The threat of bears did not scare Columbia Lions from showing up in full force to the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington D.C. over Halloween weekend—but, for some, transit issues did.
The rally, headed by political satirists Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, attracted a huge crowd to the nation's capital on October 30, shortly before midterm elections.
Shara Morris, BC ’11, said she was in good spirits despite staying up all night the night before to catch one of over 200 free Huffington Post buses, and arriving so late to the rally that she and her friends watched Jon Stewart’s closing speech from the tops of Porta-Potties.
“I think sometimes part of the experience is just being around people, being here and being part of a very memorable event,” she said.
There were two jumbotron screens and a single set of speakers near the stage, for a 200,000-person crowd that stretched a mile down the National Mall.
Although the unmistakable scent of marijuana wafted through the air, many students said the rally will not be remembered as this generation’s Woodstock.
“This rally definitely won’t have the same historical significance as Woodstock,” Jordan Hollarsmith, CC ’12, said. “It was just goofy. I don’t see why it would go down in history.”
Pazia Miller, BC ’14, said the event came and went too quickly to have the lasting impact of Woodstock.
“It wasn’t like meeting people and going wild and crazy,” she said.
Her friend Deborah Sachare, BC ‘14, noted that the crowd spanned many generations, defying predictions that this would be an event for the so-called “Jon Stewart generation” of college students and 20-somethings. By many accounts, there were as many toddlers and senior citizens as there were college students.
In his closing speech, Stewart attempted to get serious, after three hours of levity that included a guitar duel between folk legend Cat Stevens and “Prince of Darkness” Ozzy Osbourne, Colbert and Stewart fighting after showing up in matching American flag pullovers, and a tribute to Anderson Cooper’s tight black T-shirts.
“I think if you have this many people together, it’s a shame not to say something meaningful,” Marit Pearlman, CC ’10, said of Stewart’s speech, in which the comedian encouraged people to unite as Americans despite the pressures of the media.
Hollarsmith, who traveled on a Megabus, said she was amazed by the number of people who showed up.
“I was astounded by how packed it was. I don’t think they were prepared for it. Half the crowd couldn’t see or hear anything,” she said.
About halfway through the crowd, audience members cheered, not for anything Stewart or Colbert said, but to encourage those who attempted to climb 20-foot trees for a distant glimpse of a jumbotron.
Phil Primason, CC ’10, drove to the nation’s capital the night before from New York, and said he and his friends had a good view of one of the jumbotrons.
“It was fun, but I wasn’t expecting to gain any serious political insight. It was just fun to be here and to do this with friends,” he said.
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