LaGrange Report from Washington DC

Well, we know at least 11 members of the LaGrange Patriots made the journey to DC for the 9-12 March on DC. We did encounter two other crowd members wearing LaGrange Patriots shirts and there certainly could be more that we weren't aware of.

It was an incredible event that every one of us would attend again if we had the chance. We began on Thursday by presenting our GA senators with the petition signed at the LaGrange Tea Party. Then after a couple days of sightseeing in the historic city, the magic began on 9-12.

None of us had any idea what to expect on Saturday. Everyone kept asking us how many people would come and how big the event would be. We were given our first clue when approaching the Metro station and seeing dozens of people with Gadsden flags and Tea Party tshirts. But it hit us much harder when the train arrived jam packed with fellow protesters. At every train stop, people would cheer as more Patriots would pile into the Metro train.

When we finally managed to get out of the train and reached the street level, it seemed that everyone we could see was there for the event. So we began the trek to Freedom Plaza where the march was planned to begin. What we saw amazed us, as the Plaza was completely jammed with people making their voices heard. Here is a scan of a small portion of the crowd in the Plaza...

Once the plaza became too overcrowded, people began gathering in the streets and blocking traffic because they had no where else to go. We had some great speakers at the Freedom Plaza rally including our friend Jonathan Krohn. Everyone was definitely getting energized and ready to march. Then, it was announced that the police were forcing us to begin our march over an hour early because of the massive overcrowding. So the march began...

The march itself was tremendous. Floods of people going down Pennsylvania Ave toward the Capitol building. The spirit of the crowd was great with chanting and singing spontaneously breaking out. There was no sign of conflicts or violence at all. The crowd marching down the street was extremely large, but we could see down the side streets and see others marching down other streets as well.

Once we arrived at the Capitol, the main Capitol lawn was already pretty much full. And this was still at least an hour earlier than we were supposed to be there. We began filling the area around the reflective pond and floods of people kept arriving from the march. Soon they were filling the mall below. Here is a scan of the crowd from under the Grant statue at the bottom of the Capitol lawn...

Even hours into the event, they would announce that the marchers were still coming down Pennsylvania Ave. At the rally, the speeches were excellent and the time seemed to fly by. A couple representatives of Georgia spoke including Rep. Tom Price. My favorite line of the day came from Rep. Mike Pence from Indiana. He said, "many people say the people here are astroturf, not Americans. After nine years of fighting runaway federal spending here on Capitol Hill... you people look like the calvary to me." Here is the full speech by Pence...

Before we knew it, the event was over. But not until after a historic gathering of fiscal conservatives met for one of the rare times in US history. See, conservatives aren't typically the type to go out and protest at some event. Usually, they are happy handling their responsibilities and caring for their families while just requesting that the government leave them alone. But in today's environment, many realize this utopia is no more, and we will have to take a stand if we want our children to realize the same country we have enjoyed our entire lives.