The Five Million Dollar Demonstration
If California slides into the ocean
Like the mystics and statistics say it will
I predict this motel will be standing--until I pay my bill.
Warren Zevon
It's a data-driven world, or so say the mystics and the statistics of Ed Policy World.
The question asked by media, most often, before and after the Save Our Schools March, was: How many people? Show me the numbers.
From the donation table and cooling tents near the edge of the Ellipse, I saw lots of Marchers arriving and leaving; a lot of Rally attendees camped out in the shade trees across the street, watching the jumbotron. From the center-stage microphone, however, it looked like an I Have a Dream moment--masses of sun-grilled citizenry, stretching to the edge of the lawn. Singin' songs and carryin' signs.
Crowd-counting is hardly an exact science. But I'm not sure that the precise number of attendees matters much