January 15 2011 by Darrin.

I keep the politics to an absolute minimum on our blog and websites.  The latest shooting in the USA is still making headlines around the world, as folks wonder why we “cling to our guns” and create such an “unsafe society” for ourselves here.  I’ve been following this debate heavily for the past week, and I have boiled my thoughts down to just one pithy comment of my own…

 I’d rather endure the risks of Liberty than suffer the consequences of Tyranny.

 To those thinking that “safety” is something that can be achieved by giving up Freedom, my dear friend Wendell put it this way…

 If one could actually purchase safety with Liberty, then there would be no safer place on Earth than prison.

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August 29 2010 by Darrin.

I’m in Towson, MD right now, having come here to join up with my old high school friend Wendell and attend the Restoring Honor Rally in Washington.  I’d never done anything like this before, so I had no idea what to expect.  There were rumors of violence and some pretty kooky comments out there, but we weren’t worried at all.

Wendell and I left Towson around 07:30 and headed for the Greenbelt Park-n-Ride, to catch the green line subway train into DC.  We were early and the line grew quickly behind us.  Here’s a shot of the folks awaiting their turn at the Metro ticket machines when we queued up outside…

As we walked west toward the Lincoln Memorial and site of Beck’s rally, it started to look like a decent turn-out:  lots of familes with kids, some flags here and there, and only the occasional political sign.  (Can’t have us “brandishing placards” as some in our media called it on the day of the House vote on health care.)  Here’s a shot of our approach to the WWII Memorial at 09:48…

We stuck to the right (north) side of the reflecting pool and tried to find a spot where we could see and hear…

It proceeded to get more and more cramped.  There was no chance to go left to the pool, so we went right again and walked over to the Vietnam Memorial where we saw this, left for a fallen friend.  God bless you both, whoever you are and whoever you were…

.

 We then “parked it” under a tree where we could hear one out of five words spoken, and sat there for the rest of the event, occasionally talking to folks that passed by.   In hindsight, we could have gone back to the lawn west of the Washington Monument, but it would have been shadeless and downright hot.  Here are a couple pix of that area just after the rally ended…

I really wanted to be a part of this event, to be “one of those faces” in the crowd.  It was a fine day for me individually, and a super day collectively for the people who attended.  There was no violence that we saw, of any kind.  Everyone was extremely polite.  A few kids walked through us with a sign that read “Glenn Beck is lying to you for profit!”  No one paid any attention that we could see.

The mainstream media description of the rally is surprising.  I heard it on NPR this morning, and then read it again in the NY Times too (click this to read it before they realize what they’ve written and take it down).  It must have gone out in the morning operative instructions to the liberal side of the media.  Stick this in Google and see for yourself…

“Like a large church picnic.”  (Darn, all those violent Tea Party members musta stayed home.  Oh well.)

Bill O’Reilly of Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor said Beck would be lucky to have 10 to 15 thousand there.  He then asked how many Glenn expected, and Glenn told him he hoped to draw 100,000 or more.  O’Reilly challenged (paraphrased), “Beck, if you have more than 100,000 in attendance, you can have my 8PM Eastern prime time slot.”

The first news Wendell and I heard on the way home reported “thousands attended rallies”.  We estimated at least a hundred thousand, but neither of us had any idea how to accurately size the crowd.  Today while having brunch at an Irish pub, I checked out some headlines and saw that Michele Bachmann (R-MN) had called it a million.  The NYT had to disagree, quoting NBC’s estimate of 300,000.  Something in the middle is likely correct.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

(AP photo below)

I was a part of that, and there’s a smile from ear to ear that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

No mater how you look at it, Bill O’Reilly better get used to doing his show at a new time.

Posted in Misc. Travel, Politics and Economics | No Comments »