Print 
PDFMy email over the weekend indicates that people are still talking and thinking about the rally last Thursday.
Thanks for all the pictures. Some are alike, but those with individuals and groups who may have come together, have been posted. If you would like to add yours, email them to info@faithandfreedom.us The pictures show the crowd gathering as early as 10:45 a.m. Thursday morning all the way to the beginning at 12 noon. I arrived at about 10:30 and saw several hundred gathered on the steps with a couple hundred inside the Capitol. After I spoke at about 12:15 PM, I walked over to one of the Washington State Patrol assigned to the event and asked how many he would estimate were in attendance. He explained they had a matrix for counting each section of the steps. He told me there were less than 3000 and more than 2000. He estimated 2400.
Thank you to all who attended. Thank you to all from the Russian, Slavic community, many of whom are first generation immigrant citizens.
I have a couple of comments about the press. I want to introduce you to two people who responded very, very differently to the rally and remind you of the purpose of the event.
The press essentially did not show up. In fairness I must tell you that Drew Mikkelsen, from KING 5 had told me a week earlier that he would be covering our event. I saw him at about 11 AM Thursday on the Capitol campus and he told me he was there to cover our event, but had just received a call from his boss and was told to go directly to Gregoire's office that KING 5 was doing a lead story on the Governor's $9 billion problem.
KOMO and KIRO told some of you on our mailing list that they were unaware of the event, however a reporter from KIRO TV, whom I have met before, found me in the crowd, gave me his card and said please call me next week. They had been notified.
Let's be honest, the press is not on our side on this issue. I'm sure they try, or at least try to appear to cover these kinds of events with some degree of fairness. There are specific reporters who would do more if they were allowed. They have been very quiet about SB 5688 and HB 1727. I believe there are those in the press who do not want a lot of public dialog about these two bills.
The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) contacted Larry Stickney and me over the weekend and asked for some of the video footage our Faith and Freedom people took of the event. We are sending that to them and will also be posting it on the Faith and Freedom web site, perhaps today. Watch for it.
The Seattle Times called me after the fact.
I have received a lot of personal email since the event. Some has been kind ---some is not. I am going to share two different emails I received minutes apart. One is a mother. I have not altered or edited except to delete the name of her late daughter and, of course, her own name. The other is from a man. I have deleted his name. Both are responding to the rally and what it meant to them.
Take a deep breath and read.
I am a wife and a mother of 3. I don't work outside the home because I have more than enough work inside the home. My husband, a commercial electrician, supports us all. We homeschool our children and we just got through 2½ years of being nurses to our daughter who went to Heaven on December 29, 2008 due to a brain tumor. She was 5½ years old. We are on the rebound from a very hectic time in our lives, but our faith in God is strong and has grown through our experiences of seeing our daughter suffer and then go to be with our Father in Heaven. I am writing you because I want you to know how much I appreciate your daily updates and all the work you do for Faith & Freedom. With everything that has gone on in our lives, I haven't had the time to keep updated on the news. We receive World Magazine and we get some e-mail updates from organizations online. But I've hardly had time to read much of even that, until the past couple of months. You wrote about the Marriage Rally and I decided to come with my children to stand for traditional marriage with you and others. I wanted to deliver this letter in person. Unfortunately, my oldest son got ill and we were not able to attend. We are terribly disappointed as we wanted very much to come and stand with you and the others to support the truths we need to protect. However, we know there will be other opportunities to stand with you. Our foundations in this country are crumbling fast. So fast that it is scary. The America of yesterday is long gone. I've been reading
through the Psalms lately and I ran across one that I felt was so true for these times. I wanted to share it with you.
Psalm 83
"O God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still. See how your enemies are astir, how your foes rear their heads. With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish. 'Come,' they say, 'let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.' With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you--the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites, Gebal, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre. Even Assyria has joined them to lend strength to the descendants of Lot. Selah. Do to them as you did to Midian, as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, who perished at Endor and became like refuse on the ground. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, 'Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God.' Make them like tumbleweed, O my God, like chaff before the wind.As fire consumes the forest or a flame sets the mountains ablaze, so pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your storm. Cover their faces with shame so that men will seek your name, O LORD. May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace. Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD--that you alone are the Most High over all the earth."
However, like God, I don't want them to perish. I just want them to turn from their ways, know Him, and then glorify Him. (Ezekiel 18:23, 32; 33:11). No reply is necessary as I would rather you keep focused on the task at hand. I just wanted to thank you for your service to God. Your audience is listening, learning, and appreciating.
Now, read this.
Bigots.The Purpose of the rally.
Mr. Randall, You and the other members of your organization are nothing more than extreme right-wing bigots. You and your conservative fellow travelers and ancestors have been proven wrong for at least one hundred years in this country and you will be proven wrong again. You conservatives railed against a woman's right to vote and the 8 hour day in the early 20th century. Conservatives opposed FDR's New Deal, (that, by the way) saved capitalism so that you can make more money. Conservatives opposed the minimum wage, the FDIC, Social Security, and pretty much everything else that Roosevelt proposed. In the 60's conservatives, (in both parties, I might add), opposed the civil rights legislation that finally enfranchised an entire race of Americans. You applauded Reagan when he declared war on organized labor and began the destruction of the US industrial base and the good middle class jobs that went first to Mexico and then to China. Now you are against everything that President Obama is trying to do to clean up the mess left by 8 disastrous years of Bush and Cheney. And you have set your sights on making sure that gay people are deprived of the basic rights to marry and form a legal union like any man and woman can do.
This bigotry will not stand and people like me will continue to challenge you on every front. You will not get away with your attempts to deprive citizens of their basic rights. You and your ancestors were WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! for the last hundred years and you will be proven WRONG again.
Seattle
It is not likely to change the vote of the homosexual leaders in the Legislature, who are intent on redefining marriage---or a majority of their followers.
However, it is a rallying point for those of us who believe in traditional marriage. It is a point of beginning to launch the appropriate campaign, once these so-called "everything but marriage" bills become law.
Be absolutely confident we are prepared to begin the first day we can legally do so. There is deep resolve, not hatred, toward this effort to re-engineer the family and redefine marriage.
Homosexuals are free to form their relationships---they are not free to redefine marriage.
We need to build the biggest possible network of citizens over the next few weeks. As the press and the homosexual activists didn't expect to hear from us to the extent they did in Olympia, there are those already predicting that we cannot succeed in a referendum campaign.
This is a cause I would gladly go down for because it involves the culture of the next generation, and the next. But I don't believe they are correct. I think we can win this one and will.
I believe we are on the right side of the marriage issue and God will help us.
We must stand together and work together and pray together as never before. Please encourage your friends and family to join the movement to defend marriage by subscribing to receive our blog. It is through this daily communication that we will keep you updated.
The press will not help us get the word out. We must do it through our own communication network. It is vital that as many as possible sign up.
Thank you and God bless you.
_______________
Gary Randall
President
Faith & Freedom
Click here to add these blogs to your email inbox.