2 Protests in 1 Day (Part 1)

While we had decided to meet some friends at Eastern Market in downtown DC, we heard that there was going to be an anti-war protest at the White House and I thought it would be a great opportunity for some photos. I was correct. Ralph Nader spoke while a pretty diverse group of people protested President Obama as well as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan then marched down Pennsylvania avenue.

We then heard that there was going to be an anti-healthcare tea party protest at the Capitol so we made our way over there. Not only did we get to see the President’s motorcade but we also got to see the tea party movement in full effect. It was a much much less diverse crowd than the anti-war protest and the general feeling was a bit more hostile (even though we did see a flag burning at the anti-war protest). These upper-middle class white folks were protesting the health care bill in hopes of discouraging Congressmen from voting for it this weekend, which is understandable. But they were yelling awful awful things. Like the anti-war protest, I was just there to take photos and my friends were simply there to observe the scene. Unfortunately, the protesters were rather mean to us. I was pretty much accused of being some hippie homosexual simply because I was wearing a lavender colored shirt. I was also flipped off when taking a photo of one gentleman. It was bizarre. While the anti-war protesters didn’t much care that I wasn’t one of them, the tea party protesters were immediately aware that I was an outsider and were none too happy about it.

All in all, it was a pretty fantastic day that yielded some great photos. I’m happy that I got to see democracy in action in two similar but very different manners. The First Amendment will always be my favorite.