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More people attended a game than protest
The Gazette Opinion Staff
Oct. 3, 2009 12:00 am
A Sept. 29 letter from Greg Johnston asserts that up to 2 million people traveled to Washington D.C. on Sept. 12 to protest the Obama administration's health care reforms and a whole lot of other stuff. He apparently got the number from Fox News provocateur Glenn Beck.
Objective professionals like the D.C. police, the parks officials, etc., put the number at about 70,000. Quite a difference. Still, 70,000 seem quite impressive. But let's put it in perspective.
There were 305 million people in the United States as of January. So the turnout in response to an intense campaign by right-wing TV and radio was 0.02 percent of the U.S. population. More people attend a Redskins game.
Eugene Spaziani
Iowa City
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