Oh ... it was still raining. When I got to the Archives, there were some bleachers set up and a couple hundred protesters. I talked to Patricia Ireland (president of NOW) and she explained that NOW did not have a permit to protest. As long as they had under 25 people they didn't need a permit. The reason they opted to go without the permit was that the Inauguration Permit committee was only granting permits to protest in places far removed from the parade route. So NOW was handing out signs and dispersing people along the parade route.

What always interests me about protests in DC is the variety of people that are involved in them. I talked to a heck of a lot of people. Some were just private citizens who made their own signs and were protesting, some belonged to groups ... the groups I talked to were NOW, Refuse & Resist, the Socialist Workers party, and the Anarchists. No ... shy me did not go up and talk to people ... but they came and talked to me ... actually they wanted to pet Mazlon. What can I say? Folks are really drawn to cute 4 month old Golden Retriever puppies. Well actually by this time she was a muddy puppy.