Critical Thinking

In the college course I teach, I encourage my students to read critically. Question the narrative when the facts don't support the claims. So when the mainstream media tells us (if and when they talk about it at all) that the Tea Party Express taxpayer march on Washington was in the tens of thousands and we see the picture at right we should question the claims.

I was in Annapolis this weekend at Navy Parents weekend and we met many people who marched on Saturday. To a person they reported that the event organizers and the Capitol Police estimated the attendance as closer to 2 million participants. Tens of thousands or 2 million? Heck, let's split the difference and call it one million.

On August 28, 1963 approximately 200,000 peopled joined the March on Washington to listen as Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. Saturday, if the Capitol Police are to be believed, 1.9-2.5 million people marched on Washington to protest not merely tax policy or health care reform but a government that continues to ignore the founding principles of our country and yet the media and that government's response has been radio silence.

What do you think?