12-04-04 Rally in Ohio

[GettysbergII]

My wife, daughter and I drove to Columbus, Ohio from Chicago for the rally. Unfortunately I forgot about the change to EST and we got there about an hour late for the afternoon session that started at 1:00pm. The crowd was spirited despite a cutting wind that was knocking out what little stuffing I had left after the drive in. There were about 500 people there when we arrived. Folks we talked too said there were around 1500 at the start of the rally. We stayed on for the evening session from 5-8PM at Africentic Middle School and the speakers, the crowd and the school itself ended up inspiring all of us. I'll give you the bird's eye lowdown on it tomorrow. One thing I'll tell you, there was a lot of steel in the words spoken there both by the speakers and those of us in attendance.

Did anyone else from DU make it there? I thought I see a huge DU contingent with flags and everything.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. COOL and we are now having rallies all over the place

Happy you made it back home with more hope

[GettysbergII]

4. Thanks!

We sure did. It was a great experience. I'm so proud of our 12 year old. She could have stayed with her favorite cousin and played all day but she chose to come with us instead and held up like a trouper without a complaint.

Oh yeah. For what its worth in Q & A after the speakers were done, Greg Moore, Executive Director, NAACP National Voter Fund, said he's had two very serious conversations with John Kerry about vote fraud in the last week. He said Kerry is taking the recount is Ohio very seriously.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. I think our hard work is starting to pay off

Today I had the chance to talk to two african americans at the rally. They stopped to ask questions, as they had NOT heard of any of this crap in their teevee... they were middle aged and did remember oh... the Civil Rights Movement. I am white, well truly immigrant, I made their eyes well with tears when I compared this to the Civil Rights and proceeded to explain it to them... how this is truly the modern civil rights movement.

I can now quote MLK with the best of them... and it was a level of connection that I have never before felt in my life.

Moreover, we had a bunch of people hunk in suport... and yes the IQ count from time to time... there was an energy, an electric energy, that it is just getting stronger.

[KaliTracy]

2. Drove in from Cincinnati

One of the people with us had Red hands....we couldn't stay for the other talk.

We did see a few people from DU.

Looking forward to your update on the 2nd talk.

[intheflow]

3. I went to an anti-war rally today in Fort Collins, CO, but

they also talked a bit about election fraud. Featured speaker was Abdul Henderon, the Marine that was in F-911 who asked politicians to sign up their children for the service. He was great--he called us to march on this administration. Soft-spoken but powerful speaker. I highly recommend seeing him if he comes to your town.

But nice to know dissent is alive an well throughout the country.

[joevoter]

5. looking for a good link with a pic

I'm looking for a good link to an article with a pic to post on a website. I have seen some that show the 4-500 later in the rally but I want to show the early bigger crowd.

Thanks

[Helga Scow Stern]

6. Thank you for going.

There will be more and more.