The girls' first political rally

As the girls get older it is a question how to introduce them to the political process and how to instill democratic (as in democracy not party) values in them. This has been a particularly ugly election season and they have been seeing these adds on TV. I was extremely excited when John Stewart announced the "Rally to Restore Sanity" and at the same time sad because I knew I was not going to be able to fly to D.C. to participate. When I found out there was going to be a satellite rally here in Seattle I made up my mind to bring the whole family.

The sign that made the deepest impression on me read "I am a radicalized moderate". This is how I feel. With media and politicians only catering to the fringe extremists moderate voices are not being heart. I once read a comment from a fundamentalist agitator which said something like that: What do you expect? It is hard to get excited about being moderate. But I think the point has come that moderates are getting excited about being moderate and start making a stand against the noise makers at the fringes.

For Northwesterners that meant getting up early on a Saturday morning, going downtown and standing for several hours in the rain. There were several thousand people at Westlake Park and the police had to partially close off the street to create more space. The girls did a good job standing and listening to speeches and comedians. I do not know if they learnt something but what it comes down to is that you need to stand up for what you believe. They were most entertained by Beaker. Here are some pics of the event.