The rally was a monumental event...kind of like the Great Atlanta Pop Festival of 1970 but without the drugs. The crowd was huge...some say over 200,000...and they were sane. There was no wild screaming and irrational rhetoric. Except for the police it didn't appear that the crowd was wearing their Second Amendment rights anywhere on their persons. There was no need. This was a peaceful, intelligent event. Somewhat a novelty on the grounds of the National Mall of late.
An early arrival
One of the aspects of the Rally to Restore Sanity that impressed us the most was the diversity of the crowd. As Jon Stewart pointed out, the participants were a representative cross section of America. People of all ethnic and religious persuasions were present and we all got along with one another. There was no Bible thumping hypocrisy or Tea-Bagger bloviating. There was no Glenn Beck stupidity or hate-mongering, either.
The size of the crowd was also impressive. For a sense of how large a crowd was in attendance, a wave was suggested. The wave started at the stage and worked its way to the very last row of people. The wave was timed. It took the wave 56 seconds to move from the front to the back. If you look closely at this video clip as the wave goes past and the camera turns, look at the lower left of your screen. See the white haired guy and the woman to the left with the brown jacket...well, that's us.
Sometimes pictures speak louder than words, so allow me to share some more of mine. (Click on a picture to enlarge)
FOX, the Invent the News, Network took hits
A representative from Tampa
This was a very popular activity
Whether the Rally to Restore Sanity accomplished anything for the long term remains to be seen. What it did accomplish for the "now" was to show the world that not all Americans are ignorant, paranoid, hate-filled lunatics. If the participants are truly representative of America, then the majority of us are reasonable.
Of course, the elections today could prove me wrong.
The recent elections are the definitive proof of the two rallies and their effects. And 2012 will be the last you see of Obama. The rest of the Dems aside from Pelosi and Reid will be running for the hills.
Before this went to press, CBS News made their own estimate: 215,000 versus their estimate of 87,000 for the Beck rally.
To which I say “Oh, nonsense.”
Their contractor, AirPhotosLive.com, it turns out, did at least publish an explanation of their methodology,.
AirPhotosLive.com is correct that trying to count oblique photos is unsatisfactory, which is why we don’t: we use the oblique photos to get geography bounds on the crowd against landmarks, and then make a range of estimates using the Park Service’s own standards for crowd density.
The Beck rally covered roughly 2.4 million square feet and by AirPhotosLive’s own photographs large parts of that area were packed as densely as any overhead picture of Stewart/Colbert. The Stewart/Colbert rally had, at most, about 6/10th the space — 1.62 million square feet vs. 2.4 million. For it to have had that many people, they would have had to be packed about 6.7 times more densely than the densest parts of the Beck crowd.
Not a chance. Not even if they were packed in olive oil.
I must start by thanking Anonymous for taking the time to read my blog and posting a comment.
It is unfortunate that Anonymous missed the point entirely. The Rally to Restore Sanity was not about who could draw the largest crowd. Rather it was about...well, restoring sanity. The rally had nothing to do with Obama, Pelosi, or Reid. It really had nothing to do with Beck. It had a lot to do with all of us Americans trying really hard to get along with each other in spite of our differences.
I do have to agree with Anonymous on one point though, the Beck crowd is infinitly more dense than any other crowd I have ever experienced. Anonymous fits in well.
The recent elections are the definitive proof of the two rallies and their effects. And 2012 will be the last you see of Obama. The rest of the Dems aside from Pelosi and Reid will be running for the hills.
ReplyDeletehttp://ironicsurrealism.blogivists.com/2010/10/30/aerial-photos-glenn-becks-restoring-honor-vs-jon-stewarts-rally-to-restore-sanity/
Before this went to press, CBS News made their own estimate: 215,000 versus their estimate of 87,000 for the Beck rally.
To which I say “Oh, nonsense.”
Their contractor, AirPhotosLive.com, it turns out, did at least publish an explanation of their methodology,.
AirPhotosLive.com is correct that trying to count oblique photos is unsatisfactory, which is why we don’t: we use the oblique photos to get geography bounds on the crowd against landmarks, and then make a range of estimates using the Park Service’s own standards for crowd density.
The Beck rally covered roughly 2.4 million square feet and by AirPhotosLive’s own photographs large parts of that area were packed as densely as any overhead picture of Stewart/Colbert. The Stewart/Colbert rally had, at most, about 6/10th the space — 1.62 million square feet vs. 2.4 million. For it to have had that many people, they would have had to be packed about 6.7 times more densely than the densest parts of the Beck crowd.
Not a chance. Not even if they were packed in olive oil.
I must start by thanking Anonymous for taking the time to read my blog and posting a comment.
ReplyDeleteIt is unfortunate that Anonymous missed the point entirely. The Rally to Restore Sanity was not about who could draw the largest crowd. Rather it was about...well, restoring sanity. The rally had nothing to do with Obama, Pelosi, or Reid. It really had nothing to do with Beck. It had a lot to do with all of us Americans trying really hard to get along with each other in spite of our differences.
I do have to agree with Anonymous on one point though, the Beck crowd is infinitly more dense than any other crowd I have ever experienced. Anonymous fits in well.