I was astonished at how many people showed up. The right wingers tried to harass us as we walked to the staging area, but we just laughed at them. Just like in Anchorage at the Assembly hearings, the Blue people were smiling, laughing and networking our brains out and the Red people were "cranky". Poor darlings have no sense of humor at all.Phoenix police and Maricopa Sheriff's deputies were out in force and very nice. As we left after the March, many of us thanked them for their protection and they seemed startled at that.
"Mother Who Thinks" got a picture of me and my sign so she will post that when she gets home. I guess you could say this was a typical Democratic event. As one man said, "I don't belong to an organized political party! I'm a Democrat!
There was some scary stuff. There was a guy carrying a loaded AK47, followed everywhere by a Deputy. Arizona loves its guns.
We didn't see the President, but we really didn't expect to. Security was very tight and we were okay with that. I'm sure he saw us. We outnumbered the antis and certainly out-chanted them. We were very well behaved and the wingnuts were nasty. One got in my face and said, "Down with Medicare." I got right back in his face and said, "hell no. I just got my Medicare and I earned it!" They were parked on a corner in full sun while we were across the street in an area with lots of shade and places to sit. No wonder they were so grumpy.
Our Blue people who asked about Mudflats got the URL. When they asked about Sarah, I said, "Oh, you mean Quittypants?" Cracked everybody up. I have the feeling we recruited some new mudpuppies.
One sign really freaked me out. It said that Iraq and Afghanistan both have Universal Health Care, paid for by the United States of America. Well, DAYUM!!
All things considered, I don't for a minute regret going. It got too warm for me near the end, but I coped. The contrast in attitude between us happy little socialists and the big bad right wing was amazing. They are NOT happy campers.
I feel good about what we did and feel pretty positive about it all.
Anyone else have a story or photos to share?
