DC was flooded with political enthusiasts this weekend for the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. Showing up with ATV’s Body Politic at 6 AM to do some reporting actually ended up being completely worth it because we ended up being first row for the whole show. While doing interviews, I met many visitors who had driven from various places including Minnesota, Ohio, and even California. The political puns and more serious messages were ubiquitous on the thousands of signs being proudly displayed by the young and old. The most popular response I received when asking some of the interviewees what this rally meant to them, was the fact that politics has just gotten out of control. We are unable to get anything accomplished because politicians are too busy trying to promote party agendas. Our country is in chaos because everyone is freaking out, when actually, things are relatively okay. Often times our leaders, citizens, and especially the media tend to exaggerate certain topics in order to manipulate fears. Although there is no doubt that we are in a crucial point in history and we are dealing with serious issues such as a war, economic troubles, and domestic disputes, we tend to forget that compared to most of the global population, we’re doing fine and should probably consider calming down for a hot second. Hence, my interpretation of the name of the rally: Should we put things into perspective and use logic to stop being ridiculous or should we actually be even more afraid of this downward spiral?
The message behind the rally was extremely relevant to our conversation in Thursday’s class about terrorism. The attacks of September 11th were horrific and affected the lives of so many people. However, as discussed in the Threat Exaggeration article, when we put it into perspective, was it really worth a war, discrimination towards an entire culture, and such hyped up fear? Maybe we should have quietly stepped up our security without making such a scene or furthering a political agenda. The sane road would include worrying less about dying on a plane crash into a tall building, and more about not letting the media and certain stereotypes affect how we view the world and live our lives. We should take a traumatic event and use it to unify ourselves, instead of assume a state of paranoia. In my opinion, if I die today, then I die today. While we shouldn’t use that as an excuse to live recklessly, eventually one day that phrase will be true. Why live everyday in fear that it’s the last?
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