Another Big Day at the Capitol today

[katinmn]

Noon - 1 p.m. - Peace Vigil in the rotunda

4:30 - Mega Education Rally on the steps. Thousands expected from all over the state. Got a boost from a Strib article yesterday. We need immediate funds for our schools. See you there.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5261651.html
Rally Monday will demand more education funding
February 27, 2005 RALLY0227

Thousands of parents, students, teachers and community leaders are expected to converge on the State Capitol grounds Monday to demand more funding for education.

Organizers of the rally are hoping for 6,000 to 7,000 people, depending on the weather. They hope it will be the biggest education rally at the Capitol in about a decade.

"It rose out of parents, who wanted to do something that was very visible," said Mary Cecconi, a former Stillwater school board member who is state director of the Parents United Network, one of the groups organizing the rally.

She said she hopes that the event will show legislators that groups like hers "are working to get immediate funds for schools that will at least staunch the bleeding a bit."
-more

[katinmn]

1. The media coverage of this sucked!

Both early articles focused more on crowd size and how it compared with other rallies rather than focusing on why thousands of people from all over the state showed up and froze their butts off to say to Pawlenty and the Legislature that we need to attend to our public schools.

Not only that.

This from the Pioneer Press:

"Though the parents' rally isn't the largest in recent Capitol years —some 17,000 people congregated on the steps in March 2003 to support the Iraq war — but it's than even the most controversial issues usually draw."

Really? Seventeen thousand people showed up to support the war on the one year anniversary?

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/11015876.htm

[hermetic]

5. The Pi Press has really sold out.

The tv shots were impressive though, that was a big crowd. But Skeletor did seem to get more face time than anyone else. Then early this morning I saw the speaker who asked the legislators how they would like it if they didn't have their own desks. Good question.

Did you make it to the peace vigil?

[katinmn]

7. I didn't make it to the noon rally.

I had a deadline and I had to pick and choose one event over the other. Did you hear how it went?

[seg4527]

2. i was there with my gf

I was actually suprised at the large number of people. Largest rally I've ever been to, actually. But i'm sort of a rookie. Just moved to the twin cities and I'm trying to get around to rallies. It was cold and miserable. I'd say 5-6 thousand is a good estimate.

[loveable liberal]

3. I was there with my boy.

And in the middle of the rally, with all the people there, I felt a sense of purpose. We were right, and Skeletor, the education secretary that says schools have enough money, was wrong. How can schools have enough money ever?

[seg4527]

4. it was actually a really great rally

I got worried at the beginning, with the never ending "fund our schools" chant, and a few other lame chants, that it was going to be a letdown of a rally put together by educators whose purposes are good, but don't know anything about protests. The speakers were wonderful though, and I'm glad I went. It's nice to come home from a rally and feel like you actually helped a cause, rather than just getting even more angry at the system.

[katinmn]

6. I agree, it was a great rally

Most chants are pretty lame, IMO. :)

But I always feel energized around a group of people who are standing for the same thing. It was good to see all the kids, too. Good for them to know what dissent is. It's a right we must never give up.

Both papers had better articles this morning. Too bad they had to rush to get something shoddy online last night. It hurts their credibility.