Update 3 p.m.
The Rally to Restore Sanity and or Fear wrapped up on the National Mall at 3 p.m.
Early crowd estimates showed as many as 400 million, but those estimates which came via Twitter quickly fell to 10 million.
And though the National Park Service which is in charge of the National Mall does not do official head counts during rallies, it’s rumored they suspect 200,000 showed up to get a dose of John Stewart’s “reasonable sanity.”
In the final 15 minutes of the show, Stewart delivered a serious message, saying many pundits and political analysts inject more “noise” into the national discourse making it harder for some of this nation’s largest problems to be solved.
“We live now in hard times, not end times,” said Stewart.
While much of the rally mocked members of the press and the organizations they worked for, labeling them as fear mongers, Stewart said threats such as terrorism are real and there is a need to fear groups that would bring harm to the U.S.
But he also said this nation’s 24-hour news cycle makes it harder for the press to identify problems, and begin discussions to resolve the issues.
“If we amplify everything, we hear nothing,” said Stewart.
Throughout the rally there were reports of rampant Metro delays, some injuries and reports that many people who tried to but couldn’t reach the Mall ended up watching the rally on TV in bars in Washington.
—
After breakfast, my fiancé and I made our first and last stop on our way to the Rally to Restore Hope and or Fear in Washington.
Planning to board Metro at the Franconia-Springfield station, we parked like any good local would do on a busy day at the Macy’s parking deck at the nearby Springfield Mall.
I knew we would avoid the traffic jam of cars that were waiting to get inside the Metro parking deck. And besides, we had already been sitting in delays on Interstate 95 in a line of cars that were waiting to get off the highway.
Parking in the mall deck was easy, and so was the walk to the Metro station.
But on our way into the station we saw some people turning around and walking the other way.
“Where in the world are they going?” I asked my fiancé, Jocelyn. Not knowing, we continued on still excited about our trek to Washington.
But as we rounded a corner, the bridge from the Metro parking deck to the station came into sight, and so did the line of at least 200 to 300 people all waiting to pay the fare to ride Metro.
Upon further inspection, the line got longer as it stretched from the bridge, to the interior of the parking deck, all the way back outside the deck.
By 11 a.m., a Metro police officer stopped drivers from entering the parking deck.
But still on foot they came, some holding signs, some wearing USA sweatshirts and one man wearing a suit plastered with Budweiser logos on the fabric. They were excited, planning to brave the line and get to the rally.
Weighing our options, and noting that I was the only one of the two who had a SmarTrip card (an electronic, refillable Metro fare card, we decided that it would take more time to not only get to the rally, but to get into the Metro station.
So we’re doing the next best thing – watching it on TV and Tweeting about it for those who can’t be there.
A friend of mine to who was going to take Metro from Vienna, after hearing about out situation in Spirngfield, decided to drive into to town and pay to park at 14th and V streets NW.
It sounds like he may have saved time, money and his sanity by not taking Metro. We’ll see about his ride home.
The rally started at noon, and 30 minutes into the show TBD.com Tweeted that one estimate showed 10 million people were expected to be attending the rally on the National Mall.
After reading that, it’s good to know I’ve got my own toilet in my own home, one that I’m not planning on sharing today.
The latest about the rally on Twitter!
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