Posts tagged ‘Washington DC’

In Lafayette Square

by , posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2018 at 9:54 pm

I work about four blocks from the White House, so I decided to make my way over to Lafayette Square before heading home to see if people were gathering there. Walking into the park around 6:30pm from Pennsylvania Avenue, I didn’t hear much at first, but then I realized there was a crowd of people over on the west side listening to a speaker. It was dark, so I couldn’t tell how many people were there, but I’m guessing it had to be several hundred. Maybe more.

The last time I was in the park like that was as the Gulf War was about to break out. I remember going over for a few nights and just standing there, staring across the street at Bush 41’s White House, standing vigil, I guess, with other protesters while somebody pounded on a drum.

I can’t help but think there are more nights in Lafayette Square to come.

Crossposted from Facebook

Share

Everybody In, Nobody Out: Single-payer rally on Capitol Hill

by , posted on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 at 9:27 pm

Last Thursday was probably the hottest and most humid day of the summer so far in Washington, DC, and yet several hundred health care reform activists, brought together by the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care, stuck it out in the heat to rally and lobby for single-payer. It was the 44th anniversary of the

passage of Medicare and the day began with the delivery of Medicare birthday cupcakes and cards to congressional offices. Later in the day activists met with their representatives to lobby for single-payer. And in between a rally was held in Upper Senate Park, just across the street from the Capitol. The remarks of several of the speakers and photos from the rally follow.

(more…)

Share

Scenes from (near) the Inauguration

by , posted on Sunday, February 8th, 2009 at 9:45 pm

I didn’t make it to the Inauguration Ceremony, but I got close. Just about as close as it was possible to get without a ticket. As close, in fact, as some people got with a ticket.

I didn’t make it to the parade, either. After an hour of hanging around in the bitter cold, waiting to see if I was going to get lucky and land a ticket at the last second, I had had my fill. The last thing I wanted to do by that point was stand in the back of the crowd behind the early birds somewhere along the parade route for a few more hours so that I could listen to the sounds of a parade I could not see. But I did spend the better part of two days roaming around the edge of it all. And I took pictures. A lot of pictures.

(more…)

Share

Drinking Liberally in DC with Chris Bowers

by , posted on Sunday, August 26th, 2007 at 11:10 pm

Originally posted at Fireside 14 and Prairie State Blue.

Drinking Liberally is, in it’s own words, “an informal gathering of like-minded left-leaners who want to trade ideas, get more involved, or just share each other’s company… and every week kvetch, vent, ponder, and pontificate on the issues of the day.”  And in DC once a month they have guest speakers.  Last Thursday the guest speaker was Chris Bowers of Open Left, and I stopped in to hear what he had to say.

(more…)

Share