Every December 15th for the last couple of years has been a day when I and a few others make an effort to get out on the streets with some signs and let people know we support the Bill of Rights. The first year I stood alone on Capitol Way with a sign in the cold rain. Last year I was joined by some fellow Libertarians at Percival Landing in downtown Olympia and this year we made it to the intersection on Marvin Rd and Martin Way in Lacey.
A few weeks ago I purchased an eight-foot banner, made a frame out of PVC for this year’s effort
and sent out a statewide news release on the 5th in the hopes that
we would get some coverage.
I was going to write a summary about the event in case I was asked
any questions but didn’t get to it
because of some family medical issues which came
up the evening of the day before. Then when I woke up on Thursday, it had snowed, and I thought maybe we won’t be able to get out and would
have to cancel.
The weather began to clear,
and I loaded the material in the car which was difficult because of my medical
situation and started out. Half way there I decided to stop at the bank and
draw $20 out of our account for pocket
money. I got to the bank only to find that they had a power outage and it was
going be a few minutes before I could get in. So there I stood in the cold
while I waited; just a bit more frustration.
I pulled into the Shell station on the corner and asked
about using their lot to park in, and the
manager said yes without any hesitation. And I was prepared to pay him $5 to do
so. That bit of saved money was appreciated.
I looked around but didn’t see any of my fellow Libertarians
and thought that maybe I was going to be on my own,
so I unloaded the car and started walking to the corner to set up. I no sooner
got there when James Holcomb came walking up behind me. Within seconds Steve
Bloom, a photographer from the local paper, The Olympian, showed up. To put it bluntly, I was thankfully surprised. It was
going to be a good day after all.
Kevin Hochalter soon joined us followed by Allen Acosta at noon. We
stayed until 2 p.m. and Allen estimated that four hundred cars passed by every
fifteen minutes which works out to be about 1600 an hour or 4500 to 5000 over
the three hours we were out there, which isn’t bad. One woman drove by, saw us
and went and bought hot chocolate which she brought back for us; a very nice gesture. I estimate that we had
positive responses of drivers and passengers honking and waving from at least
twenty percent of those who went by. I didn’t see one negative reaction to our
work.
Later that afternoon James
Holcomb discovered that a picture of us was up on The Olympians site and the
next day that paper had us on page three which was great. The Olympian is
delivered to about 23,000 people in the area,
so that suggest a nice number possibly saw us and will now link Libertarians
with the Bill of Rights, which I hope will help the public see us in a positive
light.
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