Here is a post that I put up on Blog for America.

Today, hundreds of thousands of Americans gathered in Washington to express their displeasure with the current administration, it's policies in Iraq and the horrible effect those policies are having on people across America. We will be able to read about it in the newspapers and watch it on TV soon enough; however, the soundbytes of demonstrations—like the soundbytes of politicians—do not adequately reflect what really happens.

I played cell phone tag with David A. Stevenson and Sal and directed them to where the DFA folks where gathering. cHeRyL! and Lois in Maryland directed several of us over to the Code Pink rally where Joan Baez was singing. Marian in Ohio and several others set off on the first part of the march as I waited for David and Sal. We caught up with several folks from Democracy for Maryland as well as folks from Georgia to San Diego.

It wasn't just the national politics that united us. Several of us talked about the importance of races further down the ticket, such as Melissa Berger's campaign for House of Delegates in Maryland. We talked about the importance of reaching out to people in rural America such as Rob at turningblue has been doing in Georgia.

At the end of the day, I spoke with Kim who is up in Burlington and about the importance of campaigns around the country. I write this post sitting in Hypatia's kitchen as numerous bloggers eat, laugh and take pictures.

The way we are going to take this country back is through the friendships that we all share on this blog, when we get together for fun and when we work together on campaigns. Were you at the march? Were you doing something else special to help take back our country?

As would be expected there was a long discussion in the comments, with some people missing the point completely and focusing on the media coverage and the number of people there. In response I wrote the following comments.

It was great to talk with so many wonderful people at Hypatia’s. It is great to hear about Seattle march and community there. Before the march, I predicted that Fox News would estimate that there were between twenty and thirty thousand and the march, the police would estimate around a hundred thousand, and the organizers would estimate between two and three hundred thousand.

It looks like my guess was pretty accurate. It also goes to illustrate a few other points. There is the old saying that the death of six million people is a statistic and the death of one person is a tragedy. Whether it was twenty thousand people or half a million doesn’t really matter. What matters is that we got a chance to meet some really nice people and I cannot thank Hypatia enough for being a wonderful host. Afterwards, I took the Metro with Mike*in*Raleigh*NC and had a great discussion.

What does matter is the friendships we build with people we meet along the way. What does matter is a realization that we are all in this together, young, old, white, black, rich, poor, and so on. What matters is that we return to what is great about America, working hard together to make our lives and the lives of those around us better. What does matter is returning to our religious and moral underpinnings of loving our neighbors.

It is this shared commitment to a better America that makes me proud to be part of Democracy for America and an occasional blogger here.