IN WASHINGTON THESE CROWDS HAD NEVER BEEN SEEN
They came in walkers and in wheelchairs, holding canes and oxygen equipment. They came to make their presence felt; to tell America that even though they were old they could still walk, they were alive and kicking and what the Republican-Tea baggers were doing was criminal.
Park Services estimated the crowd to be over a million and a half…exceeding President Obama’s inauguration by a few hundred thousand. These folks were not just angry, they were downright pissed that the Republicans had done this to them…mind you they were the first to vote Republican in the last election that placed Sarah Palin in the White House.
Although the Tea Party claims that they had the largest march so far, exaggerating the crowd to be two million…park services put the number near 200,000 which is still a significant amount of misguided people. The other large gathering for the record books was THE MILLION MAN MARCH surpassing Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech” where it was estimated that 250,000 attended.
There were quite a few fatalities, not as a result of any violence…these protestors were as tame as pussy cats…angry yes but because of their age and their medical condition a total of 53 deaths were reported. Some of these came as a result of heat stroke, heart attacks and the like. But three of them committed suicide, one of which was the spectacular self-immolation; a repeat of The Self-Immolation of Thich Quang Duc, Buddhist monk from the Linh-Mu Pagoda in Hue ... The Self-Immolation of Thich Quang Duc: ... On June 11, 1963, a Buddhist monk from the Linh-Mu Pagoda in Hue, Vietnam, named Thich Quang Duc burned himself to death at an intersection in Saigon, Vietnam.
The seniors came to let the Palin Government know that they will never accept the elimination of Social Security or any of the measures the Republicans and Tea Baggers are now proposing in Congress…they might as well crawl in a corner and die if that is the case…Then you can talk all you want about “DEATH PANELS” one senior said to reporters.
Some of the marchers were interviewed by reporters and this is what Holocaust Survivor Hedda Golden said: “I never thought that since I came to America I would have to participate in a march of any kind…I worked 55 years in the Garment District and when I retired I thought I had my old age secured…was I wrong!”
Minnie Tweeds of Macon Georgia came wrapped in the American flag; like so many of her piers Minnie took part in the many demonstrations for Civil Rights in the sixties; she said: “The last march I went to was the one on Selma…I thought that would be the last one”
Cuban American Conchita Vargas traveled from Miami with her great granddaughter and told a reporter that “Cubans in Miami always voted Republican up until now…she is indignant about what Sarah Palin is doing to Social Security.”
Sadly, it is not that Social Security is broke or that it is not sustainable…the root of the problem lies within the Republican-Tea Party people who have a visceral opposition to anything to do with government providing any kind of safety net…while they are totally in agreement that government has to step in and force social issues like making abortion illegal and homosexuality a crime.
As tragic as this all seem to be, there is a light at the end of the tunnel…seniors will never again cast their votes for any Republican or Tea Bagger….their days are numbered and they will not be ever raising their ugly snake heads in the political arena.
http://photo2.si.edu/mmm/mmm.html
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