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yahoofreeshop:Thousands of people from dozens of liberal groups across the USA are marching on the National Mall today as “one nation,” saying they want to call attention to the needs of working-class Americans, USA TODAY staffers Marisol Bello, Oren
Dorell and Marisa Kendall report.
One Nation Working Together, the coalition organizing the event, wants the powers of Washington to create jobs and help those without them, end racial profiling and other discrimination in the criminal justice system, and push for immigration changes and quality, affordable education.
* Photos: “One Nation” rally in D.C. underway
* Watch the rally live
Updated at 2:19 p.m.: Sirius XM radio personality Joe Madison tells crowd the turnout is larger than the one drawn by conservative Fox News commentator Glenn Beck five weeks ago.
Updated at 2:13 p.m.: AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka just spoke. “If we are going to build our dreams, turn them into reality, we have to be bold,” he says. He presses for better schools and better jobs. “We believe in America. … Our best days are ahead of us, not behind us.”
Updated at 1:47 p.m.: While rapper and beat poet Black Ice reads his piece about the plight of impoverished Americans, Marisa reports that people are stretched out on the grass on the outskirts of the crowd, basking in the sun. Someone in a Grim Reaper costume holds a sign that reads “Death thanks the G.O.P. for its stance on health care reform. You guys sure make my job easy.” Six men in chains and prison outfits protest the criminalization of immigration.
Updated at 1:28 p.m.: Marc Morial, head of the Urban League, spoke to the crowd. “We march today because … too many people are hurting. Without good jobs to support our families, our nation cannot recover.” Morial called for “a targeted jobs program to create 3 million jobs to build our streets and rebuild our cities. … We are for economic empowerment for all. We are one nation working together.”
Updated at 12:55 p.m.: Our Marisa Kendall reports that the Urban Nation H.I.P.-H.O.P. Choir of Washington, D.C., has fired up the crowd with a rendition of Celebration. Marisa says the area between the Lincoln Memorial and the World War II Memorial is almost filled. Groups of family members and political organizations are setting up little camps with blankets, folding chairs and sandwiches.
Marilyn Robinson, 55, from Nashville, is dancing. Wearing a shirt with Obama’s face on it, Robinson tells Marisa she is here to give President Obama “cover” against those who criticize him. “We’re here for him,” she says. “We believe he’s on point.”
Updated at 12:42 p.m.: Oren reports that the crowd is growing fast – filling the open space around the Lincoln Memorial halfway down the Reflecting Pool area toward the World War II Memorial.
Karolina Bodner, a retired teacher from Barrington, N.H., told Oren she is at the rally because “most people I know are getting Social Security checks from the government and getting disability checks from the government and driving on roads that are built and repaired by the government. I don’t know who the people are that are saying, ‘Get rid of all that.’ ”
John Gardner, 60, from Pittsburgh, is also a retired schoolteacher. He is carrying a sign that says “Amnesiacs vote Republican. Those who remember vote Democrat.” He told Oren he’s on the Mall because he thinks Democrats are being blamed for the mistakes they inherited from Republicans.
Updated at 12:08 p.m.: Crystal Sutphin, 20, came from Manassas, Va., saying she is rallying for gay and lesbian equality. She hopes the rally will draw 10,000 people. “I hope it’s crazy,” she told USA TODAY’s Marisa Kendall. “The crazier the better. It will bring (more) attention.”
Updated at 11:09 a.m.: Oren Dorell, at the rally, reports that busloads of people are streaming toward the Lincoln Memorial carrying signs such as “jobs, justice and education” and “fund jobs, not war.”
