The first DC Democracy Naval Battle - The Daily Render by Nikolas R. Schiller

The first DC Democracy Naval Battle
|| 7/2/2005 || 9:59 pm || Comments Off on The first DC Democracy Naval Battle || ||

I participated in the first naval battle for DC Democracy, and I believe we won! No bullets, bombs, or carnage, just a couple of boats, a few signs, and a whole lot of dedication.

Through the OSCE‘s draft itinerary, we knew that the Parliamentarians were going to be taking a cruise to Mount Vernon, and a few weeks ago I brought up the idea of setting up some sort of “DC Democracy Regatta.” Shadow Senator Paul Strauss volunteered to use his powerboat for the festivities he retitled “DC Democracy Castaways.”

After finding out that we had another boater come on-line on Thursday evening, I sent out an E-mail to the Team DC Democracy listserv requesting RSVPs for the cruise. In the end we had room for about 18 sailors on the two boats.

Around 1:30pm, I showed up at the Washington Marina and helped setup the ships. We placed the banners from yesterday’s rally on to the bow of the the ship- on the port side we placed the English version and on the starboard side we place the spanish translation of “Equal Voting Rights for DC.”

After having to kick off a few sailors (to make sure that if the Coast Guard decided to board our ships we had enough life jackets to be legal), we set off from the marina and picked up Tim Cooper, who had just finished briefing the Parliamentarians.

Senator Strauss CB radioed the “Spirit of the Potomac” telling the captain our intentions of following the ship and then contacted the Coast Guard to tell them as well. And at around 3:45pm we were sailing right next to the ship full of the OSCE Parliamentarians.

The parliamentarians on board were waving, throwing us the thumbs up sign, miming they were signing our resolution in the air…. We charmed the entire boatload! It was absolutely amazing.

I’m unaware of anyone taking the issue of equal voting rights for DC resident to the water, moreso to 317 parliamentarians from 55 countries captive on a boat! A first I am proud to have been a part of such a noble lobbying effort!

We followed them all the way to Mount Vernon, and when we turned back, all the Parliamentarians waved us goodbye! This was my first time on the Potomac, and I must say this is one of my favorite events I’ve ever taken part in, so I doubt I can replicate this experience. There was a camera man with the Examiner on board and I can’t wait to see what pictures he chooses to use and what they decided to write about!

Related OSCE Entries: