Anna Lee and I headed to Austin Sunday, August 26th to reinforce those that were at the Rescue down at the Capitol. We were a little surprised when we parked and got to the camp as there were so few people! What happened to the 700 from the night before?
Maya Angelou was scheduled to come out at noon to Rescue everyone, but apparently she took ill and was unable to come. I guess lot of people got discouraged and decided to leave.
As night set in, Courtney Smith showed up to stay the night. We then laid out our tarps, and prepared for a long night. Then the cops showed up. Apparently, unless you have a permit, you can not sleep on the capitol lawn - and apparently, the protest permit had expired. Then we heard about the weather. Huge Storms with lightening. We debated for a while on what to do. Sleeping under trees with lightening was not a good ideal - we had to figure something out. Finally, after much debate, we decided to call it a night and head home. At 1:30 a.m.
I checked the website today and at 11:36, they were still there - in the rain, torrential rain, twittering and waiting.
I was so disappointed at the organization of this protest. Being my first protest - I just didn't know what to expect; however, I think it could have been organized so much better. I don't think it was a reflection on the invisible children organization - I just think that when you put 19 year olds in charge of such a huge event, it would help if they had oodles of experience! Our group decided they should have hired youth leaders to organize it!
I'll keep watching the website throughout the day - I've sent emails to various news channels (seen nothing on the protest on any channel) and even to Bill O'Reilly (why isn't anyone showing anything about such huge international event?). Hopefully those that are left (college students) will be rescued soon.
