Charlotte Torch Rally

This past Saturday, Allison and I went uptown to the Charlotte Torch Rally (for Sudan). It was kind of lucky that we knew it was happening; I was just randomly screwing around online one day and came across the page. I'd vaguely remembered it when I serendipitously heard an episode of Charlotte Talks on NPR that was talking about the rally. So, luckily, I remembered, and we managed to get there before it was over... albeit it barely. This also ended up being the first day that either of us had gotten to ride the light rail, which was an added bonus. Probably would not have gone if we had had to drive and find a place to park. I did screw up and made us walk all the way to East Blvd, which took about 20 minutes... I didn't know there was a station less than 5 minutes walk from my house. I certainly needed the exercise, but I wish we didn't get there so late. Lateness aside, riding the train was really cool; I'm more excited than I probably should be that we finally have it. It was crowded, but I didn't care. There's something about riding a train through the city in the midst of a few hundred other people that connects you to the things by which you are surrounded. No worries about traffic or light or pedestrians... just getting to look around at all these little pieces of the town I'd never seen before in a pretty relaxed manner was great. After we got off and were walking to center city, I happened to notice that we could see the entire reflection of the Bank of America building behind us in whatever glass building was in front of us. I'm sure many many people see this every day, but I hadn't noticed it before... I thought it was really cool, and I tried to get Allison in the photo, but it didn't work. It's still a neat picture, I think.
I also noticed a lot of people wearing Davidson paraphernalia as we were walking. I thought it was odd and only later that night did I find out that Davidson was playing Duke in the arena. (and only barely lost) When we got to the rally, the very first person I saw was a girl I had slightly known from Davidson. I wish I could remember her name, but I can't. We caught the tail end of one of the speakers talking about stuff that I mostly already learned from the Dave Eggers thing a few weeks prior, and we headed over to the booth housing the banner to be sent to the Chinese embassy. I'm sure they're going to throw it away as soon as they get it, but it's still kind of cool that our names are on it. The guy speaking finished, and then some band started playing. We both looked at each other in that *groan* kind of way. The band was fine, but they sucked at the same time. They sounded, as Allison put it, "like every Christian band ever." They sang some songs about how it wasn't the fault of the refugees that they were refugees and about how it sucks to be raped or something. But it was all just that lame tame contemporary Christian sound, and what was the point of having a band there anyway? Everyone cleared out from in front of the stage when the speaker left and the band started. I felt kind of bad for them, but it was still funny. It kind of looked like they wanted to rock out (especially the bass player), but they just... couldn't. I don't suppose I actually have any sort of point here other than to say we went. The crowd wasn't huge and, while there were a lot of cameras there, the coverage on Fox News that night was for maybe 30 seconds. I'm not really sure what good this thing did, but maybe it did something. It's hard to get across REAL ideas and feelings at this kind of thing, I believe. But at least, I guess, people are trying to do something. They did take donations, but I'm poor and didn't give; I don't know what the results were. And although that signed banner looks pretty cool, it's depressing that, in a city of approximately 700,000, they could only amass a few hundred signatures. That thing should be covered.
All-in-all, it was definitely a good day despite feeling insignificant and lame in the face of terrible things happening to real people. I've been too busy to really read lately, but I'm still making progress in What is the What. And it's really fantastic. And frightening. I learned another reason why those george bush mother fuckers should all go to hell tho. Said better than I could do it from the Asia Times newspaper: It's the oil, stupid. And why don't we stop them now? Well the genocidal Muslim government of Sudan is cooperating in w's "War on Terror." We wouldn't want to offend them by telling them to stop killing all the Dinka. *sigh* 2011 can't get here soon enough. Provided, of course, we don't watch it go to fire in 2010... :)