Taking it Down a Notch. For America.

Did I ever tell you about the time I saw Cat Stevens perform with Ozzy Osborne and the O'Jays? No, of course not, because that happened last October and until recently I hadn't posted in approximately 583.2 months.

Perhaps you heard about Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity (and Stephen Colbert's competing rally).

It took place on October 30, 2010. They first announced it about a month before, and I'm telling you, it was DESTINY that I go to this rally. I rarely watch the Daily Show when it's on at 10 pm because I'm an old person who is usually asleep by then. But that night, completely randomly, I happened to catch the show, and what do you know, they announced their rally, which I knew immediately that I must attend. Destiny.

Like I said, I knew I was going. And the ironic part is that, after explaining that the purpose of the rally was for moderates and reasonable people to get together and demonstrate their reasonableness, Jon Stewart said something like, "Now, you may be asking yourself, "Am I the kind of person who should go to this rally? Well, the mere fact that you stopped to ask yourself that means you are." Mike said I'm in the OTHER camp. The crazy one. Oh well.

So it seems like a lot of people felt that the rally was intended to make fun of conservatives/tea baggers for all their protests. And while some people who attended the rally DID make fun of those people, that was not the purpose according to Jon Stewart. The purpose was for moderate and/or "reasonable" people (aka people who know that the world is not coming to an end) to get together in solidarity. To show that the country is not always thinking in terms of left vs. right, us vs. them. That we all live and work together every day. And (as always, with the Daily Show and the Colbert Report) to criticize the media for its ineptitude and perpetuation of fear. That's what Jon Stewart talked about in his speech, anyway, although he conceded that the purpose of the rally seemed different for everyone. Even though I chuckled at some of the anti-tea bagger signs, I personally do not condone that stuff for the rally. I think it just perpetuates the Us vs. Them problem that this country seems to have. "Take it down a notch, for America!" I just wanted to talk about that a little before I describe the trip.

So we went to the rally. Me, Mike, Luke, Rithy, and Amy. It was like a high school reunion! We flew down on Friday morning, thinking we would check into the hotel, do some sightseeing, then meet our high school friend Dave (who lives in DC) for dinner. On Saturday, we planned to sight-see in the morning, then go to the rally at noon, then sight-see afterward. HAAHAA. When I look back at our "plan" for our trip, all I can do is laugh.

So we fly down there and check into the hotel. Our hotel was pretty far from downtown, so we had to take a shuttle to the airport, then take a bus to the subway stop, then take the subway to get downtown. During rush hour. On a Friday. I complain(ed) about Chicago's public transportation constantly, and let me say that I have found a city whose public transport is worse. This makes me wonder about New York's, because the Daily Show kept talking about how nice the subway was in DC...Anyway, it took us FOREVER to get downtown, so no sight-seeing that day. Luckily we still met up with our old friend Dave for dinner and drinks.

On Saturday morning I learned a valuable life lesson: do not go to rallies hungover. MISTAKE. Oh well.

Our hotel was housing a lot of people who were going to the rally, and we bumped into a few at breakfast. One woman with no hair was there celebrating the end of her chemotherapy. Lots of people had rally buttons or T-shirts. After breakfast we decided to forgo the 36 steps required to get to the subway and just take a taxi.

Holy Moses, were there a lot of people at the subway! We were the very first stop of the westernmost line, and we were extremely lucky because I am not sure that anyone else on that line got on the subway between our stop and the stop nearest the rally. There were people EVERYWHERE. Luckily it was somewhat organized inside the station, and there were several tables of people selling tickets quickly so you didn't have to wait for the 916 out-of-towners in front of you to buy their tickets from a confusing machine.

We were also very lucky to get seats on the subway, because soon after that it was completely STUFFED.

But the subway ride was really really fun. Since everyone on the train was there for the same reason, there was a strong sense of camaraderie. Everyone was really happy and friendly--two things you rarely experience on a subway train. Parts of the subway line follow the highway, and we waved at people in their cars (who clearly were also going to the rally) and they honked and waved back. I haven't felt that kind of togetherness with so many people in a long time! Maybe marching band...? Nerdy, I know.

So the rally took place at the National Mall, between the Capitol and Washington Monument. We walked with the hordes of people to the rally, seeing a "Free Hugs" guy on the way and taking advantage of that.

We walked through crowds and crowds of people until we couldn't go any further. Everyone was on top of each other, and even though we got there an hour early, we were really REALLY far away from the stage. Luckily they had JumboTrons all the way down the Mall. It was also a bad day to be 5'3", since even when I stood on my toes I sometimes could not see the JumboTron. But besides being too short and hungover, it was really awesome. There were lots of young people but there were a lot of old people too, which is nice to see. They were smart and brought lawn chairs.

Before the show started, they had the MythBusters guys do some experiments with us. For instance, they counted down to 1 and had everyone jump at the same time. They had a seismologist there to measure whether the force of all those people jumping would register on the scale. I don't think it did--but it was pretty awesome/terrifying being part of it. You could definitely feel the ground shake and could hear a really loud boom. They also had us do a wave, measuring how long it would take to get from the front to the back, and had us do different sounds like cheek pops. It was fun.

The opening act was The Roots and John Legend (who I love!), but I was too excited to see Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to care. I was like, "Hurry up, John Legend. I want to see Jon Stewart." And of course, they finally came, and it was awesome.

One of the best parts of the rally was when Cat Stevens came out and sang "Peace Train." He represented the Rally to Restore Sanity--the rally for reasonable people who want to live in harmony with people who disagree with them. Then Stephen Colbert interrupted him and brought out Ozzy Osbourne singing Crazy Train, who represented the March to Keep Fear Alive--the rally for people who want to perpetuate fear and division. Then a discussion ensued between Jon and Stephen about how they could compromise, ultimately with the O'Jays coming out and singing "Love Train." It was fantastic. If only actual politicians were capable of the same reasonable discussions and compromises!

Another great part was Sam Waterston from Law and Order reading "The Greatest Poem Ever Written" by Stephen Colbert entitled, "Are You Sure?" Its purpose was to satirize the media's method of creating fear. Since the media ticks me off even more than politicians do, I appreciated this type of satire. Plus, in true Stephen Colbert fashion, it had to end with a reference to being killed by a bear. I think the silliness of Stephen Colbert really balances out the anger of Jon Stewart.

And, of course, Jon Stewart's stellar speech. "We live now in hard times, not end times." Amen.

There were lots of funny signs at the rally too, of course. I liked the ones that Jon Stewart recommended, like "9/11 was an outside job" (referring to people who think Bush allowed the attacks to happen) and "I disagree with you but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler" and "I'm not afraid of Muslims/Immigrants/Gun Owners/Tea Partiers/Gays...but I am afraid of spiders." I also saw one that said, "When you make a rally sign, remember to leave enough sp" and another that said, "Not Penny's boat" (a LOST reference). Near where we were standing, there was, "Eff it, dude, let's go bowling" and my favorite--"Obama, bring back Arrested Development!" Seriously, how is health care more important than that?

The rally was about three or four hours long and leaving was quite an adventure. I was pretty sure I was going to die, there were so many people in every direction. There was basically a mass exodus into the city.

The streets were closed and there was just a flood of people everywhere.

Some people had climbed trees during the rally and were directing us where to go. But there really was no good way to go. It was a sea of people in every direction.

Some people were climbing stop lights. That's not very sane or reasonable...

That night we went to Georgetown for dinner and wandered around the city for a little while, stopping by the Lincoln Memorial and White House. We were EXHAUSTED so we went to bed kind of early. It was funny walking around that night, though, because you could immediately tell who had been to the rally by the fact that they were sunburned on just one side of their face (from standing in one spot for so long).

The next day (Halloween!) we flew back home. It was a quick trip and we didn't get nearly as much sight-seeing in as we expected, but we got to see our old friend Dave and got to go to the greatest rally ever. It was a blast and I'm so glad there's SOMEONE on TV who can point out the absurdities in our political system and the media. If it weren't for Jon Stewart I would truly go insane.