Eight, Twenty-Eight, Ten

When I first heard about the event at the Lincoln Memorial, I thought that would be a great place to go. As events began to unfold I grew stronger in the interest of going. Why not go? I have the time, the interest, the car, and I know where it is at. Just like going to the Tea Party it was only a matter of getting up and going. The more I thought about how large the crowd would be and the scarcity of parking spaces I slowly leaned toward not going. Then, it was announced that buses were being rented and it was possible to ride on a bus, for a fee of course. The buses could be found on the Internet. When I opened that site there were flags all over the United States. There were many of them on the Jacksonville area but so many that they could not be distinguished. I gave up. However, the more I thought about it I realized that there must be some way to zero in on the area desired. Yep, it did have and I soon found three buses leaving from Jacksonville, none from Green Cove Springs or Orange Park. I checked all three sites and two of them were being run by the same woman. One was leaving from north Jacksonville and the other from south Jacksonville. It was obvious that if one bus filled another would be obtained. Opening her site was tricky, I had to fill out my credit card info. or other method of payment. All I had to do was sign-up. I held off. Some hard thinking had me looking seriously at my situation. The long bus ride would not be a problem. Standing in the hot sun for six hours gave me pause. I have trouble staying out for three hours in the sun. (Recent Braves baseball game taught me that.) The walks I could handle. Sitting down is a necessity, but sitting on the ground would leave my legs very stiff. In the end the physical demands overruled it all. I knew the event: "Restoring Honor" would be a historic gathering but I would reluctantly miss it. The event drew about 500,000 people and it is reported that it was like one huge prayer meeting. There was no politics, no signs, no confusion, no hostility - everybody was nice to one another. Dr. Alvedia King spoke, Glenn Beck spoke, Sara Palin spoke. Albert Pujols, the baseball player, received a medal for "Hope". Two hundred and twenty clergyman from all denominations intertwined arms and prayed together. When the crowd dispersed there was no trash, the area had a pristine look. Wish I had been there.