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missroserose--Seriously? Aborted-fetus placards outside the stadium entrance? That's really what you're going with? Could you possibly be any more tacky?
--The event itself was uplifting and wonderful, and remarkably well-ordered for something involving that many people that was obviously thrown together in the space of a day or three. We didn't make it early enough to get a seat in the hall, but they put the overflow in the stadium and live-fed the event to the Jumbotron there. And while I was disappointed not to see the President's speech in person, there was something undeniably special about watching it in real-time with a crowd of thousands.
--There was also something undeniably interesting about seeing all these faces whom I normally only see in photos on Slate.com actually moving around and talking. Attorney General Eric Holder sounded almost exactly as I would have imagine. Jan Brewer, on the other hand, not so much...and honestly, I felt like her speech had a smarmy tinge to it. But I realize that could just be my personal biases talking.
--Which doesn't stop me from indulging in a certain amount of schadenfreude when comparing the fairly tame applause she got with the wild cheers Janet Napolitano elicited (along with calls of "We miss you, Janet!), just afterward.
--The line (I can't recall who said it - Hernandez maybe?) about how "Saturday we all became Tucsonans, we all became Arizonans" stuck with me. Possibly because I'd had that exact thought - somehow this was the first time I'd actually seriously thought of myself as being an Arizonan, rather than just a displaced Alaskan.
--Daniel Hernandez's speech was touching in its earnestness. I guess these days, getting the seat next to the President and getting to talk on national TV is the equivalent of being gifted the key to the city.
--Obama's speech was excellent, more or less as expected. And while I'm cynical enough not to believe it will have a lasting effect (adversarialism just seems too engrained into human nature), I appreciate both the truth of it and his sincerity in saying it. I just wish more people engaged in the endless shit-stirring that is our government would stop and listen.
I took some pictures of the crowd, so I may put those up later. But for now I wanted to get down the impressions while they were fresh. Many thanks to Niki for driving us from SV to Tucson and back - gas saved aside, the company made the trip a lot shorter than it would otherwise have been.
--The event itself was uplifting and wonderful, and remarkably well-ordered for something involving that many people that was obviously thrown together in the space of a day or three. We didn't make it early enough to get a seat in the hall, but they put the overflow in the stadium and live-fed the event to the Jumbotron there. And while I was disappointed not to see the President's speech in person, there was something undeniably special about watching it in real-time with a crowd of thousands.
--There was also something undeniably interesting about seeing all these faces whom I normally only see in photos on Slate.com actually moving around and talking. Attorney General Eric Holder sounded almost exactly as I would have imagine. Jan Brewer, on the other hand, not so much...and honestly, I felt like her speech had a smarmy tinge to it. But I realize that could just be my personal biases talking.
--Which doesn't stop me from indulging in a certain amount of schadenfreude when comparing the fairly tame applause she got with the wild cheers Janet Napolitano elicited (along with calls of "We miss you, Janet!), just afterward.
--The line (I can't recall who said it - Hernandez maybe?) about how "Saturday we all became Tucsonans, we all became Arizonans" stuck with me. Possibly because I'd had that exact thought - somehow this was the first time I'd actually seriously thought of myself as being an Arizonan, rather than just a displaced Alaskan.
--Daniel Hernandez's speech was touching in its earnestness. I guess these days, getting the seat next to the President and getting to talk on national TV is the equivalent of being gifted the key to the city.
--Obama's speech was excellent, more or less as expected. And while I'm cynical enough not to believe it will have a lasting effect (adversarialism just seems too engrained into human nature), I appreciate both the truth of it and his sincerity in saying it. I just wish more people engaged in the endless shit-stirring that is our government would stop and listen.
I took some pictures of the crowd, so I may put those up later. But for now I wanted to get down the impressions while they were fresh. Many thanks to Niki for driving us from SV to Tucson and back - gas saved aside, the company made the trip a lot shorter than it would otherwise have been.
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Date: 2011-01-13 07:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 12:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 05:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 03:37 pm (UTC)They will take that as a challenge, you know.
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Date: 2011-01-13 05:55 pm (UTC)I was rather proud that I managed to march right on by without reacting in any way (and, as near as I could tell, so did the rest of the folks I was near in line). I about lost my shit when the guy started asking for "A moment of silence, for all the babies who have been killed" - and I don't think I normally would have had even that strong a reaction, except that we had Maddy (Niki's very smart and sweet nine year old girl) with us, and that's going to be a pretty awkward conversation. (Not that it's not one that they don't need to have at some point, but throwing difficult issues like that in a kid's face is just plain rude. You wouldn't hold up a placard with graphic pictures of reproduction, now, would you?)
When Maddy asked about why the man was saying those things, Brian said "Because he wants to make you angry and scared." I've never really been super-into the idea of having kids, but every now and then that boy says something that makes me think it'd be a shame if he never got to be a father...
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Date: 2011-01-13 06:35 pm (UTC)