I confess this is actually not about running. It's about yesterday's Forward On Climate Rally in Washington D.C. (See, e.g., http://350.org/en/about/blogs/stunning-40000-rally-dc-forward-climate). The march around the White House was the largest climate march in U.S. history. But, this is supposed to be a running blog, so I suppose I ought to make some connections to running. Well, I did see some runners running through the crowd of demonstrators. Hmm, that's kind of weak. Oh, how about the number of attendees at the rally (estimated at 35,000 to 40,000) is about the size of the field of a major marathon. :) See, I knew there was a connection! And, just as with runners, the wind chill in the teens did not deter the attendees.
We owe it to our children and all future generations.
The main thing I want to say is that I came away from the event hopeful. Not that any major climate legislation will soon come out of Congress (ha!). Not that President Obama will reject the Keystone XL pipeline. What I am hopeful about is the the multi-generational makeup of the crowd, from grandparents to young kids; the people who came from all across this nation; and, particularly the younger generation (many students) passionately engaged in something larger than themselves.
Just one example, not directly related to the rally itself. There were several homeless people huddled on the side of 15th St., NW, along the march route, in plain sight of the White House. A number of the marchers, in their 20's, stopped and dug through their backpacks for packages of food and left them with the homeless. They didn't ignore; didn't gawk; didn't pity. Someone was hungry and they fed him.
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