I’m exhausted after a long, full day, but want to post my thoughts about tonight’s rally while they are fresh.

Sherri and I arrived at City Hall just after 5pm. Already there were already at least a hundred people and lots of folks from the media. Many supports held signs of support. The text ranged from “I am with Sam,” to “City Issues, not Bedroom Issues.” One many was covered in green body paint and adorned like the Statue of Liberty. His sign said “Freedom is Dying.”

By 5:30pm the crowd had swelled significantly. We were near the “front” of the rally, where the stage was set up, so it was difficult to discern the number of people in attendance, but it looked to be several hundred. The MC listed serveral of the issues that Portlanders want Sam Adams to work on during his first 100 days and beyond: economic stimulous and recovery, building bike lanes, and more snowplows! Actually there were more issues he listed, I just can’t recall them now. Then different business and community leaders each took the mic and declared their support for Sam Adams.

Next a first-amendment attorney took the stage a made note of some of the legal issues. The two that are come to mind most prominently are that Sam Adams was not under oath when he lied and that Beau Breedlove was not working for Adams. He mentioned this specifically in contrast to the Clinton-Lewinsky issue and noted that we should be be holding our city mayors to a higher standard that we hold a president.

Next Dan Savage took the state. He said he came down from Seattle to help swell the numbers and didn’t expect to speak. Clearly, he said looking out onto the crowd, his presence was not required to swell the numbers. He continued on, talking about “the bullshit campaign by the media” and how the media makes assumptions about our sophistication and our ability to handle the idea of our public leaders having private lives and messy relationships. He too recalled the Clinton-Lewinsky debacle and pointed out how much public support Clinton has today.

A statement from Gus Van Sant, who could not attend, was also read. Several times thoughout the rally the crowd cheered “get back to work!”

It was truly amazing. I feel a lot better about the situation and more hopeful that Sam Adams will decide to stay on as Mayor and that our city can move forward together on more productive issues.

After the rally was done I managed to say hi to Dan Savage and even got a photo, which was pretty cool.

Tomorrow I am going to write to the Oregonian, JustOut, the Portland Business Journal, the Willamette Week, as well as the city commissioners to state my support for Adams. I will post those letters here.

Here’s a video of Dan Savage talking:

This blog has more information about Support for Sam Adams:
http://samisstillmymayor.blogspot.com/.