Here are some photos from the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. I think the best sign I saw (not pictured) was a guy carrying one that read, “Gay Muslim: I Will Blow You”.
I saw this dragon roll around moments after I walked out of the Archives-Navy Metro stop.
A few minutes later, I walked by the dragon while it was stopped. These guys got out and climbed up on a statue. Apparently, it was a Burning Man group. I’m not really sure what to make of it, but you can judge for yourself by watching this Washington Post video.
The First Amendment.
The Flying Spaghetti Monster! I saw a couple of guys dressed as The Noodly Master and saw some FSM signs, too.
My friend @brucefp snapped this photo. I scanned the QR Code with my Droid and found out what the sign was all about. 😉
Here is Janice and I at the big CFI/United Coalition of Reason/Humanist event after the rally at Lauriol Plaza. (Taken by @briandgregory).
When I got to the National Mall, I saw a massive amount of people as far as my eye could see. I’d turn and see even more people. There were many chances for something to have gone horribly wrong. People could’ve pushed and shoved and trampled all over each other. There were many moments where we were forced to walk like penguins. One person could’ve caused something terrible to happen, but I didn’t see that happen at all. I’ve been to big concerts that certainly didn’t have anywhere near the estimated 215,000 attendees and there were guys who took advantage of the situation by molesting me and other women. I didn’t have that happen at all and I didn’t hear about that happening to any males or females I know.
I didn’t witness anyone fighting – verbally or physically. I did hear some people debating things, but it never got heated. Everyone watched out for each other. A hot dude gave me half of his sandwich. A random woman let me use her cell phone since mine wasn’t getting any service. I didn’t ask; she just offered. Same with the hot sandwich dude. I saw tons of young people and tons of older people. I saw families go there and it seemed like the parents and kids all wanted to be there.
Even PETA didn’t cause any controversies. I didn’t fully agree with their message, but at least it wasn’t ridiculous. Someone was dressed in a smiling cow suit and waved to everyone while wearing some sign with some message about why we should all drink soy milk and leave the cows alone (I love soy milk, but I like cow milk, too. But at least they didn’t pour blood on anyone).
Several times throughout the day I overheard people saying, “This reminds me of when I was at Woodstock”. I obviously wasn’t at the original Woodstock, so I don’t know. But I do know that I’m glad that I attended. Sure, the view of the stage was better at home on TV, but I got the whole experience. I got to meet cool people. And the cameras couldn’t capture the energy that was there.
Oh, and The Roots were there. 🙂
You can view more photos in my Picasa album.