Rally to Save the American Dream

Yesterday I met my friend Pat at Mac’s and we drove to Montpelier for the rally. It started out as a “We stand with Wisconsin” rally but along the way it turned into a “Save the American Dream” rally.  There were rallies in all 50 states.  Pat and I parked downtown and walked to the Capitol Building.  The speakers were on the stairs and we were all on the first big terrace.  Some people had done all the shoveling so we’d have a place to stand — we gave them a big round of applause.  When Pat and I got there, we were handed signs:  “DON’T CUT US OUT” with silhouettes of public workers, and “UNIONS MAKE US STRONG”.  I went up to the top landing to get our signs stapled to two sticks.  I also tried to get a picture from up there but alas my batteries had run down.
When we first arrived, someone was leading the crowd in singing.  Then one of the organizers said “What does democracy look like?” and we all shouted back “This is what democracy looks like!” over & over, louder & LOUDER!  A woman who’d been in jobs that were unionized and jobs that weren’t, spoke about the differences in her experience — the difference between having to work at several low-paying jobs in order to make ends meet, and having a living wage that lets you spend time with your family.  A man spoke about “the American Dream” and how it used to be about a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage, but now it’s about people needing relationships and co-operation, not another material goody.  At the end, one of the organizers spoke of the many reasons he has hope.
I’m really glad I went.  It felt good to stand there with a bunch of people who don’t like what’s happening in our country, to cheer and clap and wave our signs.  There were even signs connecting us to the Egyptian revolution — “WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN,” and one that said “more cheese – less sleaze” with a picture of Wallace & Grommit.  One person was wearing a hat that looked like a big piece of cheese.  Pat told me that’s Wisconsin’s claim to fame.  You can see a lot of those hats in the pictures.
About 7PM last night I went to the MoveOn site and saw pictures of all the rallies.  There were at least 4 that I could recognize as Montpelier.  It gave me such a sense of hope to feel that we had all done this together.