But enough about me, Matt. Good analysis of what actually went down last night—and what it actually all means—can be found over at Bike Portland.
Friday night’s rally in support of Sam Adams brought hundreds (500-600?) of Portlanders to City Hall. It was an astounding moment of cohesion for a city that had seemed to lose its way in the past few days.
The mantra of the night was “Get back to work!” On signs and on stage, there was a feeling of forgiveness and a sense that many Portlanders just want to see Mayor Adams take the reins of our city once again.
Emcee Mark Acito introduced several local business owners and other community leaders who came to the mic and simply said, “I’m with Sam”. It was a powerful message that seemed to crescendo as the event went on….
There were a few (I saw two or three) anti-Sam protestors among the crowds, but, other than loudly criticizing everyone as being “disgusting” and other things, they didn’t have an impact on this event. An anti-Adams rally held earlier in the day on Friday was also not too well-attended.
Public support and momentum for Adams has grown considerably in the past two days.
Read the rest here.
Dan, I was the girl with the “I’m With Sam” sign and the moronic smile that was next to the Sho Dozono supporter you spoke with by the wall last night (thanks for shaking my hand, your puffy mitten warmed it up a bit!). I was very impressed with your candor with him; you were so polite and seemed genuinely interested in what he thought. I talked to him some beforehand, and he was concerned about his safety because he seemed to be one of the only “anti-Sam” guys in the group (and for sure the only sane one). I told him that we were a peaceful and tolerant people, and that’s why we were there. After you left and I told him who you were, I think he was impressed. So was I. Thanks for coming.
Yes thanks Dan. Here in Portland we have a hard time figuring things out. We’re not very sophisticated. We need “celebrities” from larger cities to come in and teach us how to think.
Thank you, Dan. Please never leave. We have so much to learn.
My RSS feed of Matt’s coverage from last night included the line: “I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to hope Adams doesn’t resign tomorrow. It’s like the BBC pulling Eldorado just when it got interesting. Also, the racial mix at tonight’s rally approximated the Republican National Convention.”
Then there was a link to Savage blaming the Prop 8 mess in California on African-Americans.
When I went to read the story at Blogtown, both the observation about the racial mix and the link to Dan’s comments were gone.
Who took that down? Matt? Dan?
That was my call. I didn’t think it was relevant to the event.
WM, can you please make Dan Savage go away now?
NO ONE cares what you think Dan! Stay in Seattle and deal with it’s problems…
Hey Humpy- can you PLEASE stop Savage from ruining your blog even more?
Yes, keep believing a tide of childish emotionalism will save the day.
I think it was great of Dan to come down and show his support for Sam. So he’s not from Portland, so what? Rather than being high-and-mighty, his speech was quite deferent to the opinion of Portlanders. Anyone who has a problem with it obviously didn’t listen to it.
Great job on the part of Steven keeping a sharp eye on the publication he runs here. As for people who have a problem with Dan being on this paper, um… isn’t it owned by the same people as the paper he works on and used to run in Seattle, The Stranger? So uhh… yeah. You’re ignorant.
Will- you are SOOOO ignorant, and totally lack any values or morals. Get lost idiot!