I went to The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Chicago today. It was an interesting experience. I really enjoyed a lot of speakers, but there was an odd kind of controversy during the rally. The Chicago rally organizer had decided to have a jumbo-tron at the rally site. They played the introductory remarks from the Washington D.C. rally and then have the sound off during the speakers. A large number of rally attendees objected to this and demanded that the television’s audio be restored in lieu of listening to the speakers. I found this particularly annoying. This was not a rally watching party. This rally, while held in conjunction with the D.C. rally, did have a set program of speakers, musicians and comics and that is what I went to the rally to see. The D.C. rally was on television and people wanted to watch T.V. then why did they come all the way down to Grant Park. When someone finally voiced the opinion that those who wanted to watch T.V. could go home, a large group actually got up and left. I don’t know what the proper situation would be but I found it surprising the type of people who wanted to watch T.V. as opposed to those who wanted to listen to the speakers. The majority of T.V. watchers around me seemed to me to be middle aged. The type of people that I would assume would have been around to remember the 1960s protest movement and would object to the crowds focusing on the watching a rally so far away when there were people there who wanted to speak to them. I just found it surprising, for what it is worth.
No comments:
Post a Comment