The corner of Victoria Avenue and Telephone Road was brimming with moderates today.
Foothill seniors Sukhpreet Bains and Kirsten Garbe started advertising Ventura’s very own Rally to Restore Sanity back in September and were shortly followed by senior Bill Grundler’s counter rally the March to Keep Fear Alive.
Both rallies outside the Ventura County Government Center were modeled after John Stewart’s and Steven Colbert’s joint march on the Washington Mall that took place earlier today as well.
“Since America is represented by two extreme sides we wanted to have the moderate side of it. Seventy to eighty percent of people are moderate in this country,” Bains said as she explained why she decided to organize the event.
Foothill’s own world history and government instructor Cherie Eulau was there to support her students. She encouraged all of them to consider forming a rally in Ventura after watching a Daily Show clip in her AP Government class.
“I’m proud of these guys for showing up and organizing something on their own and to see that it doesn’t take much, you can go on Facebook and stand here and get a reaction,” Eulau said. “Little things like that do make a difference and it’s a part of being a good citizen and certainly very American to be out here with your signs.”
Eulau smiled proudly as she held her sign that read, “We built this country on COMPROMISE.”
Sanity and Fear were split between different sides of the street corner. Fear supporters shouted satirical slogans at the cars as they passed by, and Foothill senior Kassra Rafiee exclaimed “What good ever became of rational thought?”
Cars honked nonstop in support of all the students.
Grundler yelled “Let’s hear it for hyper partisanship!” and held a sign that read “Moderation is for flip floppers.”
Foothill seniors Caroline Frambach and Nick Herson were true moderates, walking back and forth between Fear and Sanity. Frambach held a sign that read “Panic” on one side and “Don’t Panic” on the other. Herson’s displayed the non-chalant message “It’s a lovely day.”
Ventura local Ed Hewitt stopped for a chat on his bicycle.
“I’m not sure if they watch too much Daily Show or not,” he said when asked of what he thought of the kids. “It’s good they’re not out texting.”
Hewitt also said he thought that most of the people driving by didn’t have a clue what the kids were actually trying to do.
The fear side was the most vocal when yelling slogans at the cars.
“The Ministry of Thought got more done in 200 pages than United States Congress got done in 200 years,” yelled Rafiee, referring satirically to the novel 1984 by George Orwell that depicts totalitarian rule over the world.
Grundler made some flip comments about education to the crowd as well, saying “If we listen to others we might accidentally learn something…Keep education on the DL keep the fear up…Reform is the last thing a broken nation needs.”
Later on during the rally, Foothill senior Loren Hansen showed up dressed as the United States’ 37th president, Richard Nixon. Hansen decided he wanted to dress as one of his worst fears and remarked that Nixon was a really creepy guy.
It wasn’t definite which side received the most supportive honks; keeping in the spirit of the rally, it was a pretty moderate political gathering.
