Bear's Excellent Adventure--The 9/12 March on the Capitol!

The March on the Capitol

8:30 am we arrived at Freedom Plaza to begin the March on the Capitol, which was scheduled to begin at 11:30. As we left our cabs and walked toward the plaza a single random cab driver shouted, "Get out of town!" I didn't hear him. My sister did, however and reminded him that "It's our town too!"

The crowd was already thick at the Plaza and signs were in almost every hand. My feelings from the previous day would not allow me to be clever enough to make a sign the previous night. The others gathered in my room to make signs and visit. I uploaded my pictures and reflected.

As the crowd closed in around me I was again moved by the sheer volume of people who love their country and who are willing, at their own expense and investment of time, to make this demonstration of that affection and demand that our government return to constitutional principle. The signs were funny, thoughtful, reflective of frustration, etc. I was enjoying reading them as they circulated around. There was certainly anger at the present government's attempts to move our nation into socialism or fascism, yet there was a smile on almost every face. People were talking like old friends who hadn't seen one another for years. It was like a family reunion in many ways.

The word came through the crowd that it was time to start moving toward the Capitol Building and the crowd began to move onto the street. But the conversations and pleasant interactions continued. There were very few spectators on the sidewalks and the crowd was relatively quiet. Occasional chants would spring up and singing the National Anthem or other patriotic songs would move like a wave through the crowd.

I was enjoying the spectacle of it all, taking pictures and looking at some of the beautiful historic buildings that were passing in review before us. I noted that the Old Post Office where we had eaten the previous day bore the date of 1797 below the clock tower. We passed by the rear of the National Archives and I had the opportunity to reflect again upon the principles enshrined in our founding documents.

Foundational documents. Foundational principles. Fundamental truths and formative ideas that made this nation an exceptional nation. The principles that have allowed us to evaluate ourselves against those ideals and strive to correct and repair our wrongs. But now we have a president who pledged in the campaign to "fundamentally [transform] the United States of America!" The country, it seems, is now being led by people who are tired of debating what is best and allowing people to choose for themselves. They want to do away with the pesky dissent now that they are in power and in the process do away with those founding documents and principles that guarantee individual liberty. "Fundamental change," it seems to me, is foundational change. And we had come to the Capitol from all corners of the nation to let these people know we reject that approach. We reject the notion that America must become some other nation, that we must abandon our sovereignty and walk shoulder-shruggingly into socialism like sheep. No! Not now, not ever. Not ever.

In the middle of these thoughts I heard some voices cheering and shouting to "read that!" I looked up and noticed we were passing the Newseum, which bears a large panel with the First Amendment written on it, several stories high (note the opening picture).

We had been called ignorant, uninformed, Nazis, political terrorists, mobs, rioters, Brooks Bros. protesters, rednecks, inbreds and racists. But I looked around me and saw people literally of all ages, all races and walks of life. And again, it was striking how cheerful and friendly they all were! We're all passionate about our country and our liberty and gravely serious about the threats that face our nation from outside and within. Yet everyone retained their good humor and genuinely enjoyed the association with strangers for the entire day.

We made our way through a parking lot and onto the lawn of the Capitol Building. We found a spot in the shade, sat down and had some lunch and listened as best we could to some of the speakers. But mostly, we visited with people near us, people passing by. We compared signs and slogans and shared laughs. There were no arguments, no messes, no controlled substances and to my knowledge not a single arrest.

We passed by some Capitol Police Officers on the way in. They looked truly terrified (NOT!). They were friendly and polite and I noted several people chatted w/ them as movement ebbed and flowed through the gates. Later, I heard that the officers there were estimating the crowd size to be approximately 1.2-1.3 million people! I couldn't believe it. But when I accompanied my brother-in-law to the "porta-johns" I became convinced that they could be right! There were people as far the eye could see and there were still people moving into the area. One person we spoke with said the procession of people from Freedom Plaza to the Capitol lasted 31/2 hours! I learned that the march started early because the Plaza and, according to some, the other staging areas could not handle the gathering crowds necessitating an early start. It was overwhelming! While we were in line someone came by and announced that CNN reported about 70,000 people. A gentleman from Georgia that was near us said, "Seventy thousand, hell! There's that many here waiting for the bathroom!"
We slipped away before the rest of the crowd broke up. We spent the day catching up on news reports of the event, discussing what we'd seen, heard and felt and appreciating one another and the opportunity to be a part of it all. The full impact of this event has yet to be realized, I think. And I am certain that I will never forget it.

Now that it's over, however, there is much left to do to rescue our republic from the sneering, dismissive radicals in Washington working to "fundamentally transform" our nation. The sleeping giant is awakened. Now it needs to maintain focus and stay engaged.

Thanks to all who have visited this blog and provided feedback. I hope that I have been able to communicate in some small way the tremendously powerful and transformative experience this has been for me. More importantly, I hope that you have felt a touch of some of what I felt over this historic weekend, particularly, a renewed love for this exceptional nation--a love that transcends party and politics. The purpose of holding this event on 9/12 was an overt reference to the feelings we experienced on 9/12/2001 when everyone was still in shock over the attacks, but had turned to family, friends and nieghbors for comfort. People remembered what was important on that day. Since then, leftists have worked tirelessly to get us to forget those things and those feelings. We cannot forget. We must NEVER forget. We are Americans first, last and always.

I will close this narrative with George Washington's parting comments:

"Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare which can not end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger natural to that solicitude, urge me on an occasion like the present to offer to your solemn contemplation and to recommend to your frequent review some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appears to me all important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more freedom as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget as an encouragement to it your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion.

"Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.

"The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that from different causes and from different quarters much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth, as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

"For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations."

May God's choicest blessings always be with us all and may God continue to bless this great nation.