Our Beckbullpalooza Journal, or "I See White People!"

8 am - We went down to DC today to see the Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” gathering on the mall. Here's our travelogue. We arrived at the New Carrolton Metro station at about 7:45 am, thinking to catch a train at 8 and after about a half hour ride and a 15 minute walk be on the mall before 9, well ahead of the 10 am start time.

Well, when we got there, an amazing number of white people were already ahead of us and standing in line, which extended about 3 city blocks equivalent. We called it the “Lipitor Line-up” and the elderly were rolling around their coolers full of Ensure in wheel chairs. More white people were arriving in bus after bus after bus. By 8:30 at least a dozen busses, dropping off hundreds of white people. 100% of people getting off the buses were white. People were wearing the Beck "Restoring Honor" T-shirts and other Tea Party slogans. A little girl had a T that said "Born in the USA" - a birther. Red white and blue garb everywhere.

9 am - still not in the metro, but getting close. An African American man comes out of the metro half-shouting "Support Your President." He looked a little mad. A small group of African American men watches without comment as we go in. What could they be thinking? Two guys behind us, one with Sean Hannity-like hair, spew hatred on Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and surprisingly, Republican congressmen ("Throw em all out"). On the train, a big bald guy with an army fatigue colored hat who somehow reminds us of a bald eagle chats pleasantly with the only African American woman in sight. They discuss which is better, metro or bus. He is unfailingly polite to her, calling her ma'm. (They both agree the metro is better.)

Speaking of that...first African American Tea Partier spotted!

He had Reagan buttons!

10 am - off the metro, walking to the site, we pass street hucksters selling every manner of Tea Party knicknacks while other groups of like-dressed people pass out antigovernment literature. "Don't tread on me Obama, don't do it," says one black salesman (he sold $5 flags).


We are handed a pamphlet that looks like a Dr. Suess knockoff called "The New Democrat" which features a cartoon Obama drawn like the Cat in the Hat, with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid as Thing 1 and 2, while Glenn Beck's head rises out of a Teapot to challenge them.  We heard snippets of a conversation behind us where the word "weapons" is repeated 3 times in a few seconds. We pass by people spouting bible phrases. We overheard two female Glenn Beck fans complaining that he cries too much.

As we enter the area by the Lincoln Memorial, a group of counter protesters hold up signs claiming the Tea Party is racist and asking us to turn back. People openly laugh at them or mock them ("Isn't it time for you people to go home," one person said). As we approach the Memorial, armed SWAT-team looking guys can be seen with rifles on the roof, peering around with binoculars. Thousands of people are ahead of us, sitting on the steps, in the grassy areas. Every speck of shade has people sitting in it. There are 10s of thousands of people here. We can hear garbled voices in the distance speaking over a PA system.

11 am - we wander around, trying to find the stage, but no luck. We don't even get a glimpse. There are too many people.  We up our estimate to at least 100,000. We hear Sarah Palin's voice but can't make out any words. Thousands of people are around us at all times who can't hear her either. It doesn't seem to bother them. People are walking all over the place in every direction, perhaps with the same idea we had, of catching a glimpse. We make an effort to penetrate the crowd, trailing three teenage girls who seem to have a magic ability to get people ahead of them to move out of the way. They get us a hundred feet further in than we could have gotten, but then they too are stopped - the press of people is too much even for their magic. We all turn around. As we circle around the perimeter looking for a way in, we see a black family of 4 sitting on the lawn, the only such group we saw the whole day. What was their story?!?

Probably had to work for scale too!

We stop to sip some water and overhear a guy on a cell phone utter the line of the day -

"Washington DC hasn't seen this many white people since 1776." 

Ben Franklin agrees!

When he sees us laughing, he repeats it, louder, so we can write it in the little reporter's notebook we brought along. We hear bits and pieces of the speeches as we wander around - a military man says "Honor is a sweet wind," and speaks of Martin Luther King Jr. and the "Great Brotherhood of Christ." Between speakers, eerie sounding recorded voices speak messages, interspersed with snippets of "Fanfare for the Common Man," by Aaron Copland. The tenor of the speeches (over creepy background music) is religious in a brainwash-you, Jim Jones kind of way (where’s the Kool-aid?).

YUM!!

12 pm – lunch (cold beer)



1 pm – Before we get on the train we see two little African American girls ask to pose for a photo two of Glenn’s t-shirt clad followers like they were celebrities or carnival freaks. We’re not sure what the girls' aim was. The Tea Party couple graciously complied. On the train on the way back, we overhear returning Tea Partiers discussing the rally. They seem to all think the speeches were great, but are not sure if anything is going to come of it all.

Jesus is okay with it.

Several of them mentioned not being able to hear very well. There's a clear Christian bent to the discussion, "The Lord" and "Christ" are mentioned several times (sorry, Allah).

Interesting charter choice.

One person says the company that bussed him in had 1,100 busses, and he knew of another company that had 1,600.

The day ended rather funnily we thought, with their last comments being about Beck's final speech, which he had previously talked up on TV as going to be a "miracle." Neither of them stayed to hear it, as they wanted to get out ahead of the crowd. No "miracle" could top the pleasure of getting to the restaurant ahead of everyone else!

Posted by: Laurie B. & GMan

(CLICK HERE FOR OUR SLIDE-SHOW OF BECK'S NON-POLITICAL RALLY!)

Photo Credit: AP

Click Here for Sarah Palin's latest complete shriek.

We'll sum it up for you, "Moms, America, Freedom,  Jesus, MLK (repeat)."

Organizations we encountered that were represented included:

http://www.obamaparody.com/
http://www.under-dogma.com/
http://www.reformation.org/
http://www.exposeobama.com/