Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Gavin Goes to a Tea Party Protest

Old high school and college schoolmate and recently re-found friend Gavin reports from Claire McCaskill's doorstep today:
Just wanted to relate my experience at my first official protest! A local radio host Dana Loesch called for a "red alert" protest at McCaskill's office to protest the health care bill. It was an "over the lunch hour" protest to make one last statement to Senator McCaskill. There were 75-100 people there at any given time. (I did a head count 2 times.) There was a lot of support from drive bys too. The office is in the city in a rough neighborhood so they have a security system that requires you to buzz in. Several people attempted to go in the office but were told they already had some constituents in the office. Their office was small so they did not want to "over crowd" it. Myself and 5 other people waited for 35 min to get entrance but to no avail. Three time a spokes person came out and repeated the line that they did not want to over crowd the office. While we were waiting to get in a man in a very expensive suit came up and walked right in. Must have been a "real" constituent. He came back out after 15 minutes. I didn't really expect to get a hearing but was amused at the technique they used to keep us out. Saw another guy in an expensive suit go in the back of the building. Lobbyists I'm guessing.
About 15 minutes after I arrived 3 police cars arrived. One lady officer went into McCaskill's office. Just checking on the staff I suppose. They stayed around till I left. Froze my rear off but got a little education in politics. There were some bloggers there with their cameras rolling but no Other media present of course.
I talked to him about my first protest experience, and he added
I never thought of myself as a discontented citizen. Look at what it took, the threat of losing my way of life. Hope I haven't waited too long to get into the fray.
It was funny. You could tell that all of us were rookie protesters. No one brought a bull horn and the chants were... a little awkward... but by golly we protested!
Been there.

Still there, really.

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