It was great weekend to be in DC if you love Democracy. Not so much if you love driving from point A to point B without a hassle.

The first weekend Spring in DC as usual brought a torrent of matching t-shirt wearing mobs to downtown DC for everything from a massive marathon through the neighborhoods to a gathering put on by the “teabaggers” who were side by side with a fairly large array of immigrants (mostly Mexican) who marched down 16th Street and up the National Mall to the base of the Capitol Building. Though I noticed that the teabaggers and immigrants seemed to avoid any possible mixing.

These kinds of weekend actually making living in Washington simultaneously lame and wonderful. It sucks if you plan to get anywhere - barber shop, grocery store, church. But if you’ve been anywhere outside of the country where the kind of free speech we enjoy is just a passing fancy, then there is a certain beauty to even the most aggravating and annoying of protests (ex: teabaggers).

Photo by Sam Devonish

With only a couple of days notice, at least 100 of Washington DC’s Black political and social elite ponied up $250 to get out of work on a Friday afternoon, tilt back a few drink, eat sushi and wait patiently for the appearance of Jeffrey Wright and the main draw, Maxwell, who was playing at DC’s Verizon Center hours later.

The occasion was a quickie fundraiser for Wright’s Taia Foundation, which funds infrastructure development in Western Africa - specifically and 18 mile stretch of road that will facilitate the transport of good and services and spur economic development.

Not that anyone knew that before they gave the money. But it was Friday, it was in the middle of the day and it was Maxwell. And in DC, that’s reason enough. In that city, if you want to stay on “the list”, sometimes you just write the check.