It's much later here than it is there

And I'm beat but wow today was awesome. I'm not going to go into too much detail about it all because you can read all about it on the We're Rolling Out blog. Just a couple of things I'm going to point out.

Lincoln's birthplace was cool, but under construction so we couldn't get into the whole thing. I'm starting to realize that I might have to come back to a number of these places once they're done going through all the stimulus funds they received.

Mammoth Caves!!!! I'd highly recommend this place. It was amazing how you'd go from rooms larger than most gymnasiums to holes that I could barely fit through. We did the Historic Tour, but it sounds like the New Entrance Tour is even more spectacular.

Okay so it's late here. I need to get some sleep. If you haven't notice I've been using twitter a lot during this trip. Pretty much any major thing we do that I still have cell coverage for I'm trying to send in a quick pic or at least a blurb.

Can't wait for tomorrow. It should be the most relaxed day of the trip so far. All we have to do is get across Missouri. Well, unless we decide to add some points in Nebraska, and I think we might. I'll keep y'all posted.

A speck of blue in a sea of red

So over this past weekend I had the opportunity to attend Glen Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally in Washington DC. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt more out of place in my life. However it did give me a new insight into the motive force behind the conservative movement sweeping across America.

There has been a wide variance in the estimated number of people attending the rally. One source said 75-95K, Beck claimed 600K, one law maker said a million plus. However based on what I saw I’d have to say that 300K is a solid estimate. It was definitely more than 100K and definitely less than 500K.

***I have a picture to go here but the wifi is shit at this hotel***

The list of speeches varied much more than those in attendance. It included the likes of Sarah Palin, Dr Alveda King, and of course Beck himself. In all honesty it was extremely difficult to hear most of the speakers. The shear number of people prevented us from getting too close and while it was being broadcast on loud speakers it was still hard to pick up everything due to the constant murmur of people. What I picked up from Palin’s speech was all about honoring various military personnel, clumsily at that. King said a few things to honor her uncle, Martin Luther King Jr (it was the anniversary of his "I have a dream" speech too).

The highlight for me actually was Beck. As much as I couldn’t help but question the hypocritical statements he was making, he is a good speaker to a large crowd. It wasn’t like when he’s on television and acting over the top and emotional. He came across as sincerely human and passionate about his cause. That being said it was also littered with buzz words like “honor”, “hope”, and “charity”. In many ways it could have been taken straight out of Obama’s 08 campaign save a few details. Even down to the artwork designed:

***I have a picture to add here***

Now the real surprise to me was the people in the crowd. Everything that I’ve seen through various media outlets has made the tea party out to be a bunch of lunatics and this being billed by the media as a tea party event, I expected the worst. I was pleased to see that that wasn’t the case.

Everyone seemed to be extremely happy. As my sister put it to me when she went down the night before, “All of the people here are like crazy happy. Like they’re all on Prozac or something.” And she was dead on, with one exception. Everyone seemed to be genuinely happy, not like a drug induced euphoria, but actually happy about who they are and what they’re doing. I have to applaud that.

The other thing that I noticed was a distinct lack of signage. Apparently Beck told everyone to leave their signs at home in hopes of having it be non partisan. This was actually take to heart by the vast majority of people there. I think I only saw about 5 signs the whole time. Lots of “Don’t Tread on Me” flags, but very few signs.

***Picture***

I also have to say that, while it was a vastly white crowd, I didn’t notice any outward racism from anyone, despite media claims of rampant racism within the tea party. Now I have seen a picture or two or someone with an inappropriate shirt or slogan, but I have to say this was by far the exception and not the rule. The only signs of racism that I noticed during the event actually occurred on stage. Do not for a moment think that the diversity that existed amongst the speakers represented the diversity in the crowd. Minorities probably represented about 1% of the total people in attendance. It’s unfortunate because in the end the speaking list seemed to be established as a preemptive move to dismiss any calls of racism, when in actuality they very likely had set up their own version of affirmative action in order to achieve the dynamic that they did. Now you have some people coming out and accusing the minorities that participated of being “uncle Tom’s”.

I’m not sure how I feel about that. Because I don’t think that any of them had to “sell out” in order to participate in the rally, since it was more about Christian values than it was about politics.

What I will say is that it seemed like they went out of their way to make sure to include minorities as much as possible on stage while there were very few in attendance.

That kind of brings me to my final points. This rally was more about propagating Judea-Christian beliefs than anything else. Over all when it came to political partisanship it was essentially inert. They talked a lot about helping your fellow man and the rights of the individual; about how one man has the power to change the world and that each and every one of us is that one man. So on and so forth.

***Picture***

In the end it seemed like Beck came out well prepared, with his emotions in check, and a clear head, which is a far cry from his regular performances. The people seemed to be pleasant with only hints of fanaticism and ignorance. I was completely out of place the whole time, expecting the worst and getting the best. 

Airport Idling

So my part in this journey is about to take off. Literally. I'm waiting for my flight to leave Sea-Tac. It's a bit strange. This is the first red eye flight I've ever taken that is going to be filled to capacity, or so they say.I think I have to believe them because the gate is littered with people. Hopefully I can still get some sleep on the plane, but I'm beginning to realize that might not happen, which could lead to a very interesting day tomorrow. I started this morning at 6:30 so I'm already starting to fade a little.

Its fairly apparent that the majority of the people I'm waiting with are also going to this Beck rally tomorrow, and if I'm right this isn't a good sign about tomorrow. Right now there are 5 different middle aged women staring at me while every once in a while they'll murmur something to their husband. I'm definitely not "one of them" and they are as aware of it as I am. 

Props to NESF for watching over the toms and Swirly for hosting a lil pre-flight pre-funk. Oh yeah! Swirly also hooked it up with a digital camcorder device! Expect lots of video. Probably starting with the of Evan telling a very humorous story about studio life. 

I should also point out that I had no problems at all getting through security. The brother-in-law was convinced I'd get a full strip search; single guy flying one way to DC without any luggage, I guess it could happen. But it didn't. Looks like we're starting to board. We'll see if they have free wifi in Baltimore or on the train to DC. If not it might be tomorrow night before my text post. However keep an eye on the twitter feed as I'll be posted pics of the rally there until I can do a proper post.

Okay now I'm about to go cause a scene. This stupid bitch is not only staring at me but whenever I look up she gives me this horrid look. Imagine the look a dog has right after it vomits but before it decides to eat the vomit. So I send back the stink eye and her husband start muggin'. There is actually one comical point about the whole scenario. Their son seems to be hating his life at the moment and realized this little back and forth between his parents and I. He rolled his eyes back back into his skull and shook his head. We're on the same page. I'm going to wrap this up now and walk around the terminal.

Are we there yet?

This is a question I'm going to be asking myself all week long. I just have to make it till Friday and then I'm off for 10 days!!! As many of you already know I'm going to be going on this road trip across America. The trip actually started on Saturday when Pops and Sis took off for DC. Saturday morning I'll be meeting them in the nation's capitol and then we're off to a Glenn Beck rally.

Yeah I know. I'm seriously going to this. I'm a firm believer that if you want to despise something you should actually know what it is. It was for this very reason that I watched or read GW's state of the union every year. And it's the same reason I'm going to the Restoring Honor rally. Well that and my dad really wanted to go. So since I'm going to be there I'm going for total coverage! When it's all said and done I'll give you an in depth analysis of what I saw.

And in the end the rally is only half of a day out of 9. There are a lot of things I'm excited to see and I'll be sure to get pictures for all of you. However for the time being you can all check out the road trip progress at We're Rolling Out!