One Solitary Picture of the Demonstration

Well we just got back from the demonstration downtown where we learned a few things. We learned that there are a whole bunch of people who are very enthusiastic about participating in America, so much so that they'll get out into the streets with signs to tell people about it. And we learned that no point-and-shoot camera is so idiot proof that Seattlest can't fail to get a picture with it. Hopefully tomorrow we can post some Flickr images, but right now the pickens are slim.

Oh, and the "counterprotest"? We also failed to get that photo.

We found walking with the crowd irresistible, which was great but didn't really give us much perspective on how large the demonstration was. We jumped into the crowd in front of the library where the "Michael Savage for president" lady was busy giving everyone the thumbs down and followed along up 4th and then back down 2nd a ways. We saw lots of families, lots of signs, lots of people wearing black but unfortunately not enough white faces. Downtown was practically deserted by the time the marchers rolled up on 4th, so we're assuming that everyone saw our earlier post and cleared out of downtown early. There were pockets of spectators along the route who occasionally started applauding and were cheered back by the marchers. One guy looking vacation chic next to us in front of the Green Tortoise said to his wife, "I don't get it. How do they pay taxes?" "They work and stuff," she said.

We just missed seeing a car hit a couple people on Union where the march bent back on itself. There were ambulances and fire trucks in that area and cops and some weird street enforcer types in black military wear and red bandanas trying to clear a path out for a few people. No one was on the ground or on stretchers, though.