. . .of much needed change.
We started our journey to the Barack Obama and his family, and Bruce Springsteen, rally at 1:00pm at the third most easterly stop on RTA’s Blue Line. The gates were to open at 2:00pm and it usually takes 30 minutes to get downtown if you get on the train right away. However, the train was at least 45 minutes late and our total wait was an hour-and-a-quarter. So it was that the crowd at the RTA stop grew from twenty to–probably–well over a hundred. A bus was sent to take some downtown. We waited. The train was crowded and full of joyous ‘socialists!’
Our full train let out its passengers at Tower City where we all joined the growing crowd. Making our way across Public Square, we found a friend and joined her in the line leading to the two outdoor malls where the rally was to take place. It became clear at this point that this was going to be a rally of uncertain but very large size. Soon enough we were directed away from the line headed to the main, prime site. In other words joined the overflow. In this picture you can see the huge Obama puppet.
It’s impossible to show the true size of the crowd from within its midst. We situated ourselves on the south side of Lakeside, about 150 yards from the podium.
I took these shots by holding the camera at arm’s length above my head.
Where we stood (for three hours) ‘our’ people mostly seemed to be 30-60 years of age, and there were lots of young kids.
Although almost an hour passed between when the first round of speakers spoke and the appearance of Bruce Springsteen, the jovial mood of the crowd and its growing size inspired my patience. I had not been a member of a political crowd this size since the round of peace marches in Washington in 1971.
The Boss is so much the bearer of the flame of Woody Guthrie–he is our Woody Guthrie. Amidst the jejune rhetoric expressed in the rightward fear of socialism, it was a highpoint for me to hear Springsteen’s freedom songs. He nailed it.
I don’t know how Barack Obama will face down the problems of our time. But, I strongly value intelligence, the ability to develop a robust and accurate view of the system (or problem) at hand, and, above all, the ability to smartly criticize one’s own perspectives and analysis. It is in fact rare that a candidate for President is so smart and so sophisticated.
My simple wish is that he roll back the Constitution’s slide and be the greatest President since FDR.
My second closest friend Holly and Susan, my closest friend and better half.
