Paul Ille [dot] com

We’re back home now, with two other days still to talk about, but after reading my post about the rally I wanted to write more about it. 

I feel it’s my duty, as an eye witness, to make sure I give a complete and accurate account of the entire event. The media coverage along with the various others making comments about it are far off the mark. Most of them weren’t there, didn’t watch it and in some cases if they did, they’re totally missing what I believe is a brilliant approach by Glenn Beck to try and solve the issues he sees in our country, not to mention solving some of the issues in ourselves.

Honor

Last night I was asked by someone ‘What was the rally meant to restore honor to?’ This was a logical question given the name of the rally (Restoring Honor) and coming from a person who I believe is honorable themselves. I’m unsure if the inability to see the answer comes from the projection of their own character on to others or their nature to see only the good in the world, but before answering that question, I think it’s important to answer the question my 12 year old son asked me during the rally – ‘What IS honor?’ 

In so many words I told him, honor is about meaning what you say and saying what you mean. It’s about making sure your word means something, that you keep promises and that you do things that are honorable. It’s about being the very best you can be no matter what you do in life. It’s about the things you do when no one is watching. It’s about not requiring a trophy for something you’ve done. Having honor means that your actions, values, words and principles are in line and do not contradict each other. It’s about integrity. It’s about being consistent, honest and truthful in regards to your motivations and otherwise.

The words I most think of when thinking of honor are – Sincerity, Honesty, Responsibility, Courage, Self-Sacrifice, Selflessness, and Respect.

At the tomb of the unknown soldier, as we watched a man with a rifle over his shoulder pace left to right counting his 21 steps with the very highest degree of discipline, I leaned over and whispered softly in my son’s ear as he watched – HONOR.

So, to return to the original question ‘What was the rally meant to restore honor to?’ Is it more obvious after honor is defined? Do you think honor exists in each of us? In others? In society? In our government? Do you see self-sacrifice, honesty or courage often in everyday people? Sure. We do in some places, but mostly in our military.

To answer fully, the rally was meant to restore honor to ourselves. The beauty of Glenn Beck’s rally was the knowledge that 1 person can make a difference and if you want to change the world, start with you.

God

The other day when I wrote about the rally I gave pause to the heavy theme of God throughout the event. I believe now that I was wrong to do that. After reflecting on the day, I think it’s safe to say that the spiritual theme was, for the most part, rooted in my very own beliefs. My problem is typically when someone tells me what to believe, but I don’t feel that is what was going on here.

If you understand the founding documents and the role of God in them, you’ll understand that without acknowledging God, or at least the founder’s understanding of God, you have no rights in the United States.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

You’ve no doubt heard this a thousand times, but you need to focus on the word Creator. This sentence specifically says that your rights were not provided to you by man. They were given to you by your Creator with unalienable rights. Unalienable here means that they can not be separated from you. The founders knew that if your rights were given to you in any other way, they could be taken away. They believed in Natural Law. This is a very important concept. 

Someone I had a discussion with the other day told me that their rights came from themselves. I think this is a tremendous mistake as it means that written law or policy could give those rights away. The idea is that there is a power beyond ourselves that we can not control and that power gives us rights. They are unalienable. We can not lose them if we tried.

Also, many people nowadays have issues with a belief in God. Obviously I think it’s fine to believe what you want to believe. At the same time, I find the people who don’t believe have such a problem with people who do. They feel believers are unintelligent, misguided or living in a fairy tale world. They believe somehow that they are superior to people who believe in God. Well, I think there is a major issue with this outlook. Yes, people who speak in tongues are creepy, but I have no problem with other people believing anything – notice I have not disclosed my own belief about God here, even though you think I might have.

Either way, I believe the theme of God was simply Glenn Beck’s belief that God is a method that can be used to restore honor. I believe that is one way to do it.

Idea

The Restoring Honor rally, IMO, was a brilliant idea. Glenn Beck used, in all aspects of the event, the power of example.  Martin Luther King Jr. also used the same approach throughout the civil rights movement – show what you believe is right to the American people against the bad examples we see everyday and they will understand.

Three honorable purple heart recipients from our military presented 3 non-military people with the original purple heart (George Washington’s Merit Badge) to symbolize their honorable contributions to society.

Politics were not mentioned. It was about Restoring Honor.

Also in the plan was the crowd. Glenn Beck knew that the crowd themselves would be honorable and for 500,000+ people, everyone was amazingly patient and understanding. They were the story. Many in the media waited to report on the negative, but were unable to because of the make up of the crowd.

In an article by the Wall Street Journal called Glenn Beck’s Happy Warriors you can find quotes like these:

One would not be able to find a more polite crowd at a political convention, certainly not at a professional sporting event, probably not even at an opera. In fact, judging by the behavior of the attendees following the event, you’d have a tough time finding churches in which people display more patience as others make their way to the exits.

Or this one regarding the single time the president or congress was mentioned:

But it didn’t end there. Dave Roever, a Vietnam veteran, offered a closing prayer in which he thanked the Lord for the president and for the Congress. Despite the unpopularity of the latter two, no booing or catcalls could be heard.

And then another about what even had me amazed:

After the event, walking from the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool through Constitution Gardens, this reporter scanned 360 degrees and could not see a scrap of trash anywhere. Participants and volunteers had collected all their refuse and left it piled neatly in bags around the public garbage cans. Near Constitution Avenue, I did encounter one stray piece of paper—but too old and faded to have been left that day.

So in the end, in such a brilliant way, the people who were there were a true example of honor and shined for everyone to see – especially the people who eagerly waited to see violent, angry people at the rally. It just simply didn’t exist.

Highlights

Instead of writing out every single detail of the event, I thought maybe it would be better to simply give you the highlights as I saw them.

1. Visiting the Lincoln Memorial the night before.
The site of people with their blankets and chairs, the set and Lincoln himself lit up behind it all was exciting. My Son asked me “how many people do you think will come?” and I remember saying I didn’t know, but behind my lips I was hoping for the place to be packed to the rafters. Later I asked my son if he realized how large a crowd of a half a million people were. I used the example that Madison Square Garden, where we went regularly to see New York Ranger games, only held about 20,000. He was priceless trying to imagine the amount.

2. 6:30am the next morning
We were all hopeful about the turnout as we drove to the Lincoln Memorial in a yellow cab, but when we walked up the stairs to the right of the Lincoln Memorial towards the reflecting pool, we realized we didn’t need to hope any longer. We had to walk to the mid-point of the reflecting pool to find a place to sit and it was still only 6:30am.

3. Making our way back
As Jonathan and I tried to make our way back to Sandy (we had to go buy batteries) we were met with a crowd unlike any I had ever seen. There was no way to get through from the front. The crowd simply wasn’t moving. Jonathan and I weaved up and through 100s of people and their chairs, blankets, etc meeting some, talking to others. Some of them gave us advise on the best way to get around and others just simply introduced themselves to us. It wasn’t easy, but we eventually got back to Sandy about an hour later.

4. The people
The people in every direction were nice, respectful and patient. In fact, I’d have to say they were those things times two. It’s hard to even go food shopping and get such a group of quality people and this was a 500,000+ crowd of people from all over the country. I can not stress enough how impressive it was.

5. Geese Formation
About 9:55am, just before the rally started, a flock of geese in perfect formation, fairly low to the ground, directly over the reflecting pool, flew the length of the water towards the Lincoln Memorial. The entire crowd errupted and took it as a sign of things to come.

6. Pledge of Allegiance
To start off the event, a boy scout came out onto the stage and led us all in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. As I put my hand on my heart I was unable to speak for the first two sentences, but then caught my breath to join the crowd. Later Sandy said the same thing. Just simply mentioning this to someone else who wasn’t even there caused that person to choke up. It was amazing. All of those people reciting the Pledge is a sure way to give any proud American goosebumps.

7. Pastor Charles Lewis “C.L.” Jackson
It was inspiring to hear someone speak who was actually at the ‘I have a dream’ speech all those years before. He spoke with passion and history in his voice and made me proud to be an American.

8. Glenn Beck
I have an admiration for Glenn. The themes in the event were truly something of vision. He managed to relay a positive message of pride, hope, faith, honor and charity all in one showing and he made us all feel that message. He made it clear that the honor everyone sees missing from the world needs to start with us as individuals. He focused on the one thing that the enemies of his message can not fight and that is ‘good’. You simply can’t fight against something that is right and good.

9. Amazing Grace on Bagpipes

Towards the end, bagpipers were invited on to the stage to play Amazing Grace and it was extremely emotional. 

10. Ending Prayer

Despite the unpopularity of the president and congress, Dave Roever who performed the ending prayer, prayed for them and not one person in the crowd said a negative word. The prayer was given with such sincerity and passion that it put a nice touch on the ending of the rally.

Summary

Monday night, Sandy and I watched the news and they recapped the rally. With tears in her eyes she turned to me and said “Thank you for bringing us”. It was that special. I’ll never forget it and I hope the others who were they don’t either. I hope the momentum from this event carries.

On the 4th vacation day I’ve taken this year we woke up far earlier than I would have liked, but it was good that we did. We got there at 6:30am and there was already a lot of people there.

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We tossed down a blanket about half way down the reflecting pool (as close as we could get) and then Jonathan and I set out to get batteries at a gift shop on the grounds. What a horrible price to pay for not being prepared lol

We waited on line for 1 and a half hours and then when we tried to get back to Sandy, there was no way to get back through the people. Almost no one would budge as there was just no room. We had to walk all the way around and come up behind, but still it took us almost 45 minutes just to get back to where Sandy was. The pictures I took simply don’t capture the amount of people who were there.

Here was our spot about half way down the reflection pool. We were a few hundred feet away from a giant jumbo-tron tv so we were able to see what was going on. The speakers looked like small specs in the distance though.

The highlight for me came fast and early on. It was the reciting of our Pledge of Allegiance. I have to admit I was able to place my hand over my heart, but I was unable to speak the first two sentences of it. I was simply too overtaken. Later when I talked to Sandy about it she said she felt extactly the same way. It was very emotional and amazingly special to hear all those people reciting it.

Overall though, it turned out very much like I had mentioned I though it might. The central theme was God. Once again I’m not anti-God, and I’ve said many times that the absence of God has caused many things to suffer in this country. I’m just not into people preaching to me. If I go to church, I know what to expect. If I go to a Glenn Beck rally in Washington, D.C., that’s something else.

The underlying premise was great. Have 3 honorable soldiers who recieved Purple Hearts themselves, give the original Purple Heart, George Washington’s Merit Badge of Honor, to 3 honorable civilians. Showing people in everyday life who were honorable so that people might have an example of how to live is  a great idea. They chose one person for Faith, one for Hope and another for Charity – the underlying theme of the event.

So while the event was about regaining honor, I think where it fell short for me was in the suggested method. Glenn Beck made the event about God and suggested that without God, one could not obtain true honor. While I think this may be one method of gaining honor, I don’t think it’s a requirement. 

Given that this was the first time in my life I attended something that I thought would help a cause I expect that was the same for many others who were there. Given that I feel like I was a little mislead and misrepresented, I wonder if others may have been too. Would everyone come back if the message was the same?

Anyways, afterwards, we met up with my cousin James, Jen and their newborn boy, Mika. We came back to our hotel room, ordered pizza and then I drove them back to their car over at RFK stadium. How driving 4 miles round trip can take 30 minutes even with GPS I have no idea lol

When I got back to our hotel room, I immediately looked to see what the media said about the crowd. CBS News, in the first story I saw, claims there was around 87,000 people there as per Airphotoslive.com, but I looked at Airphotoslive.com’s website and they don’t offer any service for counting/estimating people.  They do site planning and take arial photos, but I’m not sure they are qualified to do headcount in a situation like this. I can’t understand why they provided CBS with that information or why CBS used it.

Airphotoslive.com Services
http://www.airphotoslive.com/services.html

I looked around and found the following story that suggests Airphotoslive.com may not know what they’re talking about – http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0DEFDA1739F934A25752C0A96F9C8B63 - and yes, I’m quoting the New York Times lol

Clark McPhail, a professor at Indiana University who has studied dozens of mall gatherings, said the capacity of the space from 3rd Street to 14th Street is essentially 500,000, at the comfortable spacing of five square feet per person.

I can say for sure that most people near us didn’t have 5 square feet for themselves and if you look at the map below, the areas, if I’m reading this right, between 14th and 3rd streets were packed.

So, it would seem to me that CBS News may have quoted an inaccurate source.

I also noticed that Wikipedia is quick. They already had an entry up about the event - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-28_Restoring_Honor_Rally – under demographics they make sure to mention things like:

…the crowd for Beck’s rally was almost entirely white…

Yes, it was, but that’s pathetic to say. That tries to suggest that the people at the event were racist or something. People of all races were invited specifically by Glenn Beck. Doesn’t anyone comment on Al Sharpton’s rally demographics? Were there any white people there? Sharpton specifically invited black people only to his rally and I heard him do it. 

 At least one member of the LaRouche Movement attended the rally to hand out pamphlets featuring a doctored photo of President Obama with a Hitler mustache.

How exactly does this reflect Glenn Beck or the rally or me? and yes I take it personally since I was there.

Another protestor was described as a “man in a black cowboy hat” who wore a T-shirt reading “Treat Obama like a used tea bag. Toss him out now.

Again, WTF? I didn’t see any of these people, but how does this become the demographic of the event?? If they want to show demographics then it should be something like this:

White People: 90%
Black People: 5%
Others: 4.5%
COMPLETE IDIOTS: 0.5%

Demographic – a section of the population sharing common characteristics, such as age, sex, class, etc

Just because someone shows up to an event like this doesn’t mean it makes up the demographic. It’s pathetic that this is even reported. It’s a free open event and no one is pre-qualified at the door. They can just show up. I remember this weirdo named Henry who used to show up when my friends and I played football when we were little. Is that some reflection on me or my friends?

So, overall what I can see, the media is typical about this event. They make Glenn Beck out to be a joke who has no pull and they try to ignore the American people. They take a couple idiots that show up and make it look like they are a representation of the entire gathering. It was annoying before, but after being there and seeing it firsthand, I have to say it’s insane. They are completely undermining me as an individual. They’re supposed to be taking the people’s side and instead they are taking someone else’s side. They have forgotten what they’re job is.

Despite the Wikipedia demographics comments, overall - people were amazing. For the amount of people there, the jerk ratio was extremely low. I mean, it’s hard to walk down the street and not come across a jerk, but people came from all over, they were sociable, nice and giving.

One woman on line with me while I waited to buy batteries offered to give me her batteries if the store didn’t have any left. She insisted I wouldn’t pay her for them. I met a woman from Hawaii who was so extremely nice (yes I asked her if she ate SPAM – she said not really). Randy and Carol from Florida sat behind us and they were simply great. They kept Sandy company while I was getting batteries and helped her flag me down out of the crowd while I was trying to find her.

I have no idea if there was 87,000 people there. I didn’t count lol, but consider when looking at the pictures below, even the areas where you see trees are filled with people. There were people IN the trees. There were people around the Lincoln Memorial, around the Washington Monument, etc.

To close, I’m glad we came. It was an amazing experience. Despite what I believe are mistakes by Glenn Beck, I still think the goal of showing solidarity was achieved and hopefully the media will be unable to ignore this group of people who believe we have major issues in our country. Hopefully it was a start to restoring honor.

Several months ago we planned a vacation to Washington, D.C. around the Restoring Honor rally.

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For those of you who don’t know about the rally, it’s a gathering put together by Glenn Beck, a popular political commentary radio talk/tv show host.

I have to admit, for that last couple days, I’ve been feeling a bit mislead about the rally’s purpose since it seems Glenn has been making it more of a God-driven event. I’m not anti-God, but I don’t like people preaching to me about anything, especially when I don’t expect it. Regardless, while I hope I’m wrong, I wanted to mention it. I’m not interested in being lumped in with a bunch people chanting Hallelujah in toungues.

For me, the idea of the rally, as I originally believed it to be, was to have droves of fellow Americans make a stand in solidarity surrounding the belief that honor is lacking in society. For me it extends specifically to our representitives in Washington, but the rally was positioned as a non-political event. People were told to bring their children, open minds and open hearts and leave their signs at home.

Glenn Beck, Sara Palin and Alveda King (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece) among others, will be speaking in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

We were interested to see how many people were camped out and to see the arrangments so we stopped by.

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We may have scheduled our vacation to D.C. around the rally, but we wanted to come to Washington anyway. Neither Jonathan or Sandy had ever been here and it would be about time I saw the sights in our nation’s capital since I’ve been here already 2 or 3 times on business and every time was confined to an office or hotel room.

During our 5 hour drive, there was a clear sense of connectedness in the air. We listened to Glenn Beck’s radio show to get more information on what we could expect and listened to caller after caller saying either they were going or wanted to. Travelling down I-95, we saw bus after bus with signs saying they were Restoring Honor bound along with several cars. It wasn’t surprising that when we got to the Lincoln Memorial there was already a fairly large crowd set out in chairs and blankets. I can’t say exactly how many, but it was a good sized crowd.

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We took a few moments to take a quick look at the Lincoln Memorial, but we decided to come back another time to get up close and personal with it.

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Same goes for the Washington Monument. I can’t imagine how amazing it would be to speak to thousands of people while looking out on such an amazing view.

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Something interesting I saw that I thought I’d share was a picture of a security post. At the top of this metal structure is a tinted 4 x 4 metal box that appears to have either cameras or a person in it. The entire metal structure is raised and lowered using hydrolics. No ladder! hehe

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On that note, I’m going to sleep now. We’re going to wake up early (around 5am) to get ourselves down to National Mall. If we don’t get there early and there is a big turnout we may not even be near the Lincoln Memorial let alone the reflecting pool.

You can see the various areas below where #1 is the Lincoln Memorial (where people will speak), #2 is the Reflecting Pool where most people will stand (around) and #3 the Washington Monument. Quite a scene.

I do hope there is an enourmous turnout. It would be a major victory for the American people to show solidarity.

As for those who might say negative things about Glenn Beck, I really have to say, watch him. Make a true effort to understand him. He’s not what they say. Believe in the fact that someone may be actually, honestly good. The people who would say negative things about him are simply on the other side of his ideas and they need to claw and fight to discredit him.

Goodnight! Will write more tomororw..

Our neighbor told us there was a Momma bear and cubs around, but it wasn’t until last night that we saw them. Jonathan saw them and yelled to us that they were outside and we quickly ran to get the video camera.

I shot some video out the window and then went out on the deck to get more. They were probably about 30 feet away from me as I kept my back to the open door lol. I know how a Momma can get about her cubs, but I also know these bears are fairly used to people being around – unfortunately.

It appears they were coming down for water, or more specifically water caught by my half-opened pool’s busted pool cover. Afterwards they went to the baseball field down the hill where they were having a baseball game. I was thinking she was quite ballsy having the cubs with her and all as I heard the crowds notice her and start yelling, beeping their horns, etc. No doubt Momma was hoping someone dropped their french fries.

Aren’t the cubs awesome?!

Sunday we got up a bit later than expected and Jonathan being the fish that he is, needed to hit the pool. Then we hit a place called the Down Home Diner. It was the first time I tried something called Scrapple. It was kinda like hot pressed meatloaf mixed with bran, but a little better lol They had some nice thick bacon and Virginian salty ham. Yum!

We drove into town to the Indepenence National Historical Park, checked out a couple exhibits and watched a 30-minute movie called ‘Indepenence’. It was a bit light on actual information and heavier on anything else. I was hoping it would be educational for Jonathan’s sake. I also noticed something that I’ve seen done several times and I think it’s important to take notice of. There was a part where Thomas Jefferson was writing the Declaration and he was reading the words aloud. When he got to the part “they are endowed by our creator” he paused and then continued reading after that part.

Maybe you might think it sounds like conspiracy, but I think with the latest onset of ‘Healthcare is a right’ mentality, there’s a movement to casually leave out the fact that government doesn’t give Americans their rights. They are given to us by our creator (whoever that may be). The government simply protects those rights for us.

When you consider that FDR tried to pass a second bill of rights when he was president and that Cass R. Sunstein, wants to revisit the bill, it makes me worry about where the country is going. In case you’re unfamiliar with the second bill of rights, as most people are since they don’t teach about it in school, check out the rights that FDR tried to put in place:

• The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
• The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
• The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
• The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
• The right of every family to a decent home;
• The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
• The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
• The right to a good education.

These rights go against the very fundamentals of the constitution. The right to a job? a decent living? a home? adequate food, clothing and recreation?? What is adequate? Recreation? What does recreation mean? A New York Knicks game?? Are you kidding me? Imagine if FDR passed that? You think there’s a sense of entitlement now? Rights are based on property. If you own it, like your body or your home, you can do what you want with it, but giving someone a house means taking something from someone else. This actually would mean the government would trample someone else’s rights in the process. If people want to donate a home that’s one thing. Taxing hard working people and using their money to give someone a house for free is another.

Regardless, the point I’m trying to make is that I get the feeling someone wants ‘we the people’ to forget where our rights come from. Once we forget where they come from, next thing you know the government will start to give and take them away whenever they please.

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. ~James Madison, speech, Virginia Convention, 1788

But I digress lol – Afterwards we went over to the Liberty Bell. It’s quite impressive.

We were going to go to the National Constitutional Center, but I took a look at their website the night before and I wasn’t sure  I would have enjoyed it.

For instance, I saw links on their page titled ‘Rethinking the Second Amendment’ and ‘A.E. Dick Howard: The Road to Global Constitutionalism’. There was also a link for ‘Obama speech on race’.

Why is a place dedicate to, what would seem to be the preservation and history of the Constitution be rethinking any of the amendments? And why does the word Global come anywhere near the constitution of a soveriegn nation? What in the world does race have to do with the constitution? IMO, it’s a race neutral document and it was meant to be. The Declaration specifically states ‘all men are created equal’. I believe with exception to Georgia, North and South Carolina, it was the mindset of the founders that slavery was an immoral practice and the document was written in that way.

Here’s a couple quotes from Obama’s speech:

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy…

It’s getting a bit out of hand with people calling America’s form of government a democracy. It’s not! It’s a Republic. There’s a clear difference. I think the president should know that.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

I think this is what people need to decide for themselves, but mind you, it’s critical. Is the Constitution written to be preserved or is it a living breathing document that should be changed as we go? How you see this is extremely important. I personally believe it was written to be preserved. Yes, yes, there are amendments, but I think amendments should be limited to the protection of the document itself and to the country, not to serve someone’s agenda and to grant people anything more than is already granted. Changing anything in the document or adding something that contradicts the existing text shouldn’t be allowed.

For instance, Bush was wrong to try to amend the constitution regarding gay marriage, but everyone was right to limit presidential terms after FDR served 4 terms. The former was to support a religious belief, but the later was to protect the country from a possible dictatorship – which it nearly was.

Ahem, err, sorry. Sometimes I just get going lol

It was around lunch so we went over to Pat’s King of Steaks to try out the other rival in town.

It was similar to Geno’s in many ways. You had the famous people’s autographed pictures all around the place, picnic like tables all around the place, traffic, miserable parking and a huge line of people. There wasn’t a political vibe about the place though and not as much flare. It was a bit more modest and you could tell it was the original. They didn’t have as much to prove. Geno’s was more, as Jonathan put it, Las Vegas style.

As far as the cheesesteak goes, I agree with Bishwa, our taxi driver from the previous day. Pat’s wins, hands down. The difference is that Pat’s shreds the meat and they give you a heck of a lot more meat too. It’s far more juicy and tasty, yum, I would like one right now. I need to find myself some steakums and try to make my own

We were going to get to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Zoo, but we decided to just go home since it was late in the afternoon already, approaching evening. Pennsylvannia Turnkpike to the New Jersey Turnpike, here we come!

Overall, we all really enjoyed it. I would recommend it, but I would suggest you set aside more time. We left late on a Saturday and just didn’t have enough time to see more. Next trip I think will be Washington, D.C. during the last weekend of August. Maybe see you there

For Memorial Day weekend, we took an overnight trip down to Philadelphia. Because of the holiday we wanted to do something that had a sense of history about it. I would have loved to go to Williamsburg and we almost went to Connecticut, but Philly seemed fairly easy and it fit the holiday. Obviously being the birthplace of so much U.S. History, there’s lots of things to do surrounding Memorial Day.

We got checked in around 4:30pm on Saturday and were hungry so we jumped in a cab to head over to Geno’s Steaks, one of the two Rival cheesesteak places to go in Philly. It’s literally directly across the street from their rival, Pat’s, in one of those ‘X-shaped’ city intersections.

The line is literally around the block for both places and they don’t seem to ever get shorter. They’re also open 24 hours a day which is pretty impressive. Around the inside of the overhang that surrounds the place are hundreds of pictures starring celebrities who visited Geno’s although I have to admit I was wondering who half of them were. They have several glass cases full of various sew-on badges from police departments and fire departments around the country. There’s also one case with military related medals and such. You can find copies of letters from various government officials and townspeople to Geno saying one good thing after another and while you wait there’s a window on the line’s long side so you can see them making the cheesesteaks. One of the guy’s waived to us with a cheesesteak as he was making it. I hope he wasn’t waving mine at people.

You can see Geno’s famous sign – ‘This Is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING Please ‘SPEAK ENGLISH’. His right to have this sign in his window went all the way to the supreme court I believe – and he won. I believe it fell under free speech, but as long as it was a request and not an order. For instance, Geno’s can’t turn people away for speaking another language, but Geno’s can ask people to speak English. It’s a very politically charged atmosphere and I think it’s great. How else can you say America by excersizing your rights to say what you want to say in the middle of Philadelphia.

I read online that some people say he’s racist for it and they drive by and yell various slurs at the place as they drive by. I think that’s a load of crap. When did we turn into people who call each other racist at the drop of a dime. Do people know what racist means? That’s some pretty hateful stuff. I don’t think it’s wrong to have people speak English in America or to ask that people do. Obviously people who don’t want to can excersize that right since we are a free people, but I think it’s essential to the country that people melt together and become one. After all, one of the many sayings this country was built upon is ‘E pluribus unum’ or ‘Out of many, one’. Unfortunately now it’s a bit the opposite in many ways because we seem to be changing into a country of so many different groups that refuse to join the proverbial ‘team’. IMO, this country is about being something together, not something separate.

Anyway, so what about the cheesesteak? Well the first thing to note is that there’s a special way to order a cheesesteak in Philly, or at least for these two places. The idea is to order in three words broken down as follows – ‘quantity’ + ‘cheese type’ + ‘whether you want onions’ – so if you wanted 2 cheesesteaks with cheese wiz and onions, you would say ’2 wiz wit’ which of course translates into 2 cheesesteaks with cheese wiz and onions. Of course if you wanted provolone and no onions you’d say ’2 provolone without’. I got mine with cheese wiz and onions which seems to be the most traditional.

Honestly, the cheeseteak was good, but I think it was a bit light on the meat. They make the sandwich with slices of thinly cut steak and small chunks of onions. The cheese wiz is basically melted cheddar cheese for those of you unfamiliar although I think it’s a bit thinner than cheddar would be when melted.

The taxi who drove us to Geno’s was this awesome guy named Bishwa. We talked to him about how we needed to be somewhere at 5:15pm and he waited for us without leaving the meter running! We offered him a cheesesteak, but he declined! So after we ate the cheesesteak we jumped back in the cab and headed down to our next event which was a tour called Independence After Hours.

We walked in a group down through the streets until we got to a clearing in a park next to the Second Bank of the United States and out popped John Dunlop. He was the printer who printed the Declaration of Independence the second it was ready. Well, he shows up looking for Thomas Jefferson and says he’s going to the Town Tavern to see if he can find him. He lets us tag along.

All the people who worked there were dressed in olden garb and the menu was all said to be made from recipes of the time as well. For instance, they had breads said to be Benjamin Franklin’s favorite, they served beef pie and turkey pot pie which I must say was amazing. They even had a sampler of 4 beers where each one was one of the founder’s favorites. I personally liked George Washington’s best which was a bit darker, but truth is I’m not much of a beer fan. I was just curious.

After a while John Dunlop went off telling us to wait for Thomas Jefferson and by desert which was an amazing apple crisp, Thomas Jefferson came by looking for him. He told us he was going to the state house, otherwise known as Indepenence Hall, and for John Dunlop to follow him there when he comes back. Dunlop of course came back a few minutes later and we went out into the courtyard area to gather and then go over to the Hall.

Dunlop knocked on the doors and the keeper answered. After a bit of convincing he let us in to show us around. I felt a bit special since we were the last ones in. This meant that we got to close the doors. They reminded me of the old farm house my family owned when I was younger. The heavy doors felt so sturdy and the metal bar type lock that swung down to catch on the nook of what was like a gear cog brought me back to being a child.

Immediately when you walked in you couldn’t miss the staircase starting in the rear right corner, going up, across, up and across all the way up. It was really beautiful. I turned to take this picture looking back to the doors we came in through.

The keeper proceeded to take us through the state house to the court room. I didn’t get any good pictures here, but this guy David did – http://www.davidshome.net/OurTrip14.htm. The defendant apparently used to stand inside something like a cage. Why did we stop doing that? lol

We also got to see the room they all met in as well. This was the room they signed the Declaration of Indepenence in and where they drafted the Constitution of the United Status. It’s pretty amazing to imagine what it must have been like. I didn’t have a good picture of this either so once again courtesy of www.davidshome.net

Afterwards, the keeper wanted us to gather out near the staircase so he could read something to us. Honestly I forgot what he read, but next thing you know Thomas Jefferson and Samuel Adams appeared at the top of the staircase having a discussion about delcaring indepenence. Soon afterwards, as they got heated, Benjamin Franklin appeared and it was really awesome. They had a conversation that was so well done. You could actually imagine you were there. It really made you feel proud to be an American. It was pretty emotional in there. Many of us had tears in our eyes.

Once the scene was over, one of the officers came in to take questions. I asked him if the small red port-a-potty sized buildings around the property were outhouses lol Turns out they were sentry posts lol

Once we were done, we took a cab back to the hotel, got the car and were off to The Franlin Fountain. They’re known for home made ice cream which was O.K. I think the most memorable part of it was just plain weirdness. They have on their menu, Cup or Cone and just below it says Small, Medium or Large. Well, I wanted a large and when I asked for it the guy said he didn’t think it would work. Huh? It’s on the damn menu. He’s like ‘It’s a lot of ice cream’…… I was like WHAT? It’s on the damn menu. Anyways, it was ok, but between parking and the ice cream that was the first time I spent $40 on a couple of ice cream cones.

We snuck over to Valley Forge, but we got there too late. For those of you not familiar with Valley Forge, this is the place George Washington and his men camped out through a brutal winter without much food. They suffered around 2000 casualties and faced some tough odds. I came across a good blog entry over at The Mendte Report by Larry Mendte who visited there last year and it’s worth reading if the topic interests you. IMO, it’s a powerful place.

The only thing we could see what the National Memorial Arch because it was lit up. On the front it said:

TO THE OFFICERS AND PRIVATE SOLDIERS OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY
DECEMBER 19, 1777 JUNE 19, 1778

On one side of the inside it said:

On the other side it listed the names of the Commander in Chief, Major Generals and Brigadier Generals.

On the back it said:

It’s amazing what those people did for us. They gave up so much for us to have what we have today. We need to make sure we stop taking it for granted with our naivety. We’ve already given up so much of what they sacrificed for. If you don’t realize that, be vigilant. It’s important.

I’ll continue part 2 in a couple days as I have time.

It was an outstanding hockey game, but I couldn’t help noticing something interesting. I wonder if others who were there did.

Last night Jonathan and I went to our last New York Rangers game of the season and even though it seemed like our season tickets went fast, it was one heck of a game to go out on. Madison Square Garden was packed and it was loud. It was just the way it oughta be for such a high stakes game against a rival like the Philadelphia Flyers. Given that the Rangers needed to win to make the playoffs, it wasn’t surprising that it was a heated battle going back and forth the entire game. Thankfully, the Rangers pulled it out with a 4-3 victory. Both teams are now tied for the last playoff spot in the Division. Sunday’s rematch will decide which team goes home and which team advances.

But something caught my attention. Last night was free t-shirt night at the Garden. Just after the turnstiles at the entrance to the escalators was a team of 20-somethings handing out white t-shirts in whatever size you asked for. The front of the shirt said

and on the back it said “We Salute You” and had a picture of the Rangers in their typical end-game victory celebration where they all gather at center ice and raise their sticks in the air to salute the fans. IMO, as a Ranger’s fan, there couldn’t be anything better.

Did you notice what’s at the bottom of the shirt? The company logo? Amtrak. Amtrak??

The same Amtrak that is heavily subsidized by the U.S. Government? The same Amtrak that, even when given massive infusions of cash from our pockets, still fails horribly as a viable business each and every year since who knows when? The same Amtrak that, despite having an average of 24 million passengers per year, also averages at least 1 billion in debt per year? The same Amtrak that Obama gave $8 billion for high speed railways in his 2009 stimulus package? Well spent dude.

Analysis Shows Amtrak Lost $32 Per Passenger in 2008
Quote: “Forty-one of Amtrak’s 44 routes lost money in 2008 …”

Taxes picking up tab for Amtrak losses
Quote: “The Pew report says taxpayers provide a $32 subsidy per Amtrak ticket, on average”

NY Times Amtrak Business profile
Quote: “Amtrak said it covered about two-thirds of its operating costs in 2006, bringing in revenue of about $2.05 billion while incurring expenses of about $3.07 billion”

kewl artwork from http://www.headinjurytheater.com/strange.htm

Do you think a business, if you can call it that, hemoraging money like a bloody nose, should be paying for t-shirts to be given out at hockey games? Or let’s put it this way. Do you think that Amtrak should be using your hard earned money to pay for t-shirts at a hockey game? Do you think Congress should continue to give Amtrak your hard earned cash year after year when it’s been more than proven they aren’t able to pay their way?

Of course not.

I think it’s disgusting to see the lack of responsibility by the stewards of our tax dollars and I think it’s insane that we’ve all let this go for so long. I can’t imagine our lives are to be spent working 60 hour weeks so we can support a bunch of failures. We really need to demand better from not only our Congress and our Government, but from ourselves. IMO, the biggest failure doesn’t lie with Obama or with the U.S. Government or with Amtrak. It lies with us and us alone. It’s ‘We the people’, remember?

Thanks ‘us’ for my free t-shirt.

I was a little uncomfortable with the fact that I wasn’t home with my family when this happened, but I was at work. My son Jonathan was able to catch at least a moment or two on video peaking through the window at him/her. This one’s a mamaluke.

The bear must have been 10-15 feet away from our front door and approaching. I’m glad Jonathan put down the camera and took off when he did. Sandy went to the door, the brave wifey she is, and yelled at the bear to leave. Apparently it worked cause they said the bear didn’t only leave but sprinted away.

It’s been a long time since I’ve wanted a top of the line Martin.

(Their new building is made to imitate the look of their original factory just a mile or two away)

I can’t imagine any other guitar player who loves a good acoustic doesn’t feel the same way. As far as I’m concerned they make the best acoustic guitars hands down and the runner up has some catching up to do. Their guitars have a warmth in them that I haven’t heard elsewhere, but of course as with anything else that’s good in life, they come with a price tag.

(The walkway in is a guitar headstock! and their lobby [wish I could capture it in picture] is the continuation of this walkway as it’s in the shape of a guitar)

They have a line called the x-series that starts around $500, but those are really just budget acoustics IMO.

Martin DCX1E

If you want to jump into the start of the quality lines you’ll have to pay around $2,500. Their pricelist has several guitars priced out at $10,000 and even some, made of Brazillian Rosewood, that can cost as much as $100,000. Apparently this is due to the rarity of the wood. All I know is a 100k guitar should play by itself lol

Martin HD-28 Standard

I’ve been thinking about buying one of their backpacker guitars for my office at work One of the things I like about working from home is that I can spin 180 degrees in my chair, pick up my acoustic and play for a bit. I find it really rids me of any stress or fatigue.

Backpacker

Anyhow, the last time I was in the studio, Mozart gave me a heads up that their factory was just over the border in Nazareth, Pennsylvannia - about 1 1/2 hours away from here. I hadn’t even realized. He told me about how they give free tours and he and his son really liked going. With Jonathan recently starting to play guitar, I’ve had it on my mind for a while now. So, Sandy and I took off work today and planned a surprise road trip. 

We hung around for about an hour, played their guitars and checked out their gift shop until the tour started. They have a smallish room filled with their high end guitars in it that someone needs to unlock with a key to let you in. Not only are the acoustic guitars awesome, but the room itself had such a great sound that anything you played sounded like a million bucks. Jonathan was whipping out some Enter Sandman and Sweet Home Alabama. He’s impressing me with how quickly he’s picking up the guitar. I don’t think I picked it up nearly as fast. Then again I guess I didn’t have a Father who played.

When the tour started, they gave us headphones and a receiver so we could hear the guide and he took us and 9 others around the entire place. They had walkways all through the factory marked by yellow lines that you were asked not to step out of. We were able to see the entire process from start to finish of how they make their guitars and the level of detail and craftsmanship they put into them is really inspiring.

Here are some of the pictures I snapped on the tour.

(It’s amazing how much of the guitars are made by hand. They have machines in many areas such as benders, sprayers and polishers, but most of everything else is very manual. They even have an area where they make acoustics using the same methods they used back when they started in 1833.)

(Ah, the finished product.)

(Some last minute guitar detailing.)

(This is a massive guitar mock up they said they built for a parade float. Unfortunately it never got used so it sits there.)

(They have a really amazing and inspiring museum. It’s truly awesome to see craftsmen take such pride in the history of their work. So many people have not only used their guitars, but have had signature series designed for or by them.)

Our visit was something we’ll never forget and I highly recommend it even if you aren’t a guitar player. Being an American company started in 1833 coupled with the quality of their work and the history…I was really in awe most of the time. And it doesn’t cost a dime so how could you go wrong!

There is one side affect however. Don’t be surprised if you get back home and learn of your new love/hate relationship with your non-Martin acoustic. I’ve tried rubbing the side of my Yamaha and chanting “Be Martin, be Martin”, but it’s still a Yamaha. I was truly spoiled in that playing room they had.

I haven’t been posting as much as I would like due to numerous things taking up my time lately, but I wanted to post this video I took just this past fall. I can’t believe I hadn’t posted it sooner. It’s really quite awesome. We have at least 1 family of bear that hang around our house’s general area. This video is just one of them and believe it or not, he or she is the middle-sized one.

Here’s a couple funny stories regarding the bears.

One night, Sandy forgot to close the garage door. Of course this is where we keep our garbage cans. In the morning, Jonathan heard something outside and he came into our room to tell us to look out the window. Sure enough there were 4 bear dragging our garbage through our backyard into the woods. There were 2 little ones, the one in the video above and a bigger one. I remember the quote of the morning. Sandy says “wow that’s so kewl” and I replied, “yeah well you can clean it up” lmao Obviously we all pitched in. What a mess!

Another day Sandy was in the backyard leaning over the pool looking at the water when she heard a crack. I wasn’t there so I can’t verify the distance (hehe), but she said there was a bear approaching her from about 10 feet away. I had been upstairs and didn’t know it until I heard her screaming like she was on fire. She bolted right for the house (we talked about walking away slowly next time lol). I ran downstairs and sure enough there was a bear (the same one from the video) walking up around the back of our yard towards the left side of our house. I walked out on the deck (he was about 50-100 feet away) and he seemed to completely ignore me. I’m not sure if he realized I was claiming my territory…or that I would have went back in the house had he come towards me haha

Then, another time, Sandy and Jonathan ordered me a box of cherries for Father’s Day. They arrived, but some of them were spoiled so after a phone call to the company they agreed to send out another box. After about a week I asked Sandy about where it was and she said she wasn’t sure. The next morning I found the box on the side of the house with a bear claw mark in the side of it. There wasn’t one cherry, pit or stem left. I was so pissed! lol

The final story is just before Thanksgiving this year. We typically always cook a turkey a week or so before Thanksgiving for practice and use the leftovers for lunch, etc. Well, Sandy tossed the carcass in the garbage in the garage and left the door open cause Jonathan was outside. She later comes into the garage to find a bear with both paws around the turkey carcass chomping away at it. The bear ran away into the woods when she saw him/her, but damn! lol

As of now, they’re hibernating, but I have a feeling we’ll see more of them in the spring.

P.S. – Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!