VAABUS

Originally posted 10/31/2010

I am 55 and I hate crowds. Can’t be in a crowd. Went to a game once – Manchester United vs Liverpool – left in a panic long before it was over. But when I learned about Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity and Stephen Colbert’s March to Keep Fear Alive in Washington D.C. on Saturday, I decided to take my chances. I suddenly felt it was the right thing to do, to crawl out of my hole once in a while.

Three hours of concentrated satire, comedy, and performers like The Roots, Kid Rock, Ozzie Osbourne… The WOW factor was huge but the crowds turned out to be overwhelming. Most of the rally-goers were in their late thirties, many with kids. The mood was cheerful and uplifting – probably similar to another event on another day when people on the other side of Atlantic got together to see the Berlin Wall go down. Yes, I believe that was what Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were trying to do tearing down walls of prejudice, narrow-mindedness, animosity.

The event drew almost 250,000 people to the National Mall – too bad the organizers failed to do their job properly. I couldn’t see or hear anything being maybe 500 yards from the stage, so I concentrated on people and their signs around me.