Head Count

About the most compelling photograph of the assembled masses last Saturday (9 September 2009) is the one on the right which I gleefully and remorselessly ripped off from Associated Press. (See the "Tale of Two Marines" post below.)

To be sure, there is a heated controversy concerning the head count for that event. The Obama administration, the Democrats, the Left, and all those banging the drums for status quo "Hope and Change" want to minimize the participation and discredit the event. On the other hand, those who got off our butts and made the journey --  or those of us who merely did so in spirit -- want the number to go through the roof in order to stick it to the other side, to get in their face, and to prove to ourselves that our anger and frustration is not misplaced.

You know, to prove that we are not alone.

To that end, as one wanders around the internet and culls opinion from the various posts and attached comments, one finds a variety of headcount algorithms to substantiate their arrived-at totals. There are comparisons to various sold-out stadia events ("it was bigger than Woodstock", "I remember when I was at Super Bowl XXII.."), body mass calculations ("An average human occupies five square feet"), traffic flow computations using the Pennsylvania Avenue "People Meter" and so on.

Possibly the best summary of all of these head count methods was done by Charlie Martin over at Pajamas Media who -- to the dismay of the left and the discreditors -- arrives at a very conservative figure of just about one million. Now, I will tend to believe Charlie because I am told that he is a fellow computer scientist and I'd trust a guy like that over, say, an ACORN office worker or someone in the DNC.

Seriously, Stephen Green expounds on Charlie's street creds and I rely on Stephen's drunken blogging to get me through those interminable and innumerable televised speeches by our Beloved Pantload. So Charlie's good to go in my book.

But, gentle readers, I believe we're missing the point. I think all but the most obtuse can agree that -- by any standard -- the turnout exceeded expectations. Put another way: the discreditors are working awfully hard to make their case for a conservative fizzle. I mean, the Kneepad Media are really craning their collective necks to avoid the story and the folks over at Huffpo are turning this crowd downsizing effort into a cottage industry.

Me? Well, I am just sitting here like lot of you, feeling fat and happy because I know in my heart that there were a lot of angry people who got off their ass, paid about a grand and went to Washington, D.C. to express their displeasure to Congress, an unresponsive government, and the HopenChange crowd.

And if almost a million went to D.C., then there were -- what? -- ten or twenty mil who wanted to go but were shackled to the homestead by such mundane things as work, families, kids just starting school, televised speeches by Obama. You know, the usual,

Also, consider that there were pretty big demonstrations in Quincy, Illinois and in Texas and elsewhere across the nation.

Oh yes, and add to this the fact that this occurred after a couple of buses started a month earlier in California and made their way across the country, made about three dozen stops, and rolled up some pretty impressive crowds in flyover country.

And, in the mean time, what was the big news story in July and August? Angry citizens showing up at their senators' and representatives town hall meetings expressing their displeasure with congress's general disregard for their constituents.

All in all, I'd say that We the People are a pretty pissed-off bunch and we are staring down opposition who either does not care, is living in denial, or has it's head in the sand..

..or elsewhere.