March on DC - A View from the Heartland

The following is a report of the 9/12 D.C. March experience of Rachael Wohletz, a parishioner from Our Lady of Good Counsel, Catholic Church in Kansas City, Missouri. I am reading so many such reports and have a hard time doing so through the tears of joy that fill my eyes. I plan to clear my schedule no matter what for the next one. If this one was around 2 million marchers, imagine what the next will be as our numbers grow! (I have altered not a word.)

Patriotic Dissent: The Astroturf Mob in Washington, DC

9/12/09

The excitement was tangible, preparing for the most important trip of my life to this point. This was not a vacation, and it wasn’t going to feel like one, either. My dad, my boss, and I were gearing up for an exhaustive amount of traveling. We were going to Washington, DC, to show them we are not going to put up with big (and intrusive) government or a new American brand of Socialism. Period.

Our itinerary was not an easy one: we flew out of Kansas City on Friday, September 11, in the evening, and arrived late in Washington, DC. We stayed at the Navy Lodge by Bolling Air Force Base, rising at 6am to take a cab to Freedom Plaza (just 2 blocks from the White House). After the March on Washington we were flying home the same day. But let me tell you: it was well worth it!

Taking the taxi from the Naval base to Freedom Plaza was very surreal. Here we were, in our nation’s capital, passing the historical attractions that bring millions to it every year on sight-seeing trips. And yet, the only way we were going to see these monuments ourselves was in our march past them on Pennsylvania Avenue.

There would be no tourism for us. We were dropped off just two blocks from the White House; we could see the gate and fence clearly from where we alighted. Somehow, however, I knew the occupant was not home. We arrived at Freedom Plaza around 8am, and a small crowd was gathering. The schedule for the day’s events had specified an 8:30am meeting time, so I was dismayed at the thought of only a small throng of patriots, instead of the hundreds of thousands for whom we were hoping. At 8:30, the people started coming…in droves. They flooded the side streets, conquered the Plaza, and plugged the main political artery in DC like a blood clot. We were here! And we were proud!

There were some amazing speeches, by ordinary Americans who had no teleprompter, and some with no real speaking experience. The invocation at the beginning was led by Lt. Col. Courtney Rogers (retired), and it was inspiring to the core. There is a part of the prayer called “restore” (she handed out pamphlets with the words of her prayer so we could pass it along) that moved me deeply. Her passion while saying the words was incredible, and genuine. Here is a part of the prayer:

We pray that we all find the courage, commitment, and resolve, to offer our time, our resources, our leadership, and our lives, to answer Your call.

“Restore Me.”

Restore Me in your hearts.

Restore Me in your homes.

Restore Me in your schools and at work.

Restore Me in your city halls and state capitols.

Restore Me in your Supreme Court.

Restore Me in the Halls of Congress and of the Senate.

Restore Me in the White House itself.

The cheers rang out after every call to restore God in our government faculties. The godlessness of our leaders and their push for the godlessness of our country is a prelude to the coming onslaught on our freedom.

After the invocation and a rousing speech by an African-American minister from Shreveport, LA, over the loud speaker came one of my favorite post-9/11 songs: “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” by Toby Keith. The crowd was singing along, applauding the patriotic words and the strength behind them. We were pumped up, ready to rock and bring our country back to the rightful owners: us, the American people. At one point, in the midst of the growing masses and the powerful speeches, a black man was walking through the crowd near me, calling on us to “burn down the White House” and “go hang that n*****.”

I was confused, wondering how someone so incredibly hostile had come to join our cause. Then I realized that he was an agitator, sent by someone who wanted to discredit our authenticity and make us all out to appear racist. I started following him with my video rolling. When I called him out on his mission, he immediately began a barrage of illogical insults, calling me a “white devil” and suggesting that the only reason we were there was because the president is black. A few of us were attempting to reason with him, explaining it is about his character and ideology, not his color. I pointed to all the signs around us, becoming irate at his accusations (I am done putting up with ridiculous insults and unreasonable claims of racism and anarchy), and I told him to show me ONE sign that depicted Obama’s race rather than his philosophy. Of course, someone that ignorant of our cause and closed-minded about society isn’t going to listen, or even hear me at all, but I felt it needed to be said. I will be sending that video to every news station I can. This is deliberate misdirection and misapplication of the values we are trying to keep intact. We won’t stand for it.

And yet, with all the insults and name-calling this man was throwing out at us, he walked through the crowd untouched. No one attacked him, no one threatened him. THAT is the caliber of people we are. I wonder if we would have received the same treatment from his friends had the situation been reversed. (Finger removal, anyone?)Thankfully, that was the only incident of this nature of which I’m aware.

Soon after that, we began our march down to the Capitol building. We claimed Pennsylvania Avenue as our own that morning, making our way toward the one place that should represent everything that we hold dear, and all on which this country was founded. As I got closer to the Capitol, I became enraged at the corruption and lack of dignity with which these people WE elected have infiltrated it. How dare they have the audacity to treat their constituents and fellow Americans with such disdain and contempt. How dare they ignore us!

Even after the main portion of the Americans had reached the Capitol, the streets continued to fill as more and more and more people joined. It was endless! CNN said there were approximately 30,000 people in attendance. That would have been impressive, yes, but certainly not as impressive as the 1.2 million people the law enforcement officer estimated to a fellow patriot. They have a way of being able to tell how many people are there based by where the crowd ends on the lawn. His assessment was given before the remainder of the crowd had arrived. Fox News estimated 1.4 million, and NBC (shocker!) estimated 2 million! Regardless of the actual figure, suffice it to say we made our point in numbers.

The experience of this movement has been powerful for me. President Obama talks about bi-partisanship. That is what we are! Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Catholics, Protestants, Atheists, all with one big thing in common: we are AMERICANS and are PROUD of it! We do NOT want to see the fabric of our beloved country torn to shreds by corrupted, selfish, power-hungry “representatives,” regardless of their party affiliation. The purpose for our “tea parties” is not just health care. That certainly is the icing on the cake, but our cause embodies all our core principles. We are against abortion, excessive spending, big government, higher taxes instead of the “line-by-line audit” that was promised and not delivered by our president, Socialism (or similar tactics), corruption (including associations of deplorable character and records), and a usurpation of our rights (such as the first and second Amendments). Let it be known to all those who would destroy our liberty: We are coming for you, November 2010. Be prepared to lose your job.