jdmyprez_deo_vindice
01-23-2008, 10:50 AM
I drove about two hours to catch the subway to the Smithsonian where we were meeting up for the day. I arrived a little after 8 a.m. and there was a small group out there already. Within a few minutes there were a couple of vehicles that arrived loaded down with signs,stickers,hats,banners,poles,etc. We got everything out and immediately got to work passing out literature to the first arrivals coming in on the subway.
Around 8:45 we broke up in to teams and the first team went to the MCI center where a pre march youth rally was taking place and about 8 our people met them coming out of the building with signs and slim jims. We also had "pro life" cards with the image of Ron Paul holding a newborn wrapped in the flag. These seemed to go over well.
I went with the second team over towards the White House. We passed out a little bit of literature in that area and we did sign waves at each intersection. After a brief period over there my group came back towards the Smithsonian and started passing out more literature among the crowd (which was growing quickly). We also had teams which were meeting the buses as they arrived and handing out literature to everyone getting off the busses. My group managed to get in front of quite a few cameras which were doing interviews with people on the ground. I personally talked with people from a Japanese news agency,nbc and abc.
After a half hour or so of passing out literature and sign waving we got to work helping to get banners and signs set up throughout the capitol mall. The crowd was really growing at this point so everyone decided to take their positions throught the crowd. I was in the extreme left of the front row by the stage. A singing group known as "the voices of liberty" took the stage and sang a few Christian songs and patriotic songs through which we waved our signs like mad.
When the singing was done, the speakers took the stage and the second speaker was Ron Paul and we went wild when he took the stage. He gave a strong speech which elicited a great reaction from the crowd. He discussed his experience as an ob/gyn and even touched on the constitution and taxes. The crowd around me really ate it up!
When Dr. Paul finished speaking he came off the stage and came right over into the crowd and shook hands and met with people. He thanked me for coming out and braving the cold (it was at or below freezing all day long) and then he was shuffled off to get to the rear of the stage where he met more people. I left the area since the other speakers coming up were neocons who I did not care to hear and plus I had to get back to work. I joined back with some other supporters and started a procession down towards the starting point of the march route. I handed out more literature and stickers and answered quite a few questions. When I got to the starting point I joined up with a fellow supporter from Pittsburgh,PA who had a HUGE banner that read "support the sanctity of life act and sponsor Ron Paul". We moved down the parade route and took a position on a small wall across from the FEC building and across the street from another team who was holding a banner. When the march started we held the banner up as high as we could for the entire march and we had tons of support from the crowd. We had many people scream "ron paul" and a lot of thumbs up and I even had people leave the march to come up and shake my hand to say thank you for being there and doing this. When the march had passed, another supporter took my spot with the banner and they formed the rear of the line. I started my way back towards the Smithsonian station and passed out hat remaining literature I had to the D.C. police and I thanked them for the job they did and told them how Ron Paul understands how difficult their jobs can and how he wants to help them out. They were very receptive to the message. On my way back towards the station I was looking for any literature or stickers that were thrown on the ground and I only found 2 things which I picked up.
I made it back to the subway station I left from at roughly 4 p.m., I was tired and freezing cold and could barely lift my arms over my head from all the sign waving and banner holding. I went into the parking garage and quickly found that MY TRUCK WAS STOLEN. Another woman could not find her van which was near my truck in the parking garage so it looks like a team hit the location and took off with several vehicles. So I went back to the subway station and had the customer service people call the police. Since I was upset about my truck and had to wait for the police to show up, I decided to take my mind off things and campaign outside of the subway station. I talked to several homeless guys and I went back in the station and bought them some hot food and gave them a few dollars along with some slim jims which they started passing out for me on the other sides of the station. I passed out a lot of stuff to people coming in and out including a lot of military men and women who were very supportive. There was one old black lady who walked by and adjusted her glasses to look up at my sign. She said "is that for Ron Paul? so I responded with "yes ma'am" and she replied with "I love that man, I even gave him some money and I am going to vote for him".
Shortly after the incident with the elderly lady is when the cop arrived. She was one of the nicest cops I had ever met and was very helpful and very consoling. So we sat in her car so I could have some heat while she filled out the incident report and I gave her some literature and she listened to what I had to say and she agreed that he was what we needed and she will be voting for him in the Maryland primary. Two hours later my wife showed up to pick me up and to be quite honest, I am still cold lol
So outside of the truck incident it was a GREAT day for us. One of the march organizers told me that they think they had close to 140,000 people out there and I know that we got the attention of everyone in the crowd and I would say we got literature to at least 75% of them.
I only ran into a few people who had negative remarks to make but I ran into a TON who had positive things to say. Some of the folks were getting off their buses with their own Ron Paul signs and they had no idea we were going to be there. I had numerous people tell me that they were supporting Huckabee but they took our slim jims and stickers and almost all of them said like "I am really disappointed that Huckabee did not come here but I see that your man is here and all of you guys are out here standing up for what you believe in so I think I am going to vote for Ron Paul". By the end of the day we had converted a LOT of voters and had exposed thousands to the message of Dr. Paul and even those who were not converted were left with a very positive image of his supporters.
A big thank you to the legion of supporters who showed up and campaigned their hearts out. Many of us did not even stop to eat or drink so we could keep working and we all suffered through bone chilling cold to get that message out so big kudos to all of those who made this happen.
SOME QICK NOTES
This was broadcast live by EWTN and was also simulcast on their website (or so we were told)
C-SPAN was recording this event and I have no idea when it will be aired
Many news agencies were taking photos so be on the lookout for those images of our banners and supporters
One item of concern is that many people said they liked Ron Paul but they had heard he dropped out of the race. I dont know where they got this information but we need to think of a way to counter this thought on a massive scale.
Sorry if this post seems jumbled but even now I am still cold and I am tired and sore as hell so please cut me some slack lol
Around 8:45 we broke up in to teams and the first team went to the MCI center where a pre march youth rally was taking place and about 8 our people met them coming out of the building with signs and slim jims. We also had "pro life" cards with the image of Ron Paul holding a newborn wrapped in the flag. These seemed to go over well.
I went with the second team over towards the White House. We passed out a little bit of literature in that area and we did sign waves at each intersection. After a brief period over there my group came back towards the Smithsonian and started passing out more literature among the crowd (which was growing quickly). We also had teams which were meeting the buses as they arrived and handing out literature to everyone getting off the busses. My group managed to get in front of quite a few cameras which were doing interviews with people on the ground. I personally talked with people from a Japanese news agency,nbc and abc.
After a half hour or so of passing out literature and sign waving we got to work helping to get banners and signs set up throughout the capitol mall. The crowd was really growing at this point so everyone decided to take their positions throught the crowd. I was in the extreme left of the front row by the stage. A singing group known as "the voices of liberty" took the stage and sang a few Christian songs and patriotic songs through which we waved our signs like mad.
When the singing was done, the speakers took the stage and the second speaker was Ron Paul and we went wild when he took the stage. He gave a strong speech which elicited a great reaction from the crowd. He discussed his experience as an ob/gyn and even touched on the constitution and taxes. The crowd around me really ate it up!
When Dr. Paul finished speaking he came off the stage and came right over into the crowd and shook hands and met with people. He thanked me for coming out and braving the cold (it was at or below freezing all day long) and then he was shuffled off to get to the rear of the stage where he met more people. I left the area since the other speakers coming up were neocons who I did not care to hear and plus I had to get back to work. I joined back with some other supporters and started a procession down towards the starting point of the march route. I handed out more literature and stickers and answered quite a few questions. When I got to the starting point I joined up with a fellow supporter from Pittsburgh,PA who had a HUGE banner that read "support the sanctity of life act and sponsor Ron Paul". We moved down the parade route and took a position on a small wall across from the FEC building and across the street from another team who was holding a banner. When the march started we held the banner up as high as we could for the entire march and we had tons of support from the crowd. We had many people scream "ron paul" and a lot of thumbs up and I even had people leave the march to come up and shake my hand to say thank you for being there and doing this. When the march had passed, another supporter took my spot with the banner and they formed the rear of the line. I started my way back towards the Smithsonian station and passed out hat remaining literature I had to the D.C. police and I thanked them for the job they did and told them how Ron Paul understands how difficult their jobs can and how he wants to help them out. They were very receptive to the message. On my way back towards the station I was looking for any literature or stickers that were thrown on the ground and I only found 2 things which I picked up.
I made it back to the subway station I left from at roughly 4 p.m., I was tired and freezing cold and could barely lift my arms over my head from all the sign waving and banner holding. I went into the parking garage and quickly found that MY TRUCK WAS STOLEN. Another woman could not find her van which was near my truck in the parking garage so it looks like a team hit the location and took off with several vehicles. So I went back to the subway station and had the customer service people call the police. Since I was upset about my truck and had to wait for the police to show up, I decided to take my mind off things and campaign outside of the subway station. I talked to several homeless guys and I went back in the station and bought them some hot food and gave them a few dollars along with some slim jims which they started passing out for me on the other sides of the station. I passed out a lot of stuff to people coming in and out including a lot of military men and women who were very supportive. There was one old black lady who walked by and adjusted her glasses to look up at my sign. She said "is that for Ron Paul? so I responded with "yes ma'am" and she replied with "I love that man, I even gave him some money and I am going to vote for him".
Shortly after the incident with the elderly lady is when the cop arrived. She was one of the nicest cops I had ever met and was very helpful and very consoling. So we sat in her car so I could have some heat while she filled out the incident report and I gave her some literature and she listened to what I had to say and she agreed that he was what we needed and she will be voting for him in the Maryland primary. Two hours later my wife showed up to pick me up and to be quite honest, I am still cold lol
So outside of the truck incident it was a GREAT day for us. One of the march organizers told me that they think they had close to 140,000 people out there and I know that we got the attention of everyone in the crowd and I would say we got literature to at least 75% of them.
I only ran into a few people who had negative remarks to make but I ran into a TON who had positive things to say. Some of the folks were getting off their buses with their own Ron Paul signs and they had no idea we were going to be there. I had numerous people tell me that they were supporting Huckabee but they took our slim jims and stickers and almost all of them said like "I am really disappointed that Huckabee did not come here but I see that your man is here and all of you guys are out here standing up for what you believe in so I think I am going to vote for Ron Paul". By the end of the day we had converted a LOT of voters and had exposed thousands to the message of Dr. Paul and even those who were not converted were left with a very positive image of his supporters.
A big thank you to the legion of supporters who showed up and campaigned their hearts out. Many of us did not even stop to eat or drink so we could keep working and we all suffered through bone chilling cold to get that message out so big kudos to all of those who made this happen.
SOME QICK NOTES
This was broadcast live by EWTN and was also simulcast on their website (or so we were told)
C-SPAN was recording this event and I have no idea when it will be aired
Many news agencies were taking photos so be on the lookout for those images of our banners and supporters
One item of concern is that many people said they liked Ron Paul but they had heard he dropped out of the race. I dont know where they got this information but we need to think of a way to counter this thought on a massive scale.
Sorry if this post seems jumbled but even now I am still cold and I am tired and sore as hell so please cut me some slack lol