By: Oyate (Trevor)
Well let's see here. Where to start?
We were all pretty busy with last minute details upon arrival in DC. Somehow
everything got done. Due to our 5 months of planning, we knew what we needed
to get done. My main responsibility was training and assembling the Marshal
staff, and these folks were prepared to handle pretty much any kind of crisis
that evolved during the day. I had very competent help with this from Ed and
Catherine. The Marshals themselves also took their job very seriously and
they behaved professionally both in training and at the actual event.
Arriving on scene at 6:30 AM I found Michael Vonasten, our production manager
hard at work with his group of sound technicians and grips. We took whomever
else we found on site and started setting up all the tables and chairs. As
people began arriving in serious numbers, it became clear to me that my plan
to be present at our assembly area by the Washington Monument would be
impossible. The radios were already blazing with Marshal communications. So
ironically, my name was on the permits that secured our right to be there but
I was never actually there. But over the radios, I could hear Marshal Ed whom
I put in control of that location doing a great job.
As Ed and DC Metro Police began the actual march, we had a map spread out on
the operations table and we tracked the beginning and end of the march street
by street. When I heard our lead or "front door" Marshal reach 6th Street, I
could look down Pennsylvania avenue and see you coming. It looked like this
massive human wave and it stretched on as far as the eye could see. That was
the first indication I had that this event was BIG. I mean there were a
seriously LOT of people heading our way. But by then the sound system was up
and cranking and our MCs Gary and Ernie geared up to whip you all up into a
frenzy. And suddenly, you were all there, filling up the West Capitol lawn
and looking ever so fine.
That was about the time when people started passing out from the heat. We
weren't planning on handing out water to the crowd but it quickly became
apparent that we'd have many, many medical emergencies if we didn't. So a
spontaneous effort ensued and with donations collected on the spot, we
managed to hand out over 4,000 bottles of water. Our medical team treated
over 9 people for heat exhaustion and we had one twisted ankle to treat. Only
one person was transported off the scene by DC Fire medics. Everyone else we
were able to revive and get back on their feet.
Amusingly, we were infiltrated by some folks from the Wonkette boards and I'm
impressed they actually showed up. Their intent seemed to be to mock us, and
some of their signs were quite creative and funny. There were also odder
persons in attendance who seemed to want to disrupt things, they were highly
intoxicated and rather unpleasant but they caused no injury of destruction.
There were also several in attendance who featured profanity regarding the
government on their signs and Capitol Hill Police were not at all amused by
this, but basically when we asked the offenders to maybe consider putting the
signs down they were like "no" and we sort of looked at the cops and they
looked at us and we all just sort of shrugged our shoulders. It was kind of
an "oh well, we tried" moment. If you can't have free speech at a gathering
of Constitutionalists, where can you have it?
The most tense moment for us Marshals was when Dr. Paul was on location. We
pretty much threw everybody we had to forming a line for his entry and exit.
We knew that you would surge to meet him after his speech and that was just
too problematic a scenario. We decided to scoot him right out of there and
that we did with great energy and enthusiasm. We might have kind of overdone
that part because we practically ran him out of there. It was like he was on
wings. But that part went by OK and then we finally just barely got a chance
to relax a bit. The radio calls about whatever issues slowed to a more
manageable pace and we managed at some point to get some pizza into the
Marshals because they'd been out there, on their feet, in the sun all day.
With the assistance of the crowd, we got the place cleaned up and everything
packed away at the end of the event. Almost everybody pitched in. We then
repaired to the Holiday Inn for a little get together that was legendary in
it's own right. That lasted until about 3:30 AM and moved in and out of
several rooms. We were broadcasting live on ReVOLTUIONBroadcasting.com and
generally acting like heroes. Nobody can say conservatives can't party.
What I really appreciate about everybody who volunteered to be a Marshal and
did all the training is you could ask these people to do anything and they
would do it with 100% fidelity and enthusiasm. You could see the capability
of the movement right before your eyes. 34 of us handled that whole event. So
when you see the t-shirt of the R3VOlUTION Marshal, this is somebody you can
trust.
Well, by the end of this whole thing I was utterly exhausted. It took us all 5
months of almost fulltime work. And people seemed to have a really good time.
There are like a gazillion YouTubes of the event and we had some outstanding
speakers. And of course, no action in the movement would be complete if we
didn't have some critics saying it was a miserable failure. That's as
inevitable as the sun rising in the morning. I enjoyed myself immensely
although I was too busy running around to listen to a single speaker.
My handle is Oyate and I'm interested in street action. R3VOLTUIONMarch.com
exists to do exactly what we did: mass action. We're thinking about doing it
again next year, but we're always interested to hear about your plans for
large rallies or marches or whatever. We look forward to serving the movement
in the future.
