With the exception of a few hecklers, one in particular who was shoved from the area by the crowd, the response was largely positive. I was surprised by the lack of Policy and Politics in the speech. That is not to say I was disappointed, I just imagined that the Senator would be taking advantage of his extra time as The Nominee to make his points against his democratic rivals. It was almost refreshing in a way, more of a "hey, let’s all come together and get some things done!" type of speech.
To conclude the "newsy" section here are pictures of the major players.
Senator John McCain:
Senator John Kyl:
Cindy Lou McCain:
Now I am certainly a right-of-center leaning person, but don't really identify with the Republican Party. I have always liked Senator McCain, but the primary reason I went to this speech was to view the response, and I was not disappointed!
Of course the Veterans groups were there, mostly supporters here. These people seem to be Senator McCain's best friends and understandably so. Among them were at least two uniformed Marines. The Senator took special care during his departure to speak with and shake the hands of the veterans and active members of the military.
The second most prominent group was the supporters of OTHER candidates! This was surprising to me, as I expected to see lots of anti-war types for the most part. Earlier this year I attended a rally for Senator Barack Obama and I do not recall seeing anyone from any other politicians campaigns present there. At this visit there were visitors of course from the campaigns of both Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton:
These people very enthusiastically told me that they had given out all of their buttons/banners/signs at the "mostly republican" event and that they were extremely happy with the turnout.
Then there were the Ron Paul supporters. I used to be a pretty big supporter of Dr. Paul, and quite honestly he has several good ideas and comes from the "strong individual freedoms" camp that I personally find to be the only future America has. That being said, Dr. Paul will almost certainly never be a viable candidate in a general election and most certainly not for the Republican Party. (View a blog about my stance on Ron Paul here.)
The primary reason for my belief here is that his ardent supporters of the "Ron Paul Revolution" are killing his chances just about everywhere. Take for example the guy on the right in this photo:
(Note: This photo was taken by my roommate John Bulwer. You can view his blog here.)
First of all he reminds me of one of my Physics professors Dr. Rachford, that aside he is a good representation of a Ron Paul supporter. I mean no offense here at all but he has that libertarian look to him, and I am certain that to him, dressed as I was in fancy jeans and suit jacket I appeared to him to match the exact profile of a ridiculously stupid and uppity Republican. I am here to assure you that I am not; clothes don't make the man as they say. He apparently didn't get this message, and after requesting a second photo from me I obliged him. I didn't think anything of it until I was editing the following picture but take a look:
He's flipping me off!
See this is what I am talking about, unfair assumptions and unreasonable reactions. As a matter of fact later in the day this same man approached me and asked rather demandingly "who are you working for?” To which I told him 'nobody' and directed him to my blog. I may be stretching a bit but he seemed completely ready to rip my head off as a member of the Mainscream Media until he heard that I was a blogger. Then it all changed he got excited and ran off to get a pen and paper to get the address here. (If you're checking this out right now I’d love to hear from you!).
Okay so next were the anti-war types. Anti-war types always seem to be from one of two camps. They are either older people who vehemently opposed Vietnam, even as some of them fought in it or younger college age kids who really have no idea about the world around them, other than their safe bubble they've grown up in for the last 20 or so years.
That being said I love them ALL!
I never wanted this blog to turn into a political machine for me, so we'll set aside my views on the war, however I do have one thing to say here. People like these protestors (and the next group) are what make America the country I want to call home for my lifetime. The fact that not only are we allowed to show up to an event like this with signs like these, but that some people (including young people) believe so fervently in their cause as to show up with these signs facing ridicule and public embarrassment is amazing to me. KUDOS to ALL of you!
Here are a 2 of the signs that I particularly enjoyed:
The final group that I want to talk about is one of the reasons I started doing this blog. I call them The Prescott College Kids even though I don't actually know if they are or not. These are beautiful, artistic, smart and creative people who are often in the square. They always seem to be up to intellectual conversation, are extremely friendly, and very passionate about their beliefs. Whether I agree with them or not, The Prescott College Kids are some of my favorite people in the world!
On Saturday the PCK were out in force with a campaign they were calling "Spread the Health". I never quite figured out if they were calling for National Healthcare or making fun of it, but their idea was great. They were handing out bread and vegetable on the street corner to those passing by. Most of the people who stopped were extremely skeptical and figured it was a joke or a prank but eh PCK were entirely serious. I know this because I was starving and had some of their bread, it was wonderful!
In addition to "Spread the Health" there were also signs such as McCain <3's Back Alley Abortions, and a rather ironic one about supporting fascism as well as oppression of others. Again whether I agree or disagree I adore their passion.
Here are the PCK:
Check out the skepticism of this guy, I mean it’s just celery:
The PCK then decided to take the stage where McCain had just been to spread their message in from of the giant American flag:
I'll leave it to you, the reader, to draw your conclusions from here. This is a photography blog after all. I just want to take this opportunity to thank the people in the images above for making Prescott the awesome place that it is. I appreciate all of you whether we agree or disagree we do it as friends!
Until next time!
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