I wrote:August 16, 2013, Cranston, Rhode Island
This evening, I (JohnyMac) attended an Impeach Obama overpass protest held at the Laurens Street over pass of I-95 in Cranston, Rhode Island. The planned event was supposed to start at five thirty eastern time; however I arrived at five O?clock a bit early to give help setting up if needed.
When I arrived Laurie J. had already arrived and had set up two huge white sheets with the message of, IMPEACH OBAMA, in huge black letters along with www.overpassesforobamasimpeachment.org scrolled across the bottom. One sheet was pinned to the over pass facing traffic coming south bound out of Providence, Rhode Island and the other north bound into the states capital.
Laurie explained to me that six people had confirmed to show up and was hoping for more.
We started to wave to the north bound traffic and almost immediately the bumper to bumper traffic erupted into a symphony of horn toots and thumbs up in approval, to the message hanging before them.
On occasion Laurie and I would receive a Rhode Island wave with ones middle finger; however we responded in a good nature way with the victory sign that Prime Minister Churchill made so popular leading up to World War II and John Lennon displayed during the height of the peace movement.
At five-twenty Lisa F. arrived with additional signage and enthusiasm for the peaceful protest. I excused myself to bring attention to our cause to the south bound commuter traffic on I-95.
While waving at the oncoming traffic and give thumbs up to wavers & honkers and of course the V sign to middle finger wavers - I did a quick calculation. Three cars passed every second. So with sixty seconds in a minute, 180 vehicles traveling one way saw our message every minute.
I was there one hour and fifteen minutes or seventy-five minutes. So 13,500 vehicles saw our message south bound and another estimated 13,500 vehicles saw our message north bound. In theory 27,000 vehicles saw the IMPEACH OBAMA message and the internet site address while the three of us were there. Some vehicles only had one commuter/passenger inside while others had two, three and more people inside.
At five-forty a Cranston City police cruiser inched by. At six O?clock a Cranston Cruiser pulled up and parked. About five minutes later a very nice police officer got out of his cruiser and strolled over to me and said, ?By the big smile you see on my face, I hope you understand that I have no problem that you are here. I just want to know how much longer you plan on hanging out, exercising your First Amendment Right??
I told him that the traffic was thinning out so no more than 15 minutes or so, ?why I asked?? He explained to me that they had received three complaints from passing motorists and one request from the state police for Cranston Police to come out and see what was up.
As the Cranston Police Officer was standing there talking to me, the symphony of horns down on I-95 increased dramatically. I can only assume that the passing traffic were adding their support to my conversation with the Police Officer.
I invited the Officer across the road to meet Laurie and Lisa. Again he asked the same question of them as to when they were planning to leave.
He then asked for ID from the three of us which we gave him. In kind I asked for his business card which he didn?t have with him. I then asked him for his name and badge number which he gave me without hesitation.
Not wanting to give up any more time kibitzing, I proceeded back across to the south bound traffic on I-95 to continue my waving to the passing traffic below.
At about six-fifteen Officer Xxxxxx, badge number 1234, crossed the overpass road and handed back to me my driver?s license and said, ?be safe and have a good day.? Walked to his cruiser and drove off.
All in all, the OPEACH OBAMA message was received by an estimated 27,000 vehicles. Not bad for 75 minutes of our time.
A hearty ?good job? needs to be given to Laura for organizing the event and Laurie & Lisa for the great signs they brought. Their great signs and enthusiasm reached all the way down to the passing motorists with ease.
In hindsight, I haven't had so much fun in a long time. The looks on the faces of the passing motorists was priceless. I saw my picture being taken about eight times by motorists or their passengers from passing below.
My quick calculation that about 1 in 5 vehicles passing either honked or gave me some kind of acknowledgement. Of the one and 5 (20%) that acknowledged my protest - Good or bad; about 1 in 10 gave me the finger.
I suspect it was the minority that called 911 to complain about our small protest. God bless them!
