Volume 72, Issue 6 www.themclabeacon.com Thursday, November 4, 2010

The Beacon- Student Newspaper of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams, Mass. -

Rally draws in over 200,000By Andrew Roiter

Managing Editor

So we had a plan. e operative word there being

“had.”Two cars, ve people in each,

departing from MCLA at mid-night on Oct. 30. We would ar-rive in southern Maryland be-tween 8:30 and 10:00 a.m., check into our hotel and then take the metro into the city. is was as far as things went according to the plan.

Once we reached the hotel, al-ready tired and hungry from the nine hour car ride, we waited for a bus that would take us to the metro station. Another group of people there who had taken three di� erent busses over the course of two days from Miami asked us if we were going to the rally.

My rst thought was, “How did they know?” but then looking at my group it dawned on me. Five haggard twentysomethings, one wearing cat ears, myself wearing a camera around my neck that might as well have been a sign that said mug me—what else could we possibly be doing on our way to D.C.?

I would soon realize that it made sense to assume that the person next to you was going to the rally simply because of the sheer number of people going. I think that is when the magnitude of this event struck me.

I don’t know if I really believed that over 200,000 people would

show up to the event. However, when you’re standing on the Na-tional Mall with less than a foot between you and Waldo to your le� , a pair of Na’vi at your front, Darth Vader to your back and Jesus to your right, it’s kind of

hard to deny that there are a lot of people around you.

e metro station was packed with rally-goers of all ages, rac-es, economic levels, seriousness and geekiness levels. is cre-ated some ri� s between the vari-ous groups, but within minutes I watched those ri� s start to dis-solve.

Even the most politically active people there weren’t screaming or saying angry or hateful things. ey were calm and rational, as was the guy dressed as Aqua Buddha.

To describe everything that happened at the rally would re-quire most of this issue and most of you have already read about the big events. What you prob-ably didn’t see was the dragon � oat; a bus converted into a drag-on covered in people dressed as everything from Vikings to Sam-urai. Not to mention the battle between a Blue Meanie and the Flying Spaghetti Monster – from what I could tell they agreed to disagree.

A� er arriving in D.C. we were planning on getting food, but massive lines prevented this so we decided we could wait a few hours to eat. Following the rally

we would meet up with the other car of people and try to nd food, but the shortest wait was an hour and a half and the longest was nearly ve hours. Granted, I was at Obama’s inauguration when 2 million people � ooded the city.

is was not that bad but it could certainly bring about � ashbacks. So, needless to say, we decided to escape the city and grab pizza back in Maryland.

Andrew Roiter/Beacon Sta� One of the most practical signs at the rally.

Andrew Roiter/Beacon Sta� Rally-goers dressed up as demonic versions of Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter.

Andrew Roiter/Beacon Sta� A sea of people on the National Mall, only a piece of the giant crowd in attendance.