Hey, Obama we don't want no frackin' drama!

UPDATE: David Swansonreflects on the day's events.

I went down to Washington Monument to join the anti-Keystone Pipeline protest. It was a large crowd, I am no judge of numbers, but it filled the entire NE quadrant of the Monument grounds, which is a VERY large space.

A man I guessed to be Bill McKibben was speaking. He encouraged us that we are making better progress than you would know by reading the papers. It seems hundreds of coal fired plants have been blocked and some have even been put out of commission. Solar and wind are gaining market share. I was actually very encouraged. It also very heartening to be in a large crowd of energetic people who share your agenda. The crowd was mostly under forty, although there were plenty of gray hairs. Many people brought their children, a few brought their dogs.

I arrived around 1 PM. I think we started for the White House around 1:15. The crowd was large enough to fill the whole of Constitution Avenue, even with hundreds of people peeling away to walk on the sidewalks, or take a different route. So big was the crowd that progress was slow, it took us until 2:30 to reach the White House. I stood on the steps of the Renwick Gallery, across from the Old Executive Office Building, and diagonally across from the White House and watched the rest of the demonstrators arrive. Wave after wave of demonstrators marched around the corner from 17th Street to Pennsylvania Avenue, the last of the marchers did not arrive until 2:46. So I don't know how many people there were, but quite a few. Clearly, Obama knew we were there.