9/12 and other observations

I'm sitting here tonight trying to recover from my first root canal.  Now seemed as good a time as any to make my first substantive post in some time.  For anyone who has read this blog in the past you'll notice there is a new title.  Anyone who has been reading this blog I'm sure knows, but I passed the bar last year and I figured that referring to myself simply as a roaming J.D. is n loger fully sufficient. 

Anyway.  Most of the forthcoming posts will have to do with things that are long past within the last year.  However, my first post concerns something fairly recently.  On Saturday I attended the 9/12 march on Washington.  For those who don't know, the 9/12 rally and march was inspired by a number of separate groups, primary among which were the various tea party groups that hav sprung up around the country, as well as the 9/12 movement.  The 9/12 movement is a group that was begun by Glenn Beck in an effort to get back to sense of American unity and Patriotism we had on the day after the September 11 attacks.  There has been a fair amount of discussion regarding this march.  However if you haven't heard much coming from the media, I wouldn't be surprised.  So far most all the coverage outside of Fox and talk radio seem biased and understated.  The official count courtesy of the NY Times/AP is around 60,000 people.  From having been there I can tell you that that is inaccurate.

Normally I don't post pictures that I haven't taken.  However, sometimes I just can't get certain shots.  This particular picture was taken from a camera overlooking Freedom Plaza in downtown D.C.  Freedom plaza was where a pre-march rally was to take place at 9:00 am before marching down Pennsylvania Avenue to te Capitol at 11:00.  The first people began showing up before 7:30 am and as a result of the sheer number of people, the march began around 10:00.  For those familliar with the D.C. metro, I got on the red line at Shady Grove and rode down to Federal Triangle, the exit of which comes out in the Shadow of the Ronald Reagan Building.

Upon exiting the Metro station, I came upon the scene to the right, the rally at Freedom Plaza.  I arrived there at 9:00 and there were thousands of people in an area that was not designed to hold nearly that many.  People were streaming in from Pennsylvania Ave., E Street and 13th Street Swelling the crowd even further.  All around me were people that were greatly concerned with the future of their country.  These were not hateful people.  These were not Nazis (thank you Ms. Pelosi). Neither were they Evil Mongers (Mr. Reid) nor Brownshirts (Congressman Baird, D-WA).  These were everyday Salt of the Earth American who were tring to make a difference.  All around me I saw people who were trying to recapture the spirit of the original tea parties.  There were many tricorner hats and Gadsden flags evoking memories of the original tea partiers in 1773.  Then as now there was a govenrment which was governing without consent by raising taxes and encroaching upon the will of the people. 

It was a very well behaved protest march up Pennsylvania Avenue.  That was a theme that was to continue through out the day as not one protestor was arrested.  Pretty impressive for a protest demonstration.  In any event I arrived at the Capitol Lawn by 10:30 and took my place on the right wing of the capitol lawn, just across a wide fenced off sidewalk from the backstage area.  I was able tosee and hear everything.  Most of the Speakers at the event were grassroots (dare I say) Community organizers from all across the country.  There were doctors, Coal miners, radio hosts, attorneys and others.  The speakers came fromall walks of life.  There were a few members of Congress and one Senator who spoke, Reps. Tom Price M.D. from GA, Mike Pence from IN and Marsha Blackburn for TN, Sen Jim DeMint from SC.  The most impressive speakers were not the senators.  Two who really stood out to me were a Marine from Charles County, Maryland and a Pastor from Louisiana. 

For all who say that conservatives are a bunch of racist bigots, I would suggest that they look at who it was that spoke at the rally.  I can tell you that these to were some of the best received of any of the speakers at the rally.  Conservatives, true conservatives don't care about race, they care about principles.  These two men espoused true conservatism.  What true conservatism is about is Greater individual freedom, less government intrusion, lower taxes, the protection of the weak (specifically the unborn and the elderly), in short the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness (not the right to happiness itself).  The primary, but not only issue of the day was the health care bill (H.R. 3200) in the house.  This bill would undermine all of those key principles in ways to numerous to count. 

The woman to the right is Betsy McCoy.  The book she is carrying is in a copy of the House Health care bill.  It is a huge bill that is over 1000 pages long.  It imposes itself upon the american people in numerous ways, ways which are dealt with in an analysis by a professor at Duke University:

http://www.classicalideals.com/HR3200.htm.

The major issues, beyond those raised there are the fact that it would allow for:

1. Planned Parenthoof run clinics inside public schools - H.R.3200, Sec. 399Z-1

2. Requirement for Abortion coverage by insurers - Because it isn't specifically addressed and rejected, it will be required as part of reproductive care require of insurers.

3. Rationing of care to the old and infirmed - This comes from two places.  One, the president want's to pay for this via cuts in Medicare, since money is only spent on this sick, this neccessarily means a rationing of care for the elderly who are sick.  Two, The White House Health Policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel, the man who would likely set policy for the rationing body in Washingon has gone on record that some medical services should not be guaranteed to those “who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens....An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia.”  He also advocated basing medical decisions on a system which “produces a priority curve on which individuals aged between roughly 15 and 40 years get the most chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated.”  Of course He's also the man that suggested that doctors think to much about their patients' needs and take the Hippocratic Oath too seriously, but that's another matter...  Ultimately the bill places too much power in the hands of Washington. 

This bill is just one of the kinds of power grabs that the we who came to Washington wanted to fix, and I certainly hope that we are well on our way.  All in all the experience was one of the most amazing things I have ever been a part.  It truly made me proud to be an American.  I truly believe there is a major change comng to tis country.  I'll leave you with some more pictures from the rally.  The Daily Mail over in England reported the number around Two Million.  Whether it was that high or not, I certainly believe it was much closer to being accurate than the NY Times/Washington Post/CBS/NBC/ABC Mainstream Media would have you believe.  And Washigton continues to ignore the American people, there will be atleast two million next 9/12.