I did make it out for lunch, but not to the bank. You’ve got to prioritize, you know?
Downingtown was a complete disaster. There are detour signs all over the place. They’re using all of the municipal vehicles to block roadways that lead to route 30 through town so that when the president leaves to visit St. Joseph’s (what the heck?), he is in no danger of encountering traffic.
Also on the way back.
So Downingtown will be a mess for quite some time. Fortunately, this is all going on while real people are working, so only folks who under Bush’s administration are unemployed, retired, involved in the campaign, or complete lunatics are able to attend the… rally? What is this thing he’s doing called, anyway?
When I got back from lunch, I parked in work’s driveway and stood with Ken in the field across the way. Protesters (ie- anyone who wasn’t holding a ticket to the event) weren’t allowed to get any closer than the field across the street. There were quite a bit more people over there than last time Bush stopped here. They all had signs and would occasionally chant good things about Kerry and bad things about Bush. They were being herded into a specific area by officers on horses.
I took a few pictures of the helicopters landing. There were five or six. All at once exciting and disappointing. You certainly don’t get that feeling of being near power from this presdent like you do from, say, the pope. Or my cat, Pooh.
And that’s it. I couldn’t get any closer because of the police. Not that they looked too threatening, but I just didn’t care. The only reason I would consider getting so close is to cause a scene, and Mom warned me not to get thrown in jail, so…
I’ll have to ask Dennis and Holly how it was. They apparently had tickets. Next time, I’m going to get some tickets. Maybe I’ll see if I can get into a Kerry event. I think there is one yet this month in Philly somewhere.
Or, I could give up this political nonsense altogether.
