It Was A BFD

Yesterday, accompanied by the lovely Mrs. Gammons, I attended the "Moving America Forward" rally on the Oval at OSU. This was a Democratic get-out-the-vote stem-winder promoted for perhaps two weeks via email and a few campus flyers. Gates were open at 5:00, with the program starting at 6:15.

With so little advance publicity, ol' Buster figured on a modest turnout. We got there around 5, and boy, was ol' Buster wrong. At that point, the line to enter the Oval was already backed up to the stadium and halfway around it. (Eventually, the line completely encircled the stadium.) Once the line started moving, it us took an hour to reach the security gates at the entrance. It was the airport drill -- empty your pockets, walk thru a metal detector. (Somehow, I beeped and was wanded. The officer kept asking if I had an artificial hip or knee. No I don't, thank you very much. Do I look that fuckin' bad? Maybe I do.)

As we made our way onto the Oval, it quickly became obvious that this was going to be a really big crowd. Already there were many thousands of people. We got as close as we could and the podium was still just a speck visible only to those over 6 feet tall. And behind us, they kept coming and coming. Officially, they put the total at 35,000 people. The rallies later this month in D.C. -- Jon Stewart's "Restoring Sanity" and Steven Colbert's "Keeping the Fear Alive" -- will draw more, but they have nightly TV shows to help them. I thought that a turnout of 35,000 via email was pretty damn impressive. Just to be there was awesome!

There were singers and preachers and the Central State University drum line. John Legend performed. We heard from Mayor Mike, Mary Jo Kilroy, Yvette McGee Brown, Lee Fisher, and Ted Strickland. John Glenn made a nice little speech. The headliners were, of course, Barack and Michelle Obama. The whole thing was a worthwhile 4 hours of constant standing. My sore back was small price to pay.

I got several compliments on my "Health Reform Is A BFD" t-shirt. Also had an old lady ask me what my shirt meant. I explained that it was what Joe Biden whispered to Obama at the signing ceremony for the health reform bill. The old gal said, "Yes, but what does BFD mean?" So I told her. I get a perverse sense of pleasure from shocking old ladies!