Reasonably Assemble

We went to the big rally for Sanity and or Fear on the Mall in DC 10/30/10. We were there for the fun and showing up for reasonableness seemed like a good idea.

We stayed over night at Mrs. YDMV’s uncle’s planning to take the Metro in early. There were six of us, Mrs YDMV & I, two of our kids and two friends of our kids’. One of those was technically a boyfriend. When ever I, as a dad mention a daughters boy friend, people ask, 'How do you like him," as if it makes a difference. Well I like him very much. He is great company when ever he is around, not that my opinion makes any difference. 

Oh yeah and just because the rest of us were going that rat bastard diabetes rallied for a little fear. Connor woke up slow, and buy woke up I mean could almost stand up but was totally incoherent. 33. His sister held the juice glass to his mouth and two cups of OJ and a Crispy Cream donut later he was 30. Yippie. More juice more donuts, a half a coke and more time and he started coming up.

A little note of advice: Connor was too incoherent to tell us where his meter was. This is why I always have a redundant one someplace where I can find it. At home and when we travel. Redundancy is a reasonable diabetes precaution.

We headed to the Metro. We got on face outside the city, in fact the second stop in from its distant suburban terminus. It was a little past 9:00. The rally was at noon on a fall wekend . The train was standing room only. I could comfortably step on but was just at the door.

By the time we reached downtown I had squeezed into the center of the car sharing a little flesh to flesh contact with strangers. The train ride was a interesting sociology study. Those on the train, sharing a little contact with strangers, were fairly convinced there wasn’t any more room as we pulled into each successive station full of people wanting to join us. There was a general murmur of discontent as the new folks crammed in convinced that more room for contact was fine. At the next stop the former newbies were openly resentful of the new newbies. Rinse lather repeat.

We were happy to get out of the Metro and up into a cool sunny autumn morning in DC. Few cars, lots of people on foot. Near the mall Yahoo was handing out little plastic megaphones, but using them seemed a little unreasonable, others were handing out stickers and rally towels.

There was a sizable number of folks already there. We set up some chairs because sitting on the ground was a completely unreasonable expectation for an old guy like me.

The group kept building over the next few hours and by the time the thing started we we probably about at the back of the first third of the crowd. There were people on the Mall. People on the steps of the museums along the Mall, people in trees and people on top of the port-a-potties between the Mall and the museums.

Much like the sociology experiment in the trains the lines of personal space were tested and later arrivals were convinced there was space between those who has arrived earlier. We have a fair amount of experience with this phenomenon at Disney World Parades. Our initial territorial stake was made with folding chairs and blankets and was probably an over estimation of our real needs for space. We made reasonable concessions and were were perfectly comfortable.

Another interesting social media experiment played out on the Mall. That many people with mobile devices overwhelm the networks. Nobody’s phone worked. Tweets became the signs those who felt compelled to communicate shared. The rest of us lurked and occasionally actually talked with each other without a handset.

The day was a total joy.

Outstanding music and humor conveyed two main themes. First were perfectly reasonable points about media fear mongering that creates virtual crisis out of political minutia. The second and possible more prevalent punch line promoted religious tolerance for all, and specifically for Islam.

It was a nice day on the mall to peacefully assemble at the seat of our government, poke fun at those who seek to limit the free exercise of religion, expect more discerning from the media, speak freely and for some climb port-a-potties. In short it was a first amendment fest.

The trains were packed on the way out too.

Oh and Connor cut back his overnight basal rates and put on a CGM to get some better overnight data. That seemed like a reasonable response to some a scary low.