The more I read about people who wound up too far back to see or hear anything, the more pleased I am that I was close enough to catch (admittedly not very helpful) glimpses of the stage while being directly in front of one of the giant screens and speakers so that I could see and hear everything. While waiting for it to start, it was pretty much impossible to get a sense of how many people were there. A few times I held up my camera and snapped a picture pointing back towards the Washington Monument trying to see what the crowd was like.
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| The crowd behind me at about 11:00am |
We stood there for a solid two hours while a recap of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report leading up to the Rally played on the jumbotrons along with musical segments from both shows and some trivia type things. I was particularly happy when Colbert's epic 'Remixing is Okay' video came on. A huge part of the experience was just looking around for the signs people were carrying. Some of the best ones from where I was were:
"Palin/Voldemort 2012"
"Pizza is Delicious."
"Make Awkward Sexual Advances, not war."
Although I think my favourite was this one:
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| REAL AMERICA: It is everywhere! |
Finally, a countdown to the rally appeared with 2 minutes to go, but the screen cut out with about 30 seconds to go. It was kind of odd, everyone was waiting to countdown to the moment of sanity restoration, (and some nobly tried anyways) but the countdown disappeared before we could all freak out for freedom together.
The pacing was a little strange, especially at the beginning. Half an hour of not particularly engaging musical performances probably not the best choice. The Mythbuster segment was better, as it engaged and united the crowd. At least the part of the crowd that could hear the instructions. Throughout that segment the chant of "LOUDER! LOUDER!" kept working it's way from the back of the crowd towards us, which was the first indication that there were more people here than could hear what was going on. But still, it was much more efficient at uniting the crowd as a crowd (ever jumped up and down at the same time as 150000-250000 people? It's delightfully bizarre). I'd wanted to see the crowd do the wave and it happened, so I was very happy.
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| The wave |
It wasn't until the Rally started that the screens showed shots of the crowd. The first of the shots of the crowd gave us the first real sense of scale. It was pretty awesome to hear everyone around me reacting to the first views of SO. MANY. PEOPLE.
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| My first real sense of the crowd size (although I still had no idea the crowd wasn't just on the Mall.) |
Finally Jon Stewart appeared on stage and the crowd went a reasonable amount of crazy. I was super grateful for the jumbotron at this point. I was less grateful for the 6 foot 3 man who was standing in front of me. Then Stephen Colbert arrived from his Fear Bunker (in pants that cracked me up every time they appeared on screen) and the Restoring Sanity/Fear contradiction was up and running.
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| Awesome view was awesome. |
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| But seriously though, it wasn't a bad place to be at all. |
The rally itself was pretty darn awesome. It was most entertaining when Jon Stewart couldn't quite hold it together. When Colbert and the guitarist had a little difficulty starting a song at the same time, Jon Stewart started laughing, and never fully recovered as he gamely launched into his half of the duet. By the time Stewart and Colbert (at this time wearing matching american flag polar fleece sweaters) finished their song Stewart apologized through his giggles for making us listen to him sing saying that it wouldn't happen again and that "It worked in rehearsal".
The overall tone of the rally moved from ridiculous towards sincerity. By the time Colbert, his fear-based news montages and his giant fear puppet were defeated by John Oliver in a Peter Pan costume and the crowd cheering, it was time for Jon Stewart to address the crowd. He spoke about the importance of the little every day compromises that we all make, using traffic merging to highlight that Americans who disagree with each other get shit done every day. The strongest statements that were made were those made against the mainstream news media and its endless focus on fear and extreme personalities.
"When we amplify everything, we hear nothing." -Jon Stewart
His speech is absolutely worth 12 minutes of your life. Watch it.
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