Reply by Blade Of The Bunny on October 30, 2010 at 8:34pm

Yep. I'm not sure what to make of it. I have to say, I was disappointed when Yusuf Islam's (Cat Stevens) song was interrupted. I would have liked to have heard the entire song and Ozzy's song as well.

I think, part of my reaction was that I didn't know what to expect in the first place. Maybe I was hoping to see something more meaningful come out of such an enormous gathering. Even the last song, "I'll take you there", which is a great tune but the lyrics can only sung by Mavis' part and that left out everyone else on stage who had a mic. Stewart's analogy about society being like a multi-lane highway bottlenecking into a tunnel felt simplistic and amateurish.

I really hate to sound critical because I love both the Daily Show & the Colbert Report but I am a bit puzzled by it. I loved Colbert's reenactment of the miner's rescue and the awards given out but the would have really loved to see them use that opportunity to slam Sharon Angle, O'Donnell or O'Reilly with those fear awards. How can you not mention Texas State Republican Debbie Riddle's Terror Babies when talking about fear mongers??

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Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on October 30, 2010 at 9:03pm

I pretty much agree with everything you said. I liked the bottleneck analogy though. Jon did say that it wasn't a political rally, so, maybe, that was why they did't mention any of the teabaggers?

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Permalink Reply by Lisa on October 30, 2010 at 9:08pm

I was pleased with most of it. Stewart's speech was awesome. I was liking the Cat Stevens thing til I read a twitter that he endorsed the murder threats of Salmon Rushdie in the 80's and that kind of killed the peace train thing for me. Other than that, it made its point and seemed like a lot of fun. Would have loved to have been there.

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Permalink Reply by Park Bierbower on November 1, 2010 at 10:14am

I attended. the things that you didn't like about it were quite deliberate, I don't think it was to be an effective anything other than gathering for people who are sick of the gridlock. It was apolitico, and almost had to be to avoid alienating people who agreed with the basic concept. It was ultimately generic, and while i would've also liked it to be more direct about things, I don't think that would have worked out as well in the end... or maybe it would have.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Brinkley on November 2, 2010 at 12:20pm

I attended the rally in St. Louis MO on Saturday. They broadcast the DC event live while we were there. I personally thought it was the perfect rally and the overall message was extremely powerful. To me the message was, "America has gone totally nuts and we have to do something about it."

Unlike your basic political rally, this rally offered a very straight forward solution to the problem...start thinking for yourself.

"Why can't we all just...get along?"

Michael Brinkley
http://www.godhatesbambi.com

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Permalink Reply by Jacob Gladden on November 2, 2010 at 7:06pm

I saw most of it on TV. What I got from it was that there really are a whole lot of people who aren't completely insane. I mean, I knew that with an internal logic that tells me I'm not alone but seeing that many people and actually KNOWING that I'm not alone felt good. And now all those people that attended and all the people that watched know too. That kind of knowledge is priceless these days. Now we know.

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Permalink Reply by It's just Matt on November 2, 2010 at 7:38pm

I wuz there!!! I jogged to the Human Rights Campaign headquarters on Rhode Island Ave. to volunteer. I received a shirt and carried their flag to the rally. I received a special guest ticket for my support and was allowed to be to the side of the stage. I heard the people in the middle and far back could not hear or see most of the performances.

I was close enough to identify who was on stage, especially easy to identify Kareem Abul-Jabar dwarfing Stewart and Colbert. I had a great time and the museums were amazing.

I took over a hundred pictures of the human origins exhibit alone, I will have to post them at some point.

Sanity for all!!!!

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