 | News: Permit for Pro-Constitution Rally on Inaugural Parade Route “On Path to Approval.” Will You Be There? |
I just got off the phone with Robbin Owen of the National Park Service (Capital Region) and an officer of the Park Police, and I am very pleased to report that my submitted permit application for a demonstration calling on President Barack Obama to uphold the Constitution is “on path to approval”. Pending Secret Service declaring whatever it is going to declare at the last minute, the demonstration appears to be on track to occur in a reserved space on the Pennsylvania Avenue Parade route. Unless glitches get thrown in the way (and the National Park Service sees no looming glitches), we even appear to be headed for a spot right in front of the Department of Justice building, right across the street from the J. Edgar Hoover FBI headquarters.
In short, it looks like we’ll get exactly what the permit application envisioned.
One big caveat: according to Ms. Owen, the National Park Service and its regulations can be overruled by the Secret Service on grounds of “national security.” This is not to say that it will happen (and the NPS has no indication that it will), but it might. I’ll keep you posted on that.
In the coming days, I’ll also post a transcript of this recorded (with permission) conversation with the National Park Service, some interesting information about secret documents we citizens can’t see that have to do with political demonstration regulations, and publicity materials to help spread the word.
This is very good news in my book. It tells me that one guy in Ohio, not part of some coalition of groups with a big acronym name, unconnected to anybody in any position of power, can submit a handwritten permit application to demonstrate on the biggest political day in DC in memory… and have it be (tentatively) approved. If this goes through, it shows that the assembly, speech and petition protections of the First Amendment are not quite dead.
Here’s my question to you, you readers who have left indignant comments about the constitution over the past eight years, you readers who have said people need to get out into the streets and say something about civil liberty in America:
Will you be there?
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i’m there, this is great! i have been saying this very same thing to my husband who thinks we can’t do anything about “our government” anymore! this is exactly what we need to do. Let me know how we can help!
Awesome! I’ll be posting news about what we can do.
Though 4 million people are estimated to be in Washington for this historic event, and because i have been crying out for a change in government since 2001, seriously worried that our country is going down the tubes and having done everything short of anarchy and terrorism to rail against the new bankrupt fascist America we live in and to change it legally, i’m going to try to get lodging with a friend who lives nearby in Bethesda and in the same camp as we who helped to get Obama elected.
This “reward” of a show BETTER include Obama’s VERBAL AND ACTUAL IMPLEMENTATION OF his oath of office. i sincerely hope THIS professed Christian doesn’t lie to us, abuse, ignore and re-interpret the Constitution to his will or keep us going down the corporate/fascist road of desolation. i want him to work to repair all the damage to our rights and the environment (including Katrina), actual corporate crime laws like the drug company bill, the bankruptcy laws, and the spying on us that Bush has foisted on us WITH CONGRESSIONAL COMPLICITY AND APPROVAL, and get people back to work. He MUST get the federal watchdog agencies back to doing their mandated jobs again by enforcing clean air, water, overseeing nuclear power, manufacturing and mining, logging, federal parks use, and the pharmaceutical industry, the banking, mortgage lending and financial industries. These agencies have been extremely lax and run by appointment of people from the corporate sector whose companies directly gained from the inactions of these guys. The damage is evident and will continue to worsen over at least the next year if this is neglected.
WE have a lot of work to do. Continue to put the political pressure on this Congress and administration like we tried to do with Bush.
Letter writing, e-mail and calls to Congress and the White House with HUGE lists of names backing our calls for reform and REAL change must go on.
i hope (but seriously doubt) that Congress opens full-scale investigations into the financial meltdown, the Bush/Cheney neo-con cadre, and changes the long list of bad laws we’ve seen passed.
I will be there.
I’ll be there in spirit … are there ways those of us who aren’t in DC can help?
YES! You can spread the word. Thanks, Jon.