I got a chance to cover Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear for the Village Voice… and that meant press access. I went down there with my brother and two friends and we got there more than an hour before the rally started and they couldn’t get anywhere near the stage. I on the other hand got to hang out in a press area that while still awkwardly far from the stage, was still a pretty fantastic seat to watch history.

This was an historic event. The crowds dwarfed Glenn Beck’s rally and the left’s answer to the Beck rally. People came together from every age range and every race. It was the most peaceful rally I have ever attended and back in my punk rock days living in DC I attended a lot of damn rallies. The Rally was star studded and a lot of interesting people were in the crowd but I think the most important part of the day was the message.  After all the music and the comedy Jon Stewart addressed the crowd with complete earnestness that might be the best speech I have heard since Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. If you haven’t heard it yet click here to do just that.

Anyway, the convention has been talked about ad nauseum and you can figure out who was there by checking out any national media source so I won’t bore you with the details you can find anywhere.  But I did really enjoy the Cat Stevens Vs Ozzy Osbourne Peace Train Vs Crazy Train battle.  It was really amazing to see those guys share a stage. Unfortunately the photographers were cycling to the front of the stage throughout the event so during that performance I was about 100 feet from the stage and couldn’t get the shots I wanted. That being said I got some fantastic shots throughout the event.

So without further ado, please click here to see all the pictures from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear on the National Mall in my home town of Washington, DC.

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