Wow! I don’t know where to start. The last 48 hours have left me filled with so many emotions. It was amazing to be a part of history yesterday at the March for Justice and the experience has left me with renewed faith that we are well on our way to restoring truth, honor and integrity as the cornerstones of our government and society. It was my privilege to have been surrounded by so many patriotic Americans.
For me, the weekend began with a trip into the city Friday night to be a part of the festivities at the Premier. The atmosphere was one of mildly controlled excitement. You could just tell everyone was totally psyched to be on the Mall the next day raising h*ll. When I arrived, the hotel lobby was packed with freepers milling about in conversation, each one wearing a nametag listing their online moniker. The first freeper I met that night was Exit148. We had had an online conversation earlier in the week where I learned that she lives in New Jersey, the same state where I was born and raised. (For those who don’t know, it’s a joke amongst those from New Jersey that we always identify where we live in the state by specifying our “Exit #” off the Garden State Parkway.) After speaking with her for a few minutes I learned that the volunteer suite was up on the 7th floor.
Up on the 7th floor, I met A Navy Vet, Jolly, FirstTimer and Seeking the Truth. ANV, Jolly and FirstTimer were part of the huge effort to put this event together so I was grateful for the chance to meet them in person where I could thank them and shake their hands. A Navy Vet has been very supportive of my protest efforts at the White House and it was great to personally tell him of my appreciation for his kind words. Seeking the Truth and I had been communicating on and off via email for almost six weeks. When I first posted on the Activism forum to say I was going down to protest at the White House if anybody wanted to join me, he was the first freeper to contact me via email with words of encouragement. (He’s also the gentleman who won a Free Republic Purple Heart on Saturday for having the distinct honor of being the first freeper to have been attacked, while protesting, by a Clinton supporter.) It was great to finally meet him and shake his hand.
I spent the rest of the evening in the lobby mingling and later on joined everybody outside to meet and greet the New England convoy. During the evening I met Mustang, Peter Kessler, Tinman, Mrs. Tinman, Fred Mertz, Grrrrr, TechnoBeck, Yaya123, Frank Butash, Kristinn, CaL, BobJ and of course, the man himself, JimRob. The most amazing aspect of every new freeper introduction was how the friendship that seemed to immediately spring forth between us was one that seemed to have always existed. If there is a freeper gathering occurring in your area, I strongly urge you to attend. You won’t be disappointed. I eventually caught the metro back to the ‘burbs to rest up for the big day.
Saturday, October 31st,
The March for Justice
I drove into Washington for the big event and ended up parking relatively close to the White House. As such, I decided to swing by the Lion’s Den to see if there were any early morning freepers there. I recognized Libloather, a participant from our October 3rd White House protest, who is prominently featured in the March for Justice banners found on FR, as I was approaching. We spent a few minutes chatting about old times and then I moved on to the mall, the site of our history-making event.
By the time I got there it was about 8:30AM and a small crowd of volunteers had gathered. By 9:00AM, we not only had more people than the anti-Starr rally last weekend, we had more flags than they had people. Let me say that again. It’s three hours away from the start of our rally and we already had more flags than they had people. There’s no denying it, we’re good. Real good.
As the morning wore on, one of the most exciting spectacles was all the people walking towards the event. Every time you took a look towards the Washington monument you’d see crowds of people with signs and banners walking toward the stage. It was great. They were like ants. Before the start of the event I’d run into just about every freeper who was at our October 3rd White House protest including lancer, Jack Aubrey, Marylander, Kathy, Aloyce, Siouxz, Chris P. and two guys from NJ (I’m sorry guys, your online moniker’s fail me). I also met Highlander with his impressive “Impeach One for the Gipper” signs. (When I left the post-rally party, I took his signs with me and promised to try and restore them for a subsequent visit to a White House protest.)
The highlight of the day were the speeches. They were amazing. I have to admit that I’m one of those people who is so filled with emotion that sometimes an inspiring rendition of the national anthem at a sporting event can bring me to tears. I lost count of how many times that happened during the March. Hearing the words from the speakers on stage, coupled with the cheers from the crowd, were just too much to handle on several occassions. I was filled with such a sense of joy and pride to be among all of you and to finally witness people taking a stand against the crisis we are facing. (You know, I’ve been telling my family for a couple of years now that I’m thinking about moving to a cave to get away from our dysfunctional society. It’s sort of a joke but I get no joy from being around the general public anymore. I feel as if I’m surrounded by those from the polls who support Clinton and it disgusts me. Not so yesterday.)
It’s hard to pick a favorite speaker but I was literally amazed by Rejoice. If you thought her speech at the March was good, I wish you could’ve heard the words she spoke at the post-rally party. She is truly a gifted person with a wonderful message. I was also impressed, as always, with Bob Barr and Ambassador Keyes. I think it’s an example of the worthiness of our cause (not to mention the hard work of CaL and the other organizers) that we were able to arrange such a fine lineup of speakers.
As the rally was breaking up, Tinman told me he and some other freepers were going up to the White House to say hello to Clinton freeper-style and asked me to join them. Now the protests we’ve held thus far at the White House were successful but low key. We simply held our signs and marched back and forth interacting with tourists on occasion. This time was anything but low key. BettyBoop led us through several different protest chats and we made a lot of noise. The crowd of tourists just stood around and watched us in awe. It was great. We shouted “Fire the Liar”, “Jail to the Chief” and many other slogans. It was another freeper moment for the archives.
At the post-party rally, I was able to put faces to names for LurkerNoMore, Normally a Lurker and Curmudgeon. While there, Submareener was logged into FR from his laptop and was reading us some of the latest posts interjecting his own playful commentary once in a while. It was a nice opportunity to sit back and talk as a group about our feelings on the event and what we thought we should do next. I left earlier than I wanted to at around 9:30AM but I was simply too tired to stay any longer. (It’s hard work being a burr in Clinton’s behind.) I left knowing the world is a slightly better place because of what we did and knowing that I had a lot of new friends, who thanks to the FR and the ‘net, I’d be able to talk to everyday.
A big hearty thank you goes out to everybody involved in organizing the March for Justice!
Saturday, November 7th,
The Next White House Protest
To those who don’t know me yet, I’m one of the freepers local to the Washington, DC area that has been organizing mini-protests (well, they’re mini when compared to the March for Justice) at the White House for the past several weeks. I’ve been doing this on Saturday mornings when I don’t already have a prior commitment. So far the DC area freepers have protested in front of the White House on September 26th, October 3rd and October 24th. The next one is scheduled for November 7th. If you live in the DC area and are interested in helping to keep the Free Republic message of truth, honor and integrity in government alive, please plan to attend. I haven’t settled on the time window for the 7th yet but previous protests have lasted no longer than 4 hours and have occurred somewhere between 8AM-2PM. Check the Activism forum for details. I’ll have a thread started within the next couple of days. For the 7th, I plan to unveil a new protest sign with the following slogan:
IMPEACH OR I’LL BRING BACK THE FREEPERS!!!!!!