The rally speakers carried the spirit of the banners on display.
The Gathering of Eagles -- more of the story (Part 2)
In the first part, I told you what the rally was like, what the mood and the spirit of the crowd felt like, and how awed I was by the number of American flags on display throughout the crowd and in the area where the rally was held.
Now, on to the rest of the day...
Mark and I enjoyed the rally very much but found ourselves in need of some exercise to revive blood flood in the hope that it would revive some numbed limbs. I swear with the wind chill it had to be 20-degrees outside that day! Brrrr!
Here's where it gets interesting. Here's where the mainstream media lost the thread of the REAL story that day... As we wandered the grounds of the National Mall that day, we ran into Eagle after Eagle after Eagle. I think the MSM couldn't tell the difference between the Commie crowd and the Patriots because many of the Eagles were average-looking Joes -- some with leather vests (Rolling Thunder) and some without. We could tell the difference because of the way we were greeted in the crowd. "Hey, great flag!" or "Thanks for your support!" definitely designated the Eagles from the average tourists.
Rolling Thunder and other veterans organizations were congregated everywhere throughout the grounds.
Operation Iraqi Freedom was well-represented!
Veterans found common ground and a common flag!
There were so many groupings of vets throughout the grounds that it's
no wonder the MSM didn't bother to look for themselves... that would have been a lot of walking!
The media reported (barely) that there was an unusually large number of us but the truth is that we outnumbered the anti-war protestors at about 3 to 1 that day. It didn't immediately sink in for Mark and I as we wandered the crowd because we thought we were simply on the "right side" of the proceedings and weren't running into the "enemy" for that reason. As it turns out, we wandered far and wide, including "enemy territory" and still ran into very few of the unwashed that day in our travels. It finally sank in when we saw the estimated number from the Park Police (reported by The Gathering of Eagles website). It makes sense now. Funny how being a part of the "story" limits your view of the overall picture. Maybe that's the real problem with the MSM, huh?
First on the list of places we wandered into and found ourselves right at home was the sidewalk outside of our rally area. This was the site of the now famous "gauntlet" that the idiot parade had to walk through to get to their gathering site for the "idiots on parade" march across the bridge to Arlington. Ah but it was such a pleasure greeting them all as they strolled under the flags to the jeering and insults of Eagles!
You can't tell from this picture, since I was part of the gauntlet, but these boneheads had to stroll down about a half-mile of sidewalk that was lined with veterans and military supporters.
The picture above does not do justice to the gauntlet that was formed by vets and supporters. We had about a half-mile of sidewalk lined with veterans and supporters. Most of us were on our best behavior. And occasionally a few of us would say things that we might otherwise not say... I'll leave it at that. Just know that if you dislike these idiots, you were well represented in the gauntlet! Those who thought they were in the right in their America-hating ways strutted through and yelled at us; however, the less foolhardy among the idiot parade diverted their course out to the street to avoid their just desserts.
After the excitement on the sidewalk gauntlet, we really didn't think anything could top that. A stroll down the sidewalk and we found ourselves getting an education on what the Park Police and their horses had anticipated for the day. Not only were the police in riot gear, their horses were geared up for action as well. Those shields across the horses' eyes are to prevent them from being hit with projectiles. That "peace loving" crowd can certainly get violent.
Horses ready for a riot. Little did they know that Rolling Thunder and other Eagles were there for them!
In our travels that day, we ran into barrier after barrier. As we walked, we found ourselves fenced in at many different points. It was a bit frustrating. Only with some creative detours were we finally able to get out of the designated areas into the other more open areas of the National Mall. It was in one of those creative detours that we finally stumbled upon what we thought was a gathering of anti-war protesters... turns out it was just a bunch of horses' arses.
Hey, look! There are nine Commie America-haters up ahead!
Oh! Never mind... those are REAL horses' arses. False alarm. My bad.
Oh look! Even the horses' arses were aggitating each other... must have been something in the air!
The Park Police were vigilant on Saturday. Wherever it was possible for the two sides to collide, there were Park Police on horseback to walk into the fray and break it up. As we wandered closer to the barricaded ANSWER rally area, we ran into multitudes of mounted Park Police. The barricades made it hard for us to find our way to the area just opposite the ANSWER rally area. Persistence pays off in more endeavors than just winning a war... we finally found our way to freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and free-reigning banner-ville!
This was no easy maze to decode. It took quite a while for us to find our way past
all the fencing and barricades over to the sidewalk around the Lincoln Monument.
Once around the barricades and fencing and on the side of the Lincoln monument, we ran into a greater number of Eagles. Many had been there all day guarding the monument, others had wandered in after the rally. Regardless of when they took up the station, there were larger numbers there than anywhere else on the grounds of the National Mall. We found out why very quickly... this was the one spot where you could face the ANSWER Commie pukes. It was the hotspot of the day.
Hotspot though it was, veterans are ever cognizant of the need to leave space for their disabled brothers. This was the theme all down the sidewalk. Space was cleared for the wheelchair-bound.
Don't let pictures in the MSM fool you. The ANSWER rally organizers announced, at one point, to their crowd that they should pile in against the fence. The Leftists in this country are VERY savvy when it comes to how they are portrayed in the media. These guys knew that they had to make their numbers look large. And, of course, that's exactly what they did. One of the alert bloggers onsite that day recorded the announcement (link to be posted asap).
Hurry! Every Commie against the fence for the photo op!
The view from the "right" side of the street.
This sign clearly represents the predominant sentiment of the Eagles crowd.
Victory should NEVER be a "positive outcome," it should be the goal.
Okay, you've seen this one (still my favorite)... now for the flipside of this vet's sign (next picture)...
Blunt but probably dead on!
The guy wearing this sweatshirt said his wife made it for him --
his wife is most definitely a ConservaChick in the truest sense of the word!
Park Police were constantly having to move protesters back to their line on the other side...
the idiots kept wanting to get up close to our side... Maybe they wanted a badly needed education?
Need we continue to state the obvious? Or are the neo-hippies in need of some Ritalin?
Ronald Reagan lives! Amen, brother Eagle!
My favorite picture from the Iraqi elections. Do we really want to see
these folks slaughtered on our way out??
Cindy, is this really what you're about? Or is it just fun to have so much media attention
that you don't care who you support or who you hurt?
Now THERE'S a novel idea! I'd be willing to settle for simply not re-electing them.
Some memories are still VERY fresh in the minds of pro-victory Americans.
Even the Aussies were on hand for the Gathering of Eagles.
As Tiny Tim would say, "God bless us, everyone!"
How does this guy REALLY feel about Congress's actions of late? ;o)
Okay, I thought I could do this in just two posts but there is much more to tell and it's getting late. I suppose this will have to go to three separate posts. In the next one, I'll cover the parade of idiocy across the bridge and their welcoming committee on the Arlington side as well as some links to other write-ups of the event.
In the first part, I told you what the rally was like, what the mood and the spirit of the crowd felt like, and how awed I was by the number of American flags on display throughout the crowd and in the area where the rally was held.
Now, on to the rest of the day...
Mark and I enjoyed the rally very much but found ourselves in need of some exercise to revive blood flood in the hope that it would revive some numbed limbs. I swear with the wind chill it had to be 20-degrees outside that day! Brrrr!
Here's where it gets interesting. Here's where the mainstream media lost the thread of the REAL story that day... As we wandered the grounds of the National Mall that day, we ran into Eagle after Eagle after Eagle. I think the MSM couldn't tell the difference between the Commie crowd and the Patriots because many of the Eagles were average-looking Joes -- some with leather vests (Rolling Thunder) and some without. We could tell the difference because of the way we were greeted in the crowd. "Hey, great flag!" or "Thanks for your support!" definitely designated the Eagles from the average tourists.
Rolling Thunder and other veterans organizations were congregated everywhere throughout the grounds.
Operation Iraqi Freedom was well-represented!
Veterans found common ground and a common flag!
There were so many groupings of vets throughout the grounds that it'sno wonder the MSM didn't bother to look for themselves... that would have been a lot of walking!
The media reported (barely) that there was an unusually large number of us but the truth is that we outnumbered the anti-war protestors at about 3 to 1 that day. It didn't immediately sink in for Mark and I as we wandered the crowd because we thought we were simply on the "right side" of the proceedings and weren't running into the "enemy" for that reason. As it turns out, we wandered far and wide, including "enemy territory" and still ran into very few of the unwashed that day in our travels. It finally sank in when we saw the estimated number from the Park Police (reported by The Gathering of Eagles website). It makes sense now. Funny how being a part of the "story" limits your view of the overall picture. Maybe that's the real problem with the MSM, huh?
First on the list of places we wandered into and found ourselves right at home was the sidewalk outside of our rally area. This was the site of the now famous "gauntlet" that the idiot parade had to walk through to get to their gathering site for the "idiots on parade" march across the bridge to Arlington. Ah but it was such a pleasure greeting them all as they strolled under the flags to the jeering and insults of Eagles!
You can't tell from this picture, since I was part of the gauntlet, but these boneheads had to stroll down about a half-mile of sidewalk that was lined with veterans and military supporters. The picture above does not do justice to the gauntlet that was formed by vets and supporters. We had about a half-mile of sidewalk lined with veterans and supporters. Most of us were on our best behavior. And occasionally a few of us would say things that we might otherwise not say... I'll leave it at that. Just know that if you dislike these idiots, you were well represented in the gauntlet! Those who thought they were in the right in their America-hating ways strutted through and yelled at us; however, the less foolhardy among the idiot parade diverted their course out to the street to avoid their just desserts.
After the excitement on the sidewalk gauntlet, we really didn't think anything could top that. A stroll down the sidewalk and we found ourselves getting an education on what the Park Police and their horses had anticipated for the day. Not only were the police in riot gear, their horses were geared up for action as well. Those shields across the horses' eyes are to prevent them from being hit with projectiles. That "peace loving" crowd can certainly get violent.
Horses ready for a riot. Little did they know that Rolling Thunder and other Eagles were there for them!In our travels that day, we ran into barrier after barrier. As we walked, we found ourselves fenced in at many different points. It was a bit frustrating. Only with some creative detours were we finally able to get out of the designated areas into the other more open areas of the National Mall. It was in one of those creative detours that we finally stumbled upon what we thought was a gathering of anti-war protesters... turns out it was just a bunch of horses' arses.
Hey, look! There are nine Commie America-haters up ahead!Oh! Never mind... those are REAL horses' arses. False alarm. My bad.
Oh look! Even the horses' arses were aggitating each other... must have been something in the air! The Park Police were vigilant on Saturday. Wherever it was possible for the two sides to collide, there were Park Police on horseback to walk into the fray and break it up. As we wandered closer to the barricaded ANSWER rally area, we ran into multitudes of mounted Park Police. The barricades made it hard for us to find our way to the area just opposite the ANSWER rally area. Persistence pays off in more endeavors than just winning a war... we finally found our way to freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and free-reigning banner-ville!
This was no easy maze to decode. It took quite a while for us to find our way pastall the fencing and barricades over to the sidewalk around the Lincoln Monument.
Once around the barricades and fencing and on the side of the Lincoln monument, we ran into a greater number of Eagles. Many had been there all day guarding the monument, others had wandered in after the rally. Regardless of when they took up the station, there were larger numbers there than anywhere else on the grounds of the National Mall. We found out why very quickly... this was the one spot where you could face the ANSWER Commie pukes. It was the hotspot of the day.
Hotspot though it was, veterans are ever cognizant of the need to leave space for their disabled brothers. This was the theme all down the sidewalk. Space was cleared for the wheelchair-bound.
Don't let pictures in the MSM fool you. The ANSWER rally organizers announced, at one point, to their crowd that they should pile in against the fence. The Leftists in this country are VERY savvy when it comes to how they are portrayed in the media. These guys knew that they had to make their numbers look large. And, of course, that's exactly what they did. One of the alert bloggers onsite that day recorded the announcement (link to be posted asap).
Hurry! Every Commie against the fence for the photo op!
For your enjoyment -- heck, who am I kidding... for mine too! -- I collected a number of pictures of the banners and signs on display at this particular spot. These were among the best of the day!
The view from the "right" side of the street.
This sign clearly represents the predominant sentiment of the Eagles crowd.Victory should NEVER be a "positive outcome," it should be the goal.
Okay, you've seen this one (still my favorite)... now for the flipside of this vet's sign (next picture)...
Blunt but probably dead on!
The guy wearing this sweatshirt said his wife made it for him --his wife is most definitely a ConservaChick in the truest sense of the word!
Park Police were constantly having to move protesters back to their line on the other side...the idiots kept wanting to get up close to our side... Maybe they wanted a badly needed education?
Need we continue to state the obvious? Or are the neo-hippies in need of some Ritalin?
Ronald Reagan lives! Amen, brother Eagle!
My favorite picture from the Iraqi elections. Do we really want to seethese folks slaughtered on our way out??
Cindy, is this really what you're about? Or is it just fun to have so much media attentionthat you don't care who you support or who you hurt?
Now THERE'S a novel idea! I'd be willing to settle for simply not re-electing them.
Some memories are still VERY fresh in the minds of pro-victory Americans.
Even the Aussies were on hand for the Gathering of Eagles. 
As Tiny Tim would say, "God bless us, everyone!"
How does this guy REALLY feel about Congress's actions of late? ;o)Okay, I thought I could do this in just two posts but there is much more to tell and it's getting late. I suppose this will have to go to three separate posts. In the next one, I'll cover the parade of idiocy across the bridge and their welcoming committee on the Arlington side as well as some links to other write-ups of the event.
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