Washington, DC (USA)

[what a day! - I had heard about the Million Vet March event, scheduled for this weekend to open the "closed" World War II Memorial (which is open air all year long but suddenly needs big fences around it, due to the Government Shutdown) and decided to go - got up early and drove into the city to arrive in time for the event (0900) - by then, the crowd had already formed - it was misty but the folks were in good spirits - they had already broken down the barricades and were saying prayers, the Pledge of Allegiance - flags were everywhere - a few politicians came by (Sarah Palin, Mike Lee, etc.), but mostly, it was just vets - I was going to leave the area, but then several 18 wheeler trucks arrived on the scene, along with bikers - the Park Police, Secret Service and other police agencies got annoyed with the relatively small, but boisterous crowds and tried to block roads around the area - this made the crowd get more annoyed - I followed the throngs as they confronted larger and larger groups of cops - eventually, everyone headed back to the Memorial - I walked with some people towards the Lincoln Memorial, which had been "reopened" by another group - it was feeling good to be a rebel, as I walked around the Memorial and watched a new group of "essential" government workers descend on the site - generally, they left the growing crowds along - by that point, emboldened by the successes of breaking into closed memorials, the entire crowd started walking towards the White House - I kept up with the crowd (which were carrying barricades by this point) - when we arrived, the group stood along the fence of the White House, cheering as each section of the fence was tossed into a pile in view of the President (who, I heard later, was home) - it was then that SWAT teams, horse mounted police, and several other groups of security folks arrived - they attempted to convince the crowd to disperse, but it didn't work - cameras were rolling everywhere - the whole thing was surreal - eventually, the police decided to reclaim the fences and set up a barricade in front of the White House fence - this caused the remaining hard-core demonstrators to start walking towards the Capitol - I left, marveling at the entire affair - on the way back to my car, I stopped to check out the Taste of DC (decided the cost was not worth it) - drove out of the city and headed home - (I was definitely a witness to something really amazing, made the national news)]