• About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
Thursday, January 21, 2021
No Result
View All Result
The Brief
NB MEDIA CO-OP
Share a story
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Arts & Culture
  • Videos
  • COVID-19
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Arts & Culture
  • Videos
  • COVID-19
No Result
View All Result
NB MEDIA CO-OP
No Result
View All Result
Home World

Report from Rally to Restore Sanity

by Kesten Broughton
November 7, 2010
2 min read

Former CHSR DJ Kesten Broughton has issued this report from the Rally to Restore Sanity held in Washington, D.C. on October 30. The rally was led by comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
—-
I came down from Atlantic Canada for the Rally to Restore Sanity, on my way south to the COP16 conference in Cancun, Mexico.

Here’s what was good about the rally:

People at the Tacoma Metro Station. A packed traincar pulled up to the chant of the awaiting crowd, “Yes We Can, Yes We Can!”

The costumes. Cudos to all those dressed as tea-bags, Chilean miners, Darth Vader and Captain America.

Signs. My favourite sign was “First, the moderates came for the extremists… and I was silent.  Then the moderates came for… DOT DOT DOT. This was a nice turn-around on the famous quote by Pastor Martin Niemöller about his nation’s apathy towards the extremist agenda of a minority.

Cat Stevens! Cat Stevens was banned from entering the U.S. after 9/11 on reported suspicions of ties to terrorist groups.  Cat Stevens is the singer who wrote “Peace Train”. Somehow, organizers managed to smuggle him in to the country.

Now, the bad:

We biked down to the Washington Mall when it was discovered that the train would be a two hour wait.  That was great fun, but when arriving at the mall, there were as many people departing as heading towards it.

The trouble was, that if you weren`t willing to elbow others to get within 4 blocks from the stage, you couldn’t hear or see much of what was going on.   Apart from signs and costumes, there was no opportunity for crowd participation like at the massive Burning Man Festival in Nevada or similar artist-run events.  While some festivals create space for imagination and allow participants to fill it, there was nothing besides the main stage for the perhaps-unexpectedly-large crowd at the rally.

Several groups, like the D.C. bike valet, tried to participate in the rally but received no response from rally organizers.

Another lowlight of the rally was the food. There were not enough vendors and no variety. There were 7 hot dog trucks and 30-minute waits at every restaurant within 10 blocks.  Now that’s scary.

There were also no portable bleacher seats suspended by blimps. This was very disappointing. People couldn’t see the stage. It would have also been much more exciting, in a scary way, for the people on the ground beneath them.

And finally, for the peculiar: A guy leaving the mall said, “I was at the Beck rally.  There’s five times as many people here today.” What the “blink” were you doing at both the Glen Beck Rally to Restore Honour to America, and, the Rally for Sanity and Fear!?

Tags: Rally to Restore FearRally to Restore Sanity
ShareTweetSend

Related Posts

No Content Available
Load More

Recommended

Breaking out of the gender binary

Breaking out of the gender binary

10 years ago

Sisson mine: What is acceptable risk?

6 years ago

Shale gas cannot be environmentally responsible

8 years ago
Tarps being placed around a salmon pen off Campobello Island. Tarps like these are used for some pesticide treatment on salmon farms. Photo - David Thompson

Passing up responsibility: fishermen worried about pesticide use in aquaculture

9 years ago
NB Media Co-op

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • Calendar
  • Archives

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • COVID-19
  • Videos
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Arts & Culture
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Politics
  • Rural

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In