9/12 protest march numbers and impact can't be dumbed-down



September 15, 2009

By Stella Lohmann For every person that converged in Washington for the 9/12 Protest March on DC Saturday, there were many more who attended local events around the nation. Those numbers ARE in the millions of those who answered the call (originally by Fox News host Glenn Beck just months ago). Not everyone came because they are a fan of Beck; most said they just had to be there!No media network or paper can dumb-down projections of how many actually came much less the march's impact on the American psyche. I was there. I rode a bus ten hours both ways from Atlanta with fellow concerned citizens  I wanted to experience it for myself as reporter and as a citizen. Bless those on the west coast and even Alaska and Hawaii who sacrificed so much to be apart of an enormous march that evolved in a just matter of months! Kudos to Fox News and Glenn Beck for setting up a website for grassroots coordinators to communicate and organize the thousands wanting to take their concerns to Washington!Beck didn't make an appearance to say, "In your face, naysayers!" Rather he reported back in his New York City studio while those who organized the event executed their own plans with their own speakers according to their own schedules. Travelling home to Georgia, one lady read from her blackberry an article "9/12 March had no leaders," as if exposing weaknesses in the movement and the protest itself. Thank you whomever you are for giving a few enthusiastic ladies on the bus something more to talk about while some of us wanted to sleep during the night!Imagine how silly minimizing the attendance sounded to those who experienced the enormity of the crowd for themselves  those of us who heard motorists across states honk horns or talk with us at rest and truck stops along the way. Imagine how out of touch negative headlines were when we stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Americans from all 50 states down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol. Imagine how ludicrous their analysis when buses were being turned away because there was no more room! Imagine when the crowd dispersed leaving no trash unlike the Inauguration covered like a landfill!Those who came want self accountability, pride in our history as a defender of democracy and treasure what we have because of it  a free America, a free republic, one nation under God framed by the Constitution yet today. Being good stewards is what the 9/12 Protest March was all about. Amy Kremer, one of the national organizers says it's about teamwork, no one person being more important than the others  all of us doing what needs to be done to stop the chaos in Washington.© Stella Lohmann