The PAGE page: O brother...Obama

Well, I had a chance to try to stand up for what's right today. Barack Obama has been campaigning in PA the last few weeks or so. Well, as a last big push, he decided to do an old-fashioned "whistle" tour, or whatever they call it. He was traveling by AmTrak from Philadelphia to Harrisburg. Well, he was making a stop in my little town of Wynnewood, very close to my house, so Jessica and I walked over there. I found out on friday afternoon that he was going to be there Saturday at 11:30, but honestly didn't care. I am not a Barack supporter by any stretch of the imagination. Had no plans to go see him. But Saturday morning, I woke up and thought, "I should go hold up signs that let him know that not EVERYBODY in Lower Merion Township is ga-ga over him", although it does seem that way. I figured I had time to run some errands in the morning and be back in time to see him at 11:30.

So we made a couple of signs ("A baby is NOT a punishment" and "I don't cling to religion, I believe in religion") and then started on our way to run errands, the girls with me, Brian home studying for a bit. When we drove by the train station at around 9:30, there were a number of police cars, and lots of pedestrian traffic already there waiting for "His majesty". I decided, when my adrenaline started pumping, to postpone my errands, and go straight to the train station. We went home, dropped off Ally and Courtney (who didn't want to attract attention to herself), and Jessica and I walked to the train station.

While on our way, one of Jessica's classmates and her family drove by us and stopped, asking us if we were going to see Barack. I said "Yes, but probably not for the same reasons you are." They looked at my signs and said "yeah, not for the same reasons." They then said "they're going to confiscate those." To which I said, "they can't do that, it's my free speech." Then I did start getting nervous because, what if they did? I was a lone mom, with my 7 year old daughter, and we didn't want a confrontation, but I didn't want them to squash my free speech rights. I knew they would though.

As we got closer, each Barack volunteer I passed kept telling me that I couldn't take my signs "in there". (First of all, we were at a train station, in a very outdoor, free area. Second of all, I wasn't even "in there", meaning the parking lot.) So I held my signs right outside the entrance to the free train station parking lot and continued to have volunteers tell me I couldn't have signs in there. I would say, "I can stand right here with my signs." They would say, "well, yes you can." I even had a couple of volunteers try to be sneaky and stand sort of in front of me to try to block me. I just moved over a bit, and people still saw and read my signs. Anyway, I guess they were taking away all home-made signs, (they just wanted official Barack signs, of course) although I didn't see another single homemade sign, let alone any other anti-Barack campaigners. Very distressing and very lonely.

Anyway, like I said, I didn't want any trouble, but I did want to go in, so we had some time and Jess and I walked back to our home and made stickers that said the same thing as the signs, only displayed in a way "they" couldn't force me to get rid of. Thinking back now, I should have just stayed outside with my signs and stayed where Barack could see me when his train pulled up. But Jessica wanted to see him. Regardless of how creepy I think he is, he is still a candidate for the office of President of the United States, and it was kind of interesting. No one made me take off the stickers, and no one said anything, but it didn't really accomplish what I wanted to do, to let Obama himself see that someone out here stands for the right.

It was a bit of an eye-opening experience for me, a bit of a rush, outside of my comfort zone. Jessica was really into it too. I hope that she, and Courtney, will remember that we tried to stand up for what we believe in...that which is right.

Obama in the blue shirt, towards the top of the picture, Senator Bob Casey of PA is behind him.