Ashevillians who attended the 9/12 March on DC are still “jazzed.” Assigned to compile a story on the march after I failed to attend it, my solicitations for information have so far resulted in fifteen email commentaries with links to sites and photos, two telephone calls, one complaint for not including somebody in my solicitations, and tons of complaints for my failure to attend. Folks still have another twenty hours to respond.
The word from the street is that at least two million were in attendance with traffic backed up to Fredericksburg. Photos show dots of people as far as the eye can see. Respondents say they have never been a part of any event like this. They say people will read about it in history books, but the newspapers aren’t saying anything about it locally. My neighbors said they had to get their information from the Drudge Report.
People were angry, but they were nice. Protesters felt safe. Participants were professionals and grandparents with walkers. The average age was estimated to be 50. The speeches were good. All the litter was going into garbage cans. The complete reconstruction will be available in the Asheville Tribune later this week.