Rolling Thunder Passes the Archives

It was scorching hot and noisy in front of the Archives building on the day before Memorial Day as hundreds of glossy motorcycles gladiated by us as we tried to cross Independence Avenue. It was "Rolling Thunder" riders blaring music and yelling some things at the crowd and stressed out policemen shouting at us not to cross the road. We gawped at these mostly large machines ridden by the mostly overweight out-of-towners who come to DC each year for their own special parade. We kind of wondered what exactly was going on and what it was all about. So I looked them up -- again thank God for the internet -- and discovered it is an event that started in 1988 as a call for the government to recognize prisoners of war (POWs) and people missing in action (MIAs), sort of a tribute thing but seems to have morphed into something else. It seems now to more honor veterans and fallen soldiers, a more generic tribute to military men. The first one had but 2,500 participants but now it has hundreds of thousands of participants. Well, I saw a few thousand of them that weekend and a whole bunch of them in front of the Archives building. I'm trying to connect Rolling Thunder's causes and issues with the Archives building which holds the Declaration of Independence so I read it to see how it might pertain. Hmm. Seems that the governed are exercising some life, liberty and pursuit of happiness in their own way.

 " ... We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."

We Want Our Park Back! Obamaville Has Gotta Go!

Trash bins at OccupyDC site

Rat hole at OccupyDC Site

It's not clear why this is misspelt

I don't know why the mainstream media makes so much of the squatters who call themselves OccupyDC as if they are heroes fighting for liberty or something. I just don't get a clear sense of what they are for, or what they are against.  I wandered past their tent village at McPherson Square a couple of times and snapped a few photos to try and get a sense of what they are about.  They were either all absent or maybe sleeping. It was about noon time and a few came out of tents scratching their heads and looking like they were just waking up.  During my meander, at least two people on the street nearby talked to me about how the tent people have ruined the grass and plantings in this park. McPherson Square was re-lawned and repaired last year for about $300K of "stimulus" money (which means we still owe the money!).  Today, of course, there's no grass due to the tents. And it looks like some of the plants have disappeared. It's clear the rats are having a feast of it. I saw at least one large rat skipping along merrily among the tents and then dive into his rat-hole when I got nearer. He'd bypassed the rat trap quite effectively on his way back from the the food tent.  I heard some news yesterday via another blog that the food tent had been closed down due to the rat problem.  Apparently, there's some legal case going on with the squatters and the National Park Service who has jurisdiction over the square and on January 17 there could be legal action taken by the feds in regard to the "camping" going on. INMHO, it's time to shut this Obamaville down.