The liberal “One Nation Working Together” rally in Washington Saturday was a trashy affair — much trashier than Fox News host Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally held at the end of August, at least according to one member of the clean-up crew who worked both events.
As the ralliers began to disperse from the “One Nation” rally around 4 p.m., one thing was immediately clear: the area around the Lincoln Memorial had become a landfill.
Fast food remnants littered the area below the Memorial. Empty water bottles were omnipresent as were discarded stick-mounted signs. The limited park-provided trash bins were almost works of art. The trashcan heaps bursting upwards looked like images of volcanoes caught mid-eruption, to say nothing of the areas surrounding the bins. Pompeii never had a chance.
Perhaps the biggest problem was the pamphleteering. With well over a hundred groups passing out buttons, sign-up sheets, newspapers, pamphlets, flyers, rants and manifestos, it should come as no surprise that a lot of the printed material became sidewalk graffiti.
The Daily Caller attempted to see just how much stuff a single person could accumulate at the rally. Apart from time constraints, there were several self-imposed limitations governing TheDC’s research:
• Only free items were counted
• Items were only taken when explicitly offered by the pamphleteers first
• Items were only taken once
• No wood-mounted signs or banners were taken that couldn’t fit into a backpack
TheDC also attempted to pick up anything off the ground, but this became logistically impossible after 1:30 p.m.
The result: 112 items (17 stickers; 22 small leaflets; 14 8.5-x-11 flyers; 7 broadsheet newspapers; 7 pamphlets; 5 business cards; 2 mail-in forms; 2 large signs; 1 208-page book; and 1 postcard. The rest of the 112 items came from a 34-loose-page document titled, “General Motors and UAW Information for Investigation Consideration.”)
SLIDESHOW: The best souvenirs from the ‘One Nation Working Together’ rally
Up Next: Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally at the Memorial was much, much cleaner, according to ‘Hercules’
On Sunday, it didn’t appear as if anyone directly associated with the march was present at the Memorial. There was, however, still trash scattered everywhere; although local sanitation workers had managed to haul most of the junk in and directly around the trash bins.
There appeared to be just one person cleaning up when TheDC was there Sunday. In the southeast corner by the National World War II Memorial, he was shoving trash into a long-handled dustpan with a single broom.
He said he was a subcontractor for the city and while the gentleman didn’t wish to be named, he probably wouldn’t mind being called ‘Hercules.’ When approached by TheDC, Hercules was immediately and noticeably grumpy.
Hercules said he had been cleaning up the area around the Memorial since 6 a.m. and expected to be there for “at least” 12 hours.
“They should have planned more,” he said. “There should have been a clean-up crew.”
Hercules said he also helped clean-up after Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally and as a result he was in good position to judge the cleanliness of the respective rally protesters. Not only was the “Restoring Honor” rally tidier, according to Hercules, but the “One Nation” rally downright dirty.
“I was at the other one too,” he said. “So I’ve seen both. I know the difference.”
“This group” just didn’t get it, he continued. “Let’s just say: I’m in a bad mood.”
On a visit to Washington with her daughter, California resident Pam Hewitt didn’t think much of the protestors who left their droppings all over the Mall.
“People … have the freedom of the speech and to assemble and all that, but to leave this much trash behind is just disrespectful,” she said.
Neither Flo McAfee nor Andrea Alford, representatives of the “One Nation” rally, were available for comment on Sunday — despite numerous attempts. The environmentally-friendly Sierra Club, one of the sponsors of the rally, could not be reached for comment either.
VIDEO: Aftermath of the ‘One Nation’ rally
Posted by: hostagehoosier
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