Reason Rally

More details: Brooke says that gender representation was about even in the crowd but she did notice that most of the speakers were men.

Some highlights: Tim Minchin, hilariously funny. I hope his segment goes up on YouTube. Brooke recorded it but there was an echo from the speakers in back of us so we don’t know how it will come out. Funniest bit: Minchin sang a song that consisted mostly of the word Motherf#%ker. He says it so many times, it just sounds like some rhythmic phoneme but the funniest thing was the cameraman cut away to the deaf translator who was trying desperately to keep up.

Update: we are back in Union Station, grabbing some pizza before we get on the bus.

I would definitely call this rally a huge success. We have a lot of pictures. My traveling companion took some video as well, which we hope to upload when we get home. There were something like 20,000+ people crammed into the end of the Mall near the Washington Monument. The rally had also put up several tents. One of them was for the many secular organizations that had a presence. The line to get into it was really long and the tent was packed inside. I got to meet Jerry DeWitt. Nice guy.

The highlight was Richard Dawkins. He speech was all about the first amendment and the preservation of the separation of church and state. He contrasted this constitutional guarantee in this country with his own. Great Britain does not have such a guarantee or even a constitution. His perspective made me think about how America was letting the rest of the world down. Excellent speech. I took it to heart.

My dining companion says I must stop blogging now. I’ll try to catch up on the bus.

Hi everyone,
We caught the bus at 5 am this morning. That means we were up at 3. My traveling companion took the seat next to the window, left me falling asleep and then jerking my head every two minutes. We rolled into Union Station at 9. The bus was full. After my traveling companion got a breakfast burrito, AND a drink, AND used the bathroom, we headed off to the Mall. Walking.

Should’ve taken the Metro. I’m hot and sweaty. Weather is holding up nicely. There’s a large crowd. The rally just started.

Will be posting off and on and maybe my photo stream will even work. A girl can dream.

Come to the dark side…we have cookies.