Report on Washington DC, January 6, 2005by Avram Friedman
The Free Press
January 25, 2005This is the news report you did NOT see last night on CNN, FOX, NBC, CBS, or hear on NPR or read in the NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Columbus Dispatch, The Raleigh News and Observer or the Asheville Citizen-Times.
On Wednesday, January 5th I made a last minute decision to ride with three friends, Michael, Patty, and Sonnie, from the Asheville NC area to Washington DC to participate in a protest march the following day at the Capitol to coincide with the certification of the Electoral College vote by a joint session of Congress. I can't logically explain what compelled me in this direction except that there is a powerful inner force, similar in nature, I'm sure, to what made thousands drive to Devils Tower, Wyoming in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." I had to go.
We drove all night and arrived at Alexandria Virginia at about 7:30 in the morning where we parked Michael's truck, checked our backpacks into a motel room and had just enough time to eat a quick breakfast, create a few hand-held signs from poster board and permanent markers, then catch the metro into downtown for the first leg of protest at the FBI building. There was no sleep involved.
On the train people looked curiously at the signs we were carrying. Most were apparently unaware that history was being made on this day and appeared puzzled, perhaps annoyed, not that they were necessarily opposed to what we were doing, but that their perception of reality was being tweaked a little bit. Wasn't the election over? What's this about? The American public is clueless.
We entered the city from the Metro onto Pennsylvania Avenue where the grandstands had already been placed along the street for the anticipated inauguration on January 20. This struck me as rather presumptuous, given the fact that the Electoral College vote had not been certified yet, like building the gallows before the jury comes back with the verdict. At about 9 AM there was just a handful of people in front of the FBI building holding a large banner that read "FBI: INVESTIGATE THE ELECTION". This group mainly consisted of people from the New York City area. We joined them with our orange signs reading, "RECOUNT, RE-VOTE or REVOLT", "REJECT THE ELECTION FRAUD" and such. More people began to arrive. Morning traffic was light on Pennsylvania Avenue. There was some curiousity, but not much reaction. We were not discouraged. Toward 10 AM we began to migrate as a group of about 25-30 people toward Lafayette Park next to the White House, where a rally had been scheduled by the Greens, Libertarians and Progressive Democrats...
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http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1121