Friday, September 17, 2010

Restoring Hilarity

In November of 1969, I attended my first large rally - The Moratorium March on Washington to End the War in Vietnam. There were supposedly half a million people there, most of them young, most of them in high spirits, and most of them high. And as a demonstration of the effectiveness of our collective action, five short years later, the war was over.

I've wisely grown to distrust the overall effectiveness of this sort of event other than to provide an enjoyable outing for large masses of people. Even angry people fighting to take their country back generally seem to have a real fine time being in the company of their like minded peers.

That's why I'm excited to be attending Steven Colbert's 'Keep Fear Alive' march and Jon Stewart's 'Rally to Restore Sanity' on October 30th. I've booked my room and I'm shining up my marching shoes. And I believe in my heart that when it's all over and the last Groucho glasses have been swept up, I'll be able to look back and say 'Jeez, that was a helluva lot of fun'.

How about you and your friends? Anyone else going?

3 comments:

  1. My marching sandals are maintenance-free and ready for glee; I've booked a flight and a room for the rallies, and I'm bringing my camera and a shit-load of over-the-counter drugs.

    See you there, Mark.

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  2. I'm really tempted, Mark. It will be fun to hear the news reports about how it "isn't serious" - like Beck and teabaggers are.

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  3. Paul, hope you make it. Call me.

    Terry, I'd like to meet you. Send me an offline email to mhoback@gmail.com

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