A New Video Vision @Women's Museum in the Arts

Welcome to this week's Monday Must-See post. On Mondays, The Prices Do DC will offer an entry about some current exhibit in DC you should see. Sometimes, we will write the post. Sometimes, it will be taken from another publication. But no matter who is the writer, we believe it will showcase an exhibit you shouldn't miss. 

Kathryn Wat was never a huge fan of video art exhibits, until she was asked to curate one.

As chief curator of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Wat has seen many video art installations in her travels, and her chief complaint is that the clips are often mind-numbingly long. Her second is that after each reel finally ends, viewers stumble along in the dark until they reach the next glowing screen.

“I really don’t like it when a video exhibit feels like it’s just a series of darkened rooms,” Wat said. And as to the long, drawn-out clip problem, she added, “I have curated this exhibit to suit my own attention span.”

The result is the landmark exhibit “Total Art: Contemporary Video,” which opened earlier this month at the museum in Northwest Washington. It is the museum’s first all-video exhibit, and an occasion that marks the unveiling of several new acquisitions.

To continue reading this post, which 1st appeared in The Washington Post, click here.

Trace the Earliest Steps on the Yellow Brick Road

DC's Smithsonian museums (there are 17 of them here in the city) are among America's most treasured and visited places. But the Smithsonian also publishes a series of some of the most interesting, fact-filled blogs appearing anywhere on the internet. Each Sunday, The Prices Do DC re-posts an entry about the Smithsonian, many of which appeared in 1 of the institution's blogs. Hope you enjoy and maybe we'll see you soon at the Smithsonian.

The Ruby Slippers are in display in the Museum of American Histroy

We dimmed the lights. In our pajamas, we huddled together under a blanket. The annual television broadcast of The Wizard of Oz was a national ritual when we baby boomers were kids. It would be years before I saw the Technicolor land of Oz bloom outside Dorothy’s black-and-white farmhouse, as we didn’t have a color TV. Years, too, before I would come up with the idea for a novel, Wicked, which inspired the Broadway musical.

Thanks to MGM’s 1939 film, Dorothy’s adventure in Oz has become a foundation myth of American culture. On a recent afternoon in my study, I pored over a photocopy of a touchstone memento from the film—a typewritten studio script. The original, in the collections of the National Museum of American History and dated May 4, 1938, consists of about 100 pages. Though other writers, including lyricist E. Y. Harburg, who penned “Over the Rainbow,” would refine and polish the story, this draft is the work of Noel Langley. He based the script on L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel for children, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

To continue reading this post, which 1st appeared in Smithsonian.com, click here.

22 Things You Have to Explain to Out-of-Towners About DC

Each week in our Saturday Supplement, we re-post an entry of interest to both residents of the Washington area and visitors to DC that first appeared in another publication's website. 

You live in DC. Inevitably, you will have people come to visit because they want to bask in the glow of our mighty democracy, or they just finished season two of House of Cards, or they're your parents. 

When they arrive, they'll undoubtedly have plenty of questions. This should help you answer them.

To continue reading this post, which 1st appeared in Thrillist, click here.

Oh What A (60s) Night

Welcome to this week's Friday Flashback. Each Friday in the Flashback we will offer a post about some part of the past and its relationship to DC. Sometimes, we will write a new entry. Others times, we will showcase articles that previously appeared in The Prices Do DC or some other online publications. But no matter who does the writing, you can trust that you will learn something important from the Flashback. 

For 8 performances a week for more than a 1,000 shows in total, Christian Hoff, Michael Langoria, Daniel Reichard, and J. Robert Spencer channeled The Four Seasons as the original cast members in the award-winning Broadway mega-hit Jersey Boys.

The quartet had so much fun with the musical that after they left the cast, they formed the group The Midtown Men to continue signing Four Seasons' tunes and other harmonious hits from the 1960s.

After a private performance in New York City, Steven Reinke, the enthusiastic pops conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra, told the quartet that they should perform with symphony orchestras.

Tonight, after 17 such concerts around the country, The Midtown Men, Reinke, and the NSO joined for the 1st of 2 nights of offerings of nostalgic 60s songs arranged especially for orchestra at the Kennedy Center.

Obviously, the clapping crowd loved the 8 Four Seasons songs performed, as well as a medley of classic Motown hits. But it was the more unique offerings such as "Happy Together" by The Turtles, "California Dreaming" by The Mamas and Papas, and "Time of the Season" by the Zombies (which I chose as song of the night) that really showcased the strong harmonies and versatility of the former Broadway stars.

The orchestra also had its moments to shine. As the show opener, the NSO performed an extended instrumental version of "On Broadway," which was arranged by Reinke and featured several solos from orchestra members. It might also have been the 1st time in NSO history when they played the horn- driven opening of Sam and Dave's classic "Hold On, I'm Coming" to bring The Midtown Men to the stage.

But the real highlight for the NSO was a world-premier performance of an especially commissioned medley of the 5 songs - "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "All My Loving," "Till There Was You,""I Saw Her Standing There" and "She Loves You" - which the Beatles played 50 years ago on their first appearance of the Ed Sullivan Show, a show which was watched by a then-record 70 million viewers. (Did we like it - yeah, yeah, yeah).

After the Motown medley, which included a stellar version of The Temptations "Just My Imagination," The Midtown Men closed the show with the Frankie Valli chart-topper "Oh, What a Night (December, 1963). Hearty applause brought the group back for an encore of The Four Seasons' "Bye, Bye Baby (Baby Goodbye).

Extra! Extra! Read All About It

Setlist for Sensational Show with The Midtown Men 
backed by The National Symphony Orchestra
If You Can Get Tickets for Tonight's Show, Go

1st Set

• On Broadway (NSO under direction of Steven Reinke)
• Working My Way Back to You Babe
• Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
• Let's Hang On
• Can't Buy Me Love
• Happy Together
• Ain't That Peculiar
• Dawn (Go Away)
• Up on the Roof
• Time of the Season
• Cry for Me (from Jersey Boys)
• Big Girls Don't Cry
• Sherry
• Ain't No Mountain High Enough

2nd Set

• Ed Sullivan Welcomes the Beatles (NSO)
• River Deep Mountain High
• California Dreaming
• Can't Take My Eyes Off of You
• Motown Medley
• Oh, What A Night (December, 1963)

Encore

• Bye, Bye Baby (Baby Goodbye)

Futbol and Food: What So Proudly We Hail

DC soccer Fans pack DuPont Circle to watch game in event hosted by German Embassy

With the USA team playing against Germany for a chance to move on to the next round of World Cup play, much of America found itself in the grip of high-grade soccer fever. And nowhere was the USA-USA-USA frenzy more apparent than in Washington, D.C. the capital of the nation's politics and  patriotism.

Of course, the fact that the game was scheduled for noon on a Thursday did pose one problem - while it would start at lunch hour, it would run over into the working day afternoon. And then there was both the pre-game and post-game hoopla that you wouldn't want to miss.

But USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann, with tongue firmly in his cheek, had a remedy. The coach had posted a signed, handwritten excuse letter online that read:

To whom it may concern:

Please excuse (insert name) from work on Thursday, June 26th.

I understand that this absence may reduce the productivity of your workplace, but I can assure you that it is for an important cause. The #USMNT has a critical World Cup game vs. Germany and we will need the full support of the nation if we are to advance to the next round.

By the way, you should act like a good leader and take the day off as well. Go USA!

Jurgen Klinsmann
Head Coach
U.S. Men’s National Team

Since we are retirees, my wife Judy and I didn't need Klinsmann's excuse, but we did want to lend "our full support" to the team.

As 60-somethings, we're not really into wild face painting and wearing outlandish red, white, and blue garb. But as soccer fans, we knew that patriotism does play an important role in the World Cup.

So we decided to engage in a special pre-game activity. We would head to the National Archives to hear historian and author Marc Leepson discuss his new book What So Proudly We Hailed: Francis (his friends and family all called him Frank - bet you didn't know that) Scott Key.  I mean what is more patriotic than a book detailing the creation of our national anthem and the life of the man who created it. 

Of course, since the talk started at noon, it meant we would miss the first half of the game, but fans have to make sacrifices for their team, right?

Our plan started superbly. As we exited the Metro Station at the Archives, we were greeted by 2 volunteers from the Newseum. They were handing out small American flags (now we would have something to wave) and a card advertising Anchorman: The Exhibit now at the DC museum of news. I took this as a great sign. Anchorman stars Will Farrell as Ron Burgandy. Farrell was attending the game in Recife, Brazil. You would be able to spot him sitting next to Teddy Goalsavelt, a dead-ringer for former President Teddy Roosevelt. Farrell had also delivered a great comic message to a group of the 20,000 Americans attending the World Cup in person. 

The positive signs continued inside the Archives. The program began with an old black and white film clip of the singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner". We joined the crowd in lending our voices to the anthem. This occurred at almost the exact moment the game in Recife got underway. 

For his part, Leepson acknowledged the importance of the game. "I'll knock off early so we can see the rest of the soccer match," he said with a laugh. Actually, he held to that pledge. Normally, book talks at the Archives take an hour. Leepson's was done in 45 minutes. Outside the Archives, I checked my phone. The game was tied 0-0.

Earlier, Judy and I had decided to watch the game at the Penn Quarter Sports Tavern, the largest sports bar close to the Archives. I continued to check my phone as we walked to Penn Quarter. It was still a scoreless tie at the end of half.

Arriving at the sports bar, we were eyed by the bouncers. Even 60-year-olds in DC must produce ID to enter club events where alcohol is being served. As we showed ID, a manger came outside, pointed to us and said" "Let those 2 in. Then we're at capacity."

A small portion of the crowd at the Penn Quarter Sports Tavern

Inside, we saw that he was right. Both levels were packed with fans, many sporting red, white, and blue attire. There was barely room for us to wave our small flags. I looked at Judy. I knew she wouldn't want to stay. "This place smells like (our son) Michael's fraternity house," she said. Which I knew immediately was wife speak for "I am not spending another minute in here." I made a quick decision. I knew they would be showing the game at Clyde's, one of Judy's favorite Penn Quarter/GalleryPlace/Chinatown eateries which was only a block-and-a-half away.

"Let's go to Clyde's," I said.

 Judy readily agreed. 

At Clyde's, the crowd situation was much the same. It was no-seats, no-standing room in both the massive downstairs and more intimate upstairs bar. But we were able to finagle a table that allowed us to view one of the TVs. Granted, the view wasn't quite as good as the one President Barack Obama was enjoying aboard Air Force One. But we could see the players and the play through a break in the huge plants and ferns that decorate the upstairs dining room.

President Obama watches the game on Air Force One

Judy and I watch the game from our table at Clyde's

Now it was time for the final part of my game-winning plan to kick in. For the USA to advance, I knew we had to order just the right lucky lunch. I decided on a perfect USA combo: Maryland crab soup and a Creole cornmeal-crusted catfish po'boy. Then Judy did the unthinkable. She ordered a hamburger. Hamburger? Hamburg was a city in Germany. And no sooner did our waitress walk away with our order, than a collective groan of agony rose through Clyde's. Germany had scored.

Now, I had to hope that my All-American meal would have enough (crab and tomato) juice to overcome Judy's clearly German choice. Well, to shorten our story, it didn't. Despite an offensive flurry in injury time, Germany' sole goal held for a 1-0 win. But apparently my menu choice did have enough power to help Portugal defeat Ghana, meaning that, despite the loss, the USA would be advancing to the next round in the tournament.

Of course, now the hard work would really commence. I'll  have to figure the perfect meal to help our American team defeat a talented Belgian team. And I'll have to keep Judy from ordering Belgian waffles or moules frittes, the national dish of Belgium.

Extra! Extra! Read All About It

Even More on USA, World Cup Soccer

Nation stops to watch: Has soccer truly arrived in America? (from USA Today)

World Cup fever takes over Washington (from The Hill)

Tim Howard: He's Tattooed, he has Tourette's, and he keeps that ball out of the net. (from The Daily Beast)

What's next for the U.S.? (from USA Today)

The odds of the U.S. beating Belgium and every other team still left in the World Cup. (from Data Lab)

The forgotten factor in this year's World Cup is a video game. (from The Washington Post)

Does it matter if you sing your national anthem? (from The Washington Post)

48 of the most outrageous fans from the World Cup so far. (from BuzzFeed

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Underway

For the next 2 weeks you can travel to 2 far-off, exotic lands - Kenya and China - without leaving DC. In fact, you don't even have to set foot off the National Mall.

The annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival began today and it features food, culture, and crafts from the African and the Asian nation.

Here is a look at some of the things you can do at the festival, which runs until Sunday of this week and then again from July 2 to 6.

You can hear music and see dance

Watch regional crafts being created

Learn about lifestyles and history

And eat native dishes

Extra! Extra! Read All About It
Even more on the Folkways Festival

Everything you need to know about the festival (from Smithsonian.com)

A new agreement will keep the Folklife Festival on the National Mall for the next 5 years. (from The Washington Post)

A brief look at the festival's marketplace (from Racked)

Side Show: Grandeur from the Grotesque

When I was young, only one film truly terrorized me. That was Tod Browning's shocking cult classic
Freaks. The ending scenes of the pinheads and the armless and legless creatures slithering and scurrying for revenge left an indelible imprint on my memory. It was (and still is) the perfect stuff of nightmares.

I never imagined that 50 years later, that film would provide an opening and closing bookend to the fantastic re-imagined musical Side Show, now playing until July 13 at the Eisenhower Theater in the Kennedy Center. Browning even appears on the stage as a character.

Actually, Side Show is focused on co-joined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton (portrayed brilliantly by Emily Padgett and Erin Davie) and chronicles their rise from freak circus attractions to famous vaudeville entertainers during the Great Depression. The emotionally rich musical follows the twins search for normalcy and love amidst the spectacle of the scrutiny of the spotlight.

Playbill calls Side Show "the must-see event of the DC summer season." And I agree. But don't just tale my word for it. Here is what the critics are saying:

• "a searing, soaring musical is reborn ... the boldest and most splendidly realized production at the  Kennedy Center since Sondheim Celebration in 2002".  (from The Washington Post)
• "a grandeur that eclipses the grotesque." (from The New York Times)
• "simply spectacular" (from Broadway World. com)

During the engaging production (this is a musical which will cause you to think), much is made of all types of connections. The best advice I can give you is connect yourself as quickly as you can to tickets for Side Show. As the title of the opening and closing number you really should "Come Look at the Freaks."

Extra! Extra! Read All About It

Even More about Freaks. Read It If You Dare.

How Freaks out-horrored Frankenstein and all that came later. (from The Judgmental Observer)

"Offend one and you offend them all." (from Horror Film History)

It's still difficult to watch Tod Browning's 80-year-old movie. (from The Guardian)

Sarah Paulson tweets her "Freak Show" American Horror Story role.(from Science Fiction.com)

A Look at Ethnic Media @The Newseum

Welcome to this week's Monday Must-See post. On Mondays, The Prices Do DC will offer an entry about some current exhibit in DC you should see. Sometimes, we will write the post. Sometimes, it will be taken from another publication. But no matter who is the writer, we believe it will showcase an exhibit you shouldn't miss. 

John F. Kennedy gets credit for one of the first presidential campaign commercials in a foreign language — featuring Jackie speaking Spanish to reach Latino voters in 1960. A century earlier, Abraham Lincoln, too, was preoccupied with a key part of the immigrant electorate of his day. He could have placed ads in a German-language newspaper, but he didn’t.

Instead, in 1859, Lincoln bought the weekly Illinois Staats-Anzeiger, and hired editor Theodore Canisius to campaign for him in German communities.

The handwritten $400 contract stipulated that “said paper, in political sentiment, [is] not to depart from the Philadelphia and Illinois Republican platforms” nor to publish “anything opposed to, or designed to injure, the Republican party.”

Canisius kept his side of the bargain, and a month after Lincoln’s election in 1860, the president-elect gave the paper to the editor.

Lincoln’s little-known foray into ethnic media is one of the revelations of the Newseum’s exhibit, “One Nation with News for All,” on the role and power of news outlets created by and for immigrants and minorities. The exhibit was produced in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution’s “Our American Journey” program on immigration and migration.

To continue reading this post, which 1st appeared in The Washington Post, click here.

Will Robots Someday Win Soccer's World Cup?

DC's Smithsonian museums (there are 17 of them here in the city) are among America's most treasured and visited places. But the Smithsonian also publishes a series of some of the most interesting, fact-filled blogs appearing anywhere on the internet. Each Sunday, The Prices Do DC re-posts an entry about the Smithsonian, many of which appeared in 1 of the institution's blogs. Hope you enjoy and maybe we'll see you soon at the Smithsonian.

In 1997, man and machine went head-to-head in a battle of strategical prowess; after six games of chess, world champion Garry Kasparov was defeated by IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer. It was hailed as a seminal moment in computer science—if a computer could beat a human at chess, a game long held as the pinnacle of mental strategy, what else could computers accomplish?

A little more than three months after Kasparov's defeat, a cadre of robotics experts sought to push another boundary in artificial intelligence. Convening in Nagoya, Japan, during the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 40 teams of robotics experts participated in the world's first Robotics Cup. Their stated objective: By the middle of the 21st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall win a soccer game, complying with the official rules of FIFA, against the winner of the most recent World Cup.

The manifesto, which might seem more like science fiction than a practical goal, wasn't an entirely new idea to the robotics community even in 1997. The concept of a robot soccer game had been kicked around the robotics community for years—it was first mentioned by Professor Alan Mackworth, of the University of British Columbia, in his paper "On Seeing Robots," where he argued that building a robotic soccer team could help solve several problems of modern robotics (their inability to cooperate, for instance, or their inability to determine where the ball might go). From that paper, Mackworth and his team at UBC launched the Dynamo Project, the world's first attempt at an autonomous robotic soccer team. The Dynamo Project carried out a series of successful experiments from 1992 through 1994, and is seen by many as the crucial precursor to the Robotics Cup.

To continue reading this post, which 1st appeared in Smithsonian.com, click here

Gay-Hating Holy Rollers Descend on DC

Each week in our Saturday Supplement, we re-post an entry of interest to both residents of the Washington area and visitors to DC that first appeared in another publication's website. Earlier this week, The Prices Do DC offered an entry on the March for Marriage. However, this 1st-person piece by Olivia Nuzzi of The Daily Beast truly captures the weirdness of that DC day.

Steps from our nation’s Capitol, I was approached by Morton, a youthful-looking 68-year-old Virginia native with artificially blond hair and a fistful of fliers that read, “Gay Greed” and “Gay Sex Leads to Adult Diapers.”

“They’re not born with it, you know,” Morton offered, unprompted. “If anybody opens the back door unnaturally from outside, you end up having open-door syndrome. You can’t close the door. Anal sex harms [gays]. It reduces their life by, on average, 25 years—anal or oral sex.” Asked if such sex could harm women the same way it harms gay men, Morton thought for a moment. “Uh, it also has an impact—a strong impact. I’m not certain the exact statistics there.”

Welcome to the second annual March for Marriage, a friendly gathering of a few thousand concerned Americans, that is, according to its website, “poised to become an essential and indispensable vehicle for voicing the values of pro-marriage Americans in a way that cuts through the biased media narrative and demands hearing in the halls of power.” 

To continue reading this post, click here.

Freedom Summer 1964 and Its Impacts Today

Welcome to this week's Friday Flashback. Each Friday in the Flashback we will offer a post about some part of the past and its relationship to DC. Sometimes, we will write a new entry. Others times, we will showcase articles that previously appeared in The Prices Do DC or some other online publications. But no matter who does the writing, you can trust that you will learn something important from the Flashback. 

While great strides were made during the Civil Rights Movement, America today is backsliding when its comes to protecting the rights of all its citizens, 2 leaders from that 1950s/1960s movement warned this week.

Bob Moses (photo by Bruce Guthrie)

Bob Moses, former head of the SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and Rita Schwerner Bender, the widow of slain civil rights worker James Schwerner, delivered their remarks following a premiere showing of part of the new documentary Freedom Summer at the Newseum. Both Moses and Schwerner Bender were featured in the film.

"We are not a country that wants to own its history," Moses said. "We have to ask - are we a country that pays attention to its history?"

Moses says that recent Supreme Court action overturning provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and individual state actions across the country suppressing voters' rights threaten democracy. ""We're not out of this, not by a long shot," Moses said.

The former SNNC leader said that America was established "on a Constitutional fault line" of freedom and slavery. "I think we are a country that lurches. In the 1950s and '60s we lurched forward, but in the '80s with (President Ronald) Reagan, we lurched backward. We have never agreed on the 14th and the 15th Amendments. We need an affirmative right to vote."

The Newseum is currently featuring an exhibit entitled Make Some Noise: Students and the Civil Rights Movement. Moses borrowed that title for his closing.

"The noise we should make is the Preamble to the Constitution. It says We, the People. It does not say We the President, or We the Congress, or We the Supreme Court. It just says We the People. It is a fact that this generation has got to bring about Constitutional citizenship for all the people in this country," Moses said.

Rita Schwerner Bender
(photo by Bruce Guthie)

Schwerner Bender said current trends in the country are disturbing. "We are at a very dangerous place in this country," Schwerner Bender said. "We need to know where we were to know where we are now."

She is convinced that racism was, and continues to be a problem, a major problem in America. Her former husband James and fellow civil rights workers Andrew Goodman and James Chaney were the subject of a massive manhunt after they were reported missing in Mississippi on this date in 1964. Eventually their bodies were discovered buried in a field, murdered by the Ku Klux Klan and a Mississippi deputy sheriff. "The investigation only happened because 2 of the 3 were white. That says a great deal about the racism that still exists in this country," Schwerner Bender said.

"The Civil Rights Movement created the space  in which some politics could happen, or maybe more accurately were forced to happen. Politicians were not so anxious then to take on their southern brothers," she said.

The situation is somewhat analogous to today, Schwerner Bender said. "A Congress that will not act is unacceptable," she said. "We have to demand rights for all our people before we slide back. We're not in a very good place right now and we need to make the noise so that the government has to do right by all of us."

Extra! Extra! Read All About It
More on the film Freedom Summer

Retracing a summer of terror. (from CNN)

Freedom Summer takes an in-depth look at the 1964 civil rights battle in Mississippi (from The Plain Dealer)

A half-century battle for voting rights. (from Consortium News)

March for Marriage: One Love, One LIfe, One Man, One Wife

For more than 2 hours, the crowd sweltering on the lawn in front of the U.S. Capitol had been hearing a steady attack on government and the courts for trying to redefine the old idea of traditional marriage as a union between a man and woman only.

Earlier speakers had intoned: "God doesn't bless America because America is great. America is great because God has blessed her. We have to make laws that make it difficult to walk away from what God has ordained."

Now it was time to move the group of about 2.000 demonstrators from the Capitol for a walk through the Washington DC streets to the Supreme Court to finish their day's actions.

But, as you might imagine, it is difficult to move such a group easily.

First, the organizers of the March for Marriage event had to unfurl the large banner with the message "Every Child Deserves a Mom & a Dad," which, held by several speakers, was to lead the group. Then, they had to position the crowd.

However, as the march got underway, it was quickly recognized that there was a problem.  "This is the quietest march ever," proclaimed one of the leaders. "Where are the megaphones?"

While event staff was sent to procure the megaphones, those in front tried a few feeble chants that failed to ignite the crowd, which stretched out all the way back to the Capitol lawn. Finally, the group tried a slightly off-key version of "God, Bless America." When the megaphones were produced, crowd exciters began their work.

"One man. One woman. One man. One woman" was followed by "One love. One life. One man. One wife."

Before leaving the Capital grounds, organizers had indicated that the group might encounter protesters supporting same-sex marriage. And they were right. On the street in front of the Supreme Court was a group holding its own huge banner proclaiming "Bigotry Disguised as Religious Liberty ... Is Still Bigotry." And on the sidewalks, blocking the way to the steps leading up to the highest court, were protesters displaying signs with messages such as "No one protests your marriages" or "Don't like gay marriage? Don't get gay married." There was even a character dressed as a Holy Bible with a sign offering "Use me not for your bigotry."

The March for Marriage leaders halted. They conferred. They decided to pray using the megaphones. The leaders knelt down. The group followed. News photographers and TV cameramen jostled to get in the best picture taking positions. First was a prayer in English. Then a much more spirited offering in Spanish. Both shared the idea that it was God's will that only men and women be united in holy matrimony.

Police approached the same-sex marriage supporters in the street. "If you don't have a permit, you cannot block the street," an officer said. "This is your 1st warning."

The banner holders quietly moved to join their fellow sign holders on the sidewalk. Meanwhile, as the prayers continued, a small group of traditional marriage supporters with their own hand-held signs claiming "Every child deserves a Mom and a Dad" were positioning themselves in front of their ideological opponents and their signs.

Finally, with the street cleared, the March for Marriage group made its way to the Supreme Court steps.
"Hallelujah. God is proud. God made the rainbow," one of the leaders with a megaphone proclaimed. After about 15 minutes the crowd dispersed, leaving only 2 pro-traditional marriage supporters and a slightly larger group of same-sex marriage advocates to engage in a vigorous, spirited, heated, yet peaceful debate on the idea of morality and marriage.

Mike Huckabee addresses rally

Prior to the march on the Supreme Court, the event's last speaker at the Capital, former Arkansas governor and current Fox News commentator Mike Huckabee, regaled the crowd with his version of that debate.

At the beginning of his remarks, he told the audience that his initial statement might surprise them. He said he agreed with Barack Obama in 2008 when Obama said that when it comes to marriage "God is in the mix."

"But now the president has changed," Huckabee said. "That can mean only 1 of 3 things: He was not telling the truth then; he is not telling the truth now; or God has revised the Book and only given a portion of it to the president."

"The government doesn't give us our rights. The government protects the rights that God has given us. We either have a civilization that is God-centered or that is me-centered,"he added.

Huckabee directed some of his harshest criticism toward the Supreme Court. "They are only the Supreme Court. They are certainly not the Supreme Being from whom all law emanates," he said.

Huckabee, whose name is still in the mix as a possible Republican candidate for president  in 2016, said judges and lawmakers "should mesh with the Constitution, not mess with the Constitution."

People have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws, he said. "We will be Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. We will not kneel to Nebuchadnezzar," he concluded.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere There's Signs

Extra! Extra! Read All About It
Even More on the March for Marriage

Wow! Fox News host Mike Huckabee compares the effort to prevent LGBT people from having equal marriage rights to fighting against Nazi Germany. (from The Raw Story)

How are we supposed to reproduce in America if it's a man with a man and a woman with a woman is one question asked at rally. (from The Huffington Post)

We're not here to be anti-anything (from The Daily Signal)

Are the media all for same-sex marriage. (from The Daily Signal)

Religion motivates participants in anti-gay marriage rally. (from Think Progress)