The One Nation Rally. Time to Up the Ante By Timothy V. Gatto + The Molotov: In The Red

By Timothy V. Gatto
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
liberalpro.blogspot.com
Oct. 3, 2010

The One Nation Rally in DC was something I’m glad I didn’t miss. Anyone who has read my articles over the past five years has probably heard me complain about the effect of corporate control over our government. Since I tried to start The Liberal Party of America in 2004, I learned very quickly that belief in a political outlook wasn’t enough. You need cash to start a political party… and lots of it. To get on most ballots it takes lots of signatures on petitions. Some races for Federal seats require up to 150,000 signatures. You can “hire” a company to get those signatures, at about a dollar a pop. Do the math.

It seems to me that the everyday people that were at the rally yesterday have finally “gotten the message”. While others may have been disappointed, I was elated. It wasn’t just the message that corporate America rules America that people have finally figured out; it was the strong anti-war sentiment and the almost militant kind of enthusiasm that stood out among the people.

I imagine people will debate how many people were actually there, but I saw pictures of the Beck rally and they claimed 300,000. I talked to a taxi driver from Haiti on the way back to the Metro, and he told me that yesterday’s event was bigger than Beck’s. I walked out at about 4PM and I can tell you that there were groups all the way to the Capitol building, many walking to the event at the Lincoln Memorial.  There was so much two-way traffic that I was shoulder to shoulder with people all the way to the Washington Memorial.

I left the Rally full of enthusiasm. I was really knocked out by Ed Shultz’s speech at the beginning. I caught it on video and I’m trying to format it so I can put it on the net. (I’m new at this stuff folks).  When you write for free and have no staff, everything falls on you. I wouldn’t give it up for the world.

One thing that I remembered from the protests back in the early ‘70’s was the way that the left behave. I’ll state this unequivocally, the Left has more fun at these things than the Right. I saw much joy at the rally, people singing and dancing, talking to each other and having fun.

One thing that I was really happy about was the amount of Socialists that were there. They saw my t-shirt and started talking to me. (I had a black t-shirt on with a red fist and the motto “Workers of the World Unite!” around the fist and the red star. I’d pull my party card out and told them to talk to the people that needed converting. I came to the conclusion a long time ago that the Democrats were just as crooked as the Republicans. I think that many at the rally (IMHO), thought the same way. Maybe the amount of people that showed yesterday will give Obama a little “incentive” to act like a Progressive or risk losing his base.

I’ve been though all of this before. The one thing my experience tells me is that large gatherings like this only get larger with time. In the late ‘60’s we were overwhelmed by the seemingly unreachable goal of ending the draft and getting out of Vietnam. It wasn’t until the early seventies when each progressive gathering at the Capitol got larger and larger did the people and their government realize that Vietnam was a no-win situation. I can see the same thing starting to happen today. Talk about Déjà vu, it was all over the place especially when we were calling each other “brother and sister”.

I’ve got pictures and a video that I’ll try to get up as soon as I can. I see that the mainstream media is ignoring this event. Why am I not surprised? I figure that it might take a little more time to get these folks to actually listen for a change. The funny thing is that somehow, and in someway, history repeats itself over and over. As they say in the song “In the Red” “either way kids I don’t think they’re listening, time to up the ante in the cities and the shanties until they understand that power isn’t with the few it’s with the many”.

Contact Tim at: timgatto@hotmail.com. Read Tim’s Complicity to Contempt and Kimchee Days or Stoned Cold Warriors from Oliver Arts and Open Press.

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[DS added the videos.]

Sights and Scenes from the “One Nation” Rally in Washington, D.C.

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Ed Schultz at the One Nation Rally

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“One Nation” Rally – C-SPAN Video Library (watch on C-SPAN)

Heeding a call to Put America Back to Work and Pull America Back Together, tens of thousands of people across America united as One Nation Working Together for jobs, justice and education. One Nation Working Together is a fast-growing movement of people of diverse backgrounds, hues and faiths demanding an American economy that works for all of us. Radio talk show hosts Ed Schultz and Tom Joyner; and numerous actors and entertainers attended. This event was held at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on October 2, 2010.

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[Previously posted on this post with the lyrics:  The Molotov: In The Red.]

The Molotov: In The Red

see

VOTE… OR REVOLT? By Gary Corseri

Let’s Have a Real Protest, Not a Democratic Pep Rally, on October 2nd by Glen Ford

A Fist in the System Oct. 2, 2010 By Timothy V. Gatto