My View For A While: Counter March

Time to head home.

Another wonderful Delta experience greeted me at the airport.

First, in my app, all my flights, today’s and future, vanished. That was strange.

Hence, I had to go through the check in process. At least there were not problems with security.

I shared a ride with friends and, hence, got to DCA way in advance of my flight, thinking I could get work done in the lounge.

Lounge temporarily closed.

So, I have a view of counters, as I do my counter, or “reverse” march from the March.

UPDATE:

At long last, having been bored, we’ve boarded.

I have a good book on Kindle, a medieval Japanese mystery. Of course you need the right music.

Quite a few folks have asked if I was at the March. The interesting part is that only a couple of them went to the March. Most watched coverage on TV. This suggests to me strong good will.

UPDATE:

In my app, I see that my flights are back from their silent retreat and that my bag was loaded onto the airplane I am presently sitting in.

UPDATE:

Ready for the next flight.

While on the ground I’ve been reading about those who have distanced themselves from Pope Francis’ less than opportune words in S America. The NYT (aka Hell’s Bible) went for him. Other rather surprising sources did too.

Interesting.

UPDATE:

Still at the gate.

We’ve been delayed for over a half hour while they dispute about a “clerical error”.

I NEVER! Cross my heart. It’s not my fault!

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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4 Comments

  1. DavidR says:

    So, do you fly Delta as a form of penance?

  2. TonyO says:

    I was at the March. Looked for you. Did not see you. Perhaps because there were a couple hundred thousand others?

    I just wonder whether the Park Police put the location of the rally and the path of the March in the places they did specifically to make it difficult – there was no real reason to have us walk 5 blocks up Madison Ave to 7th street. And no real reason to have the dump trucks loaded with salt to obstruct our walking through the intersection at 7th and Constitution. I am sure it was billed as “protective” but I think that’s garbage.

    [I was not displeased at all to see the dump trucks at the intersections. You might not have seen with your own eyes what a fast moving vehicle can do to a crowd of people. I have. When I lived in Rome I was eye witness to a pretty horrible incident with a crowd crossing the street which resulted in my giving Last Rites in the street and, at the end, a cleaning bill to get the blood out of the cuff and hem of my cassock. Imagine a crowd like we had and an encounter with some internet hopped up self-declared jihadi practitioner of the Religion of Peace in a big vehicle, like in Nice and London and New York.]

  3. TonyO says:

    Dear Father, thank you for the response. a friend of mine who is a policeman told me about that purpose for the trucks. And yes, there were many other trucks at many other intersections. I approve of police being pro-active and thinking smart about security. And I generally go out of my way to thank police at the March for their presence and attention to duty.

    The problem wasn’t that they used the trucks, it was the location: the police both could have and in fact DID have Constitution west of 7th, and 7th street north of Constitution, well blocked off from other vehicles already. There should have been no feasible way for a vehicle to approach the intersection at 7th and Constitution ANYWAY. Having the 2 trucks and a police cruiser sitting across 7th where people walking from the mall north toward Constitution had to feed through that bottleneck into Constitution Ave was simply unnecessary. Especially for large banners carried by 2 or 3 people well separated, it was quite a difficult maneuver. And for no added benefit of security.

    Similarly, the placement of the rally on the mall was troublesome. The Park Service knows that every January there will be a large rally with many tens of thousands of people, but they chose to have huge sections of the grassy areas chained off so that those many thousands had very restricted pathways in and out and around. The location at 12th Street, too, was clearly less than ideal, because there is no good access to Constitution from 12th on the Mall, (which is why everyone had to hike 5 blocks on Madison, which isn’t wide enough for that. I have been to the March most years for 30 years, (I work in the city), and I when I heard where the rally would be I predicted just EXACTLY that result, with such restricted means of getting people out to Constitution. No reason for it – Park Service could have done it better, if they wanted to.

    [I was there, in that part you described. It wasn’t so bad as all that.]

  4. Lucas says:

    I gotta ask, what book are you reading? I need a new book and a Japanese mystery sounds great.

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