Report on the Nashville Pro-America Rally at Centennial Park.
The crowds started gathering around 3 o'clock p.m. in the park. It was very cloudy and the temperature was holding at 45 degrees.
The rain from the last week gave us a break and stopped for the day. Weeks of rain and snow did leave the ground wet and a little muddy, but I was surprised at how well the park grounds held up.
1510-WLAC had the stage set up and was broadcasting the Phil Valentine Show (www.philvalentine.com) live from the park. Phil was the host of the rally also along with his trusty sidekick, Johnny B. The American Red Cross and a voter registration group had booths there. Since it was a short walk to McDonald's and Wendy's, there were lots of sacks and cups from those places in the trash cans (we love America folks clean up after ourselves).
Some smart people set up around the park selling and giving away signs, bumper stickers, buttons, etc. Most expressed support for President Bush and our troops. This wasn't a Pro-War rally, as the left always label it, and we had our hundreds of American flags to show our support for our country.
Some people had homemade signs that did express their views on Iraq, Saddam, the UN, the French, etc. Many signs about Martin Sheen and a couple had t-shirts on with hers saying "My Vote Cancels Out Cheryl Crow's" and his said, "My Vote Cancels Out George Clooney's". Very cute. (I have many pictures, some need lightened up for the ones I took after dark - flash has limited range on my digital camera and the background lighting on the stage was somewhat low and orange with no real spot on the speakers).
The crowd really ballooned between 5 pm and 6 pm when Phil Valentine's talk show was in it's last hour. Among the highlights of his three hour show were calls from syndicated talk show host Glenn Beck who, as many know, is having a huge rally on March 1. Then a stream of calls with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, an earlier call with Sean Hannity, and then a great call with Tony Snow.
The show stopper was the call from everyone's favorite, former Senator Fred Thompson, now a star on NBC's "Law and Order ***"...there are so many of them I'm never sure so I just put ***. Fred, as usual, is a great interview and he really had the crowd hoopin' and hollerin' when dicussing his new TV commercials countering Martin Sheen's views.
Time to start the rally and it was done like we American's like to do any form of gathering of large groups of people.
And by people, they were as diverse as any leftist college professor dreams of in his utopian state. All ages, young and old, both sexes (yes, I still think there are two), Christians (can you see the lefties spitting at their screens now?), Muslims (a huge Kurdish community that are Muslim and Christian and came to support the country they are now proudly living and working in), hippies, bikers, suits, kids, country fans, rock fans, veterans, soldiers, dogs (face it, cats are commies), and, of course, politicians.
We started with recognizing the colors as presented by the Tennessee State Guard. This unit of over 1,000 older, graying and out of shape Americans (he he) and Tennesseans are used as back up to the National Guard and Reserve units in the state.
We listened to a recording of the National Anthem (too bad they couldn't get a country star there....short notice and everyone that wanted to come were at gigs) and then said the Pledge of Allegiance where the crowd screamed the words "under God".
Phil got up with Johnny B and they discussed why they wanted this rally, why they organized it and why we were tired of seeing nothing but the negative protestors on the news. They emphasized we were responding to the war protest not because we disagree with their rights and think they are un-American, but we disagreed with their ideas and their simple hatred of Bush. Phil pointed out that we trust President Bush. We've seen the evidence. We've listened to the explanations from him and his staff and cabinet members. We aren't silly enough to compare him to Hitler.
Our next speaker was a Colonel of the Tennessee State Guard, a 40 year Army veteran and two tour Vietnam soldier (I don't remember his name). He told us how, on 9/11, he received a call from the Millington Naval base. They didn't have enough men to meet their security requirement given the situation. In five hours they had 85 men posted and on duty. Millington, he informed us, was the Navy's base where all personnel records were kept. They posted for 5 days and were replaced by called up reserves. Aren't you glad we have such dedicated Americans everywhere that can fill in the gaps? Our enemies have no chance.
Then the head of the Tennessee Veteran's Affairs department spoke. He was a huge man who also served in Vietnam. He talked about our fine men and women in the military and our need to keep helping our veterans. He relayed that it's not right our veterans have trouble getting treatment and services from our federal VA system. He's so correct. I'd rather stop giving crack heads housing and food stamps and stop paying to remove tatooes from ex-gang members and treat out vets. $2.2 trillion and the waste alone could almost double defense spending. Two words for politicians and bureaucrats: Priorities and Accountability!
Next, we got a nice song from Mark Slaughter, founder of the rock band Slaughter. He did an acoustic version of a song I didn't recall and didn't get the name (okay, I took a lot of pictures, I wasn't jotting down notes).
Then Phil had on two members of the Kurdish community as they told their horrible stories of living in Iraq. They both left in 1988 when they had a chance to get over the border with Turkey and eventually get out to the United States. They were nervous and didn't speak English too well, but their stories were shocking. It's the same most of us have read about people living under dictators and tyrants. You've heard these from Vietnam, Cambodia, North Korea today, Cuba, Zimbabwe, etc. It's just awful and I don't see why the left can't see this since this was their biggest mantra for decades, human rights! And they had no kind words for Turkey. The said the refugee camps were more like prison and one told the story of how Iraqi spies would put cyanide into their food. If we bend too much with Turkey, it could make the post-Saddam Iraq situation more difficult with the Kurds. They have a real reason to worry about the "word" of the U.S.
We then got a brief visit on stage from our 6th District Congresswoman (and my representative in the House) Marcia Blackburn. Forget Loretta Sanchez and her sister, forget Mary Landrieu....Marcia is hot!
Then the highlight of the evening, after the mandatory thank you's by the host to all involved, country music's Darryl Worley came on to sing his new soon to be major hit "Have You Forgotten?" (Dreamworks records).
I like it and I'm not a country fan. It is well written and with a rally crowd, it works well to sing along with. At every point in the song where he asks (about 9/11) "have you forgotten", the pause written is perfect to scream "NO"!
Phil and Johnny B have been making fun on the show recently about some "country music consultant" from "New York City" was quoted in the USA Today saying this song should never be played. They play it once or twice a day on their show and Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck are doing the same and want Darryl on their shows.
Yep...this record is going #1!
That was it and it was 7 pm on the dot. It was dark and getting cold and the crowd dispersed. Traffic out of the park was somewhat slow, mostly because of all the 4 way stops, people backing out (folks back in when you park - it's easier to get out), many of us parked on hills, sidewalks, etc., and the occasional jerk. We may all have been together for a cause, but don't cut me off on the way out! LOL
I don't know how many came since it was dark by 6 pm, but I did a fast head count in a few areas and could tell pretty much how many were 100 people. I moved around and kept going through the same concentration and estimating and I got to at least 800-1,000. I know we were hoping for 10,000 or more...but I don't think that many showed up. It was basically "after work" on a Friday night and was put together, well, in about a week.
No one says we can't have another one though!
I'm going to try and post some pictures here, but I'm not very good and don't have the knowledge to use my Comcast webpage...I don't even know the address (of course, their FAQ's don't tell you).
So if anyone is interested that knows how, I'll be happy to e-mail the pictures to you so you can post them. Send me a private message.
Thank you for your time if you bothered to read all of this! I had a great time and I wanted to share it with everyone.
Fledermaus
good stuff. thanks for sharing.
I read every word! Thanks for posting your report from Nashville. It's about time folks got out and stood up for what's good about America. I haven't heard Worley's song, yet, but everyone who has tells me it's fantastic.
Ok, now who is going to apply a little lib/commie math to the turn out so we get the correct number of people present.
It was wonderful. I want more. We talked about how stretched out our state is with the big cities, so we need to get something organized across the state.
How about using the liberals ideas against them? A giant "hands across Tennessee" rally to show support for Bush and our troops! Heck, lining up thousands on I-40 would solve that logistic problem! I'm sure Chattanooga wouldn't mind branching off I-24! lol
Or maybe a giant movement on the interstate in our cars honking and using our lights in the daytime. Just enough people going from Memphis to Jackson and back, then Jackson to Nashville and back, etc. Clear channel has stations across the state and can coordinate their radio stations, after Rush of course, to broadcast and monitor.
I bet we could get an armada of cars and semi trailers from one end to the other and from North to South to honk horns, flash lights, fly car flags, etc. And with cell phones and radio stations we can broadcast three hours of support.
And it's another economic benefit...we travel, buy gas, refreshment's, food, etc.
Geez, one rally and I get giddy!
I wish I had given some thought to asking where all the freepers were so we could say hello. I took my 15 year old daughter with me. She and I are getting to be marching buddies after the anti tax protests. It was a great time and I am so glad I got to go....and take a future voter with me.
I just saw the piece WKRN did about the rally and they said around 3000 people were there. I don't know how accurate their count is but I don't think they're too far off. There were a LOT of folks there.
Way to Go!! Isn't it fun! Now that you are hooked on FReeping it will be great to see you future reports.
Nashville really knows how to put on a class act, what a great turnout and program. The troops are seeing this and their morale is getting a big boost, keep it up!!
All the Best,
