How many attended the two Rallies in Washington today?
Asked by
ETpro (
34605
)
October 30th, 2010
Early crowd estimates issued by “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” organizers ran between 10 million and 6 billion. There is no question there are still some Americans who either want to Restore Sanity, Preserve Fear or perhaps do both at once. And today’s twin event provided the dualists a remarkable opportunity to make their voices heard by showing up and saying nothing at all while listening to comedians including Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert lambaste them over a massive PA system.
The signs were zany instead of filled with slogans of hate and divisiveness. The crowd was jubilant instead of angry. There were bear suits and free bear hugs instead of torches and pitchforks.
But is it too little too late? Are we destined for a long night of darkness in America as lies begin to rule our political discourse and handcuffing or head stomping becomes the accepted way to ensure the suppression of any competing ideas? Can intelligence survive in a rising tide of vicious anti-intellectualism?
Were you there? Did you see news coverage from somewhere else? What do you think it all means?
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26 Answers
I was going to attend, but got discouraged and turned away when they confiscated my torch and pitchfork.
@RealEyesRealizeRealLies They took my pitchfork too but I fought furiously to keep my torch for the impending long night of darkness in America coming our way!
I think it means that there are Democrats who are trying to claim the middle ground while also claiming civility at the same time. It’s not going to affect anything.
I traveled 4000 fucking miles to attend and it was a blast. And now we shower and prime the pump and crash Reddit Parties.
It was fun! I really enjoyed it, even though I had to stand in line at the metro for about an hour and a half.
@thekoukoureport : Uhm… all I know is that it went past the Smithsonian Institute, and thats pretty far back. And there were people spilling out into the streets and the blocks surrounding the mall, so the count might not include that.
Our city had a satellite broadcast with food, booze, and a (civil) soapbox.
It was AMAZING. The performances, the good time vibe, the signs, and that final speech… It was all I could hope for. Gave me some hope that we aren’t all packing a bunker for Armageddon.
@thekoukoureport :: I would put the conservative estimate at 125K. Might be more. There was a fuckton of people and it was a blast.
@thekoukoureport & @johnpowell The experts are saying at least 150,000. I don’t know if they have got areal photos yet to run through the crowd analysis software. That will yield a close approximation to the actual count. I was disappointed Comedy Central didn’t push the high-side estimate a bit past 7 billion, since that would be more people than are currently alive on Earth and perfectly in keeping with the constantly escalating estimates Glenn Beck and Faux News kept coming out with.
A friend of mine went and she said it was packed (and people were sitting/standing on anything and everything to see what was going on). She also posted pictures of some of the signs and some of them were really great. It made me wish I could’ve went.
@Seaofclouds Me too. I saw one saying “This is a good sign”.
@ETpro I saw that one as well. I also saw one that said “Restore Sanity NOW and grammar and spelling, to two TOO!” and it made me think of Fluther. :)
The rally was amazing. I’m so lucky to live right out of DC.
On the rally’s website, it said it was taking place between 4th and 7th street on the mall…But it took up much much more.
There were so many people it took about a minute to do the wave. People were sitting on top of the porta-potties because it was so crowded. People were in the trees too! Ozzy showed up…and R2D2. :D
Mythbusters FTW! That was a pleasant surprise.
Metro says ridership had passed 330,000 – its usual TOTAL daily ridership for Saturday – by 2 p.m. That’s before the rally ended, so I don’t know how many of those riders might have been people who left early.
We were very close to the TV satellite trucks – close enough to the CNN guy to hear his live shots – and the Mall was packed in front of us all the way to the stage, and packed behind us at least to the Smithsonian castle. People were up in the trees and spilling onto the streets near the museums as well. National Park Service will not do an official crowd count – they stopped that long ago because people gave them so much crap about it – but the count I’ve heard of possibly as many as 400,000 sounds reasonable.
@amazingme The wave was hilarious – we heard them starting it and it took at least a minute for it to reach where we were standing. The train song mashup with Ozzie, Yusuf and the O’Jays was my favorite part.
@johnpowell Fuck yeah Mythbusters!!!!
I had a fucking blast. The crowd stretched from the Capitol to the Monument and spread out around the Smithsonian buildings and further. Your article says around 200,000 people and I believe that is accurate as they had a helicopter circling which was used to get the number. I got on the metro at the beginning of the orange line and didn’t have any problems getting there. Also didn’t have any problems getting back on the metro, but we left from DC later that night. It was all worth it. Everyone was so nice and friendly, unlike how it usually is with these types of events. All ages attended. I was happy to see many faces of people over 50. My one complaint is I wish it had lasted even longer.
The signs were hilarious. One of my most favorites said “I’m with stupid” and had an arrow pointing towards god. lol4rl I’m an Atheist so I found this particularly clever. Several Muslims carried signs encouraging people to talk to them to see they aren’t terrorists. “Don’t jump to conclusions, jump rope with a Muslim” I hugged them. Another man had a sign stating he was a liberal homosexual who loved people and was offering free hugs; I hugged him too. A woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty asked people to sign a petition regarding military women and their right to an abortion; I signed. I had enlightening conversations with individuals and I enjoyed every aspect of being there.
Like Jon Stewart said while there, TURN THE CHANNEL OR TURN YOUR TV OFF. Seriously, people. Stop watching the lies.
I went. I could hear everything, but I couldn’t see* anything. I literally had to hang on to my friends’ clothing so I wouldn’t be separated from them, there were so many people.
And it was my first time in DC, too.
*I am very small.
@free_fallin Hey, I had my photo taken hugging the “liberal atheist with a militant gay agenda”!
@aprilsimnel Don’t feel bad – I’m close to 5–11 and I couldn’t see either. But, as a woman passing us said, “It doesn’t matter – I have to be here. This is EPIC.”
@perg You did?! HA. He was awesome.
@perg A moment to remember in pictures, I am sure. Did anyone get a photo being hugged by the guy in the Bear Suit with the sign saying “Free bear hugs.”?
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