27°Beck: Help us restore traditional American values
Aug 29
2010
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck and tea party champion Sarah Palin appealed Saturday to a vast, predominantly white crowd on the National Mall to help restore traditional American values and honor Martin Luther King's message. Civil rights leaders who accused the group of hijacking King's legacy held their own rally and march.
While Beck billed his event as nonpolitical, conservative activists said their show of strength was a clear sign that they can swing elections because much of the country is angry with what many voters call an out-of-touch Washington.
Palin told the tens of thousands who stretched from the marble steps of the Lincoln Memorial to the grass of the Washington Monument that calls to transform the country weren't enough. ''We must restore America and restore her honor,'' said the former Alaska governor, echoing the name of the rally, ''Restoring Honor.''
Palin, the GOP vice presidential nominee in 2008 and a potential White House contender in 2012, and Beck repeatedly cited King and made references to the Founding Fathers. Beck put a heavy religious cast on nearly all his remarks, sounding at times like an evangelical preacher.
''Something beyond imagination is happening,'' he said. ''America today begins to turn back to God.''
Beck exhorted the crowd to ''recognize your place to the creator. Realize that he is our king. He is the one who guides and directs our life and protects us.'' He asked his audience to pray more. ''I ask, not only if you would pray on your knees, but pray on your knees but with your door open for your children to see,'' he said.
A group of civil rights activists organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton held a counter rally at a high school, then embarked on a three-mile march to the site of a planned monument honoring King. The site, bordering the Tidal Basin, was not far from the Lincoln Memorial where Beck and the others spoke about two hours earlier.
Sharpton and the several thousand marching with him crossed paths with some of the crowds leaving Beck's rally. People wearing ''Restoring Honor'' and tea party T-shirts looked on as Sharpton's group chanted ''reclaim the dream'' and ''MLK, MLK.'' Both sides were generally restrained, although there was some mutual taunting.
One woman from the Beck rally shouted to the Sharpton marchers: ''Go to church. Restore America with peace.'' Some civil rights marchers chanted ''don't drink the tea'' to people leaving Beck's rally.
Sharpton told his rally it was important to keep King's dream alive and that despite progress more needs to be done. ''Don't mistake progress for arrival,'' he said.
He poked fun at the Beck-organized rally, saying some participants were the same ones who used to call civil rights leaders troublemakers. ''The folks who used to criticize us for marching are trying to have a march themselves,'' he said. He urged his group to be peaceful and not confrontational. ''If people start heckling, smile at them,'' Sharpton said.
Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's delegate to Congress, said she remembers being at King's march on Washington in 1963. ''Glenn Beck's march will change nothing. But you can't blame Glenn Beck for his March-on-Washington envy,'' she said.
Beck has said he did not intend to choose the King anniversary for his rally but had since decided it was ''divine providence.'' He portrayed King as an American hero.
Sharpton and other critics have noted that, while Beck has long sprouted anti-government themes, King's famous march included an appeal to the federal government to do more to protect Americans' civil rights.
The crowd -- organizers had a permit for 300,000 -- was a sea of people standing shoulder to shoulder across large expanses of the Mall. The National Park Service stopped doing crowd counts in 1997 after the agency was accused of underestimating numbers for the 1995 Million Man March.
It was not clear how many tea party activists were in the crowd, but the sheer size of the turnout helped demonstrate the size and potential national influence of the movement.
Tea party activism and widespread voter discontent with government already have effected primary elections and could be an important factor in November's congressional, gubernatorial and state legislative races.
Lisa Horn, 28, an accountant from Houston, said she identifies with the tea party movement, although she said the rally was not about either the tea party or politics. ''I think this says that the people are uniting. We know we are not the only ones,'' she said. ''We feel like we can make a difference.''
Ken Ratliff, 55, of Rochester, N.Y., who served as a Marine in the Vietnam War, said he is moving more in the tea party direction. ''There's got to be a change, man,'' he said.
Palin told the crowd she wasn't speaking as a politician. ''I've been asked to speak as the mother of a soldier and I am proud of that distinction. Say what you want to say about me, but I raised a combat vet and you can't take that away from me.'' It was a reference to her son, Track, 20, who served a yearlong deployment in Iraq.
Palin likened the rally participants to the civil rights activists from 1963. She said the same spirit that helped them overcome oppression, discrimination and violence would help this group as well.
''We are worried about what we face. Sometimes, our challenges seem insurmountable,'' Palin said. ''Look around you. You're not alone.''
Beck paced on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and spoke through a wireless microphone headset. ''For too long, this country has wandered in darkness. ... Today we are going to concentrate on the good things in America, the things that we have accomplished — and the things that we can do tomorrow.''
In one of his many references to King, Beck noted that he had spent the night before in the same Washington hotel where King had put the finishing touches on his ''I Have a Dream'' speech.
Clarence B. Jones, who served as King's personal attorney and his speechwriter, said he believes King would not be offended by Beck's rally but ''pleased and honored'' that a diverse group of people would come together, almost five decades later, to discuss the future of America.
Jones, now a visiting professor at Stanford University, said the Beck rally seemed to be tasteful and did not appear to distort King's message, which included a recommitment to religious values.
Both groups heard from members of the King family.
Alveda King, a niece of the civil rights leader, appealed to Beck rally participants to ''focus not on elections or on political causes but on honor, on character ... not the color of our skin.''
Martin Luther King III said at the site of the planned memorial that his father in 1967 and 1968 ''was focused on economic empowerment. He did not live to see that come to fruition.'' King added, ''We have made great strides, but somehow we've got to create a climate so that everybody can do well, not just some.''
Beck had appealed to those attending not to bring signs with them. But Mike Cash, a 56-year-old Atlanta businessman, found a way around that. Over his polo shirt, he wore a T-shirt that read ''Treat Obama like a used tea bag, toss him out now!''
''I wouldn't have missed it (the rally) for anything,'' said Cash, who drove up with his family. ''We are here kind of protesting about our government, too. I'm a businessman and I'm worried about taxes going up.''
Many in the crowd watched the proceedings on large television screens. On the edges of the Mall, vendors sold ''Don't Tread on Me'' flags, popular with tea party activists. Other activists distributed fliers urging voters ''dump Obama.'' The pamphlet included a picture of the president with a Hitler-style mustache.
LaVert Seabron, 80, a retired federal public health officer who lives in northwest Washington, said he was at the 1963 march and made it a point to attend Saturday's rally. He recalled King as a ''great orator'' and said ''because of what he did we're here.'' Seabron, who's black, said he was heartened to see many young people at Saturday's event.
''It's good to see the next generation is still participating,'' he said. ''We've been through this. It's good to see so many young people, because they'll have to pick up the torch and carry it to the next generation.''
Regarding the Beck rally, Seabron said: ''That's part of a democracy — everybody gets a chance to say what they want.''
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01:00 AM
columbus avenue says
Traditional American values from the Palin family? LOL! Sex outside marriage. Illegitimate child. Sex too late in life = pregnancy=down syndrome child. Working wife, non-working husband. Book burning. Get mad and quit your job.
Yep! True Tea Party Traditional American Values! Not for us!
09:52 PM
Duhast says
Are you seriously following a tv personality with a team of writers and a chalkboard?? If you truly want these nutjobs in control then pray to whatever gods you worship. Beware of what you wish for.
08:30 PM
44846GWP says
Martin Luther King rolled over in his grave while Beck spoke.
08:01 PM
44846GWP says
The rally was a "wingnut festival", Beck is a joke, Palin is a sad joke.
01:36 PM
kURT says
Hey Register or Smith 6079....that is my flag I served....until Winston & so many others.
I served for free speech.....you lightweights just can't take it.
Go & delete some more........cause you never
01:29 PM
meowmix says
Hey all you right-wing religious Beck zealots--- here are the thoughts of two of the major players in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
And yet you silly billies & Beck think you know what the founding fathers had in mind????????
Ben Frankin on religion: "Lighthouses are more helpful than religion"
"The way to see by Faith is to shut the eye of Reason"
Thomas Jefferson on religion: "Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear. "
"Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law. "
"
"Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him [Jesus] by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and others again of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being."
12:08 PM
kURT says
Moderators have removed this comment because it contained personal attacks. Discussion Guidelines08:47 AM
brutus smith says
See, like I said, if you go by teatard counting, Al Sharpton had 2 million show up.
Repubs and teatards have absolutely nothing, nada, zilch.
07:21 AM
6079 Smith W says
09:19 PM
EZOB says
Here we go again, numbers. I'll give them to you first hand because as usual I was THERE!! To start with there were 3,336 "REGISTERED" buses at say 50-60 passengers per bus. The Metro system let 200,000 plus ride for free because they couldn't handle ticket sales. Every motel and hotel room was sold-out within 30 miles of DC. The crowd in front of the Lincoln Memorial was standing room only estimates were 250-300,00. The Reflecting Pond is suppose to hold 300,000 and it expanded out both sides to the Korean War Memorial on one side to the Vietnam Memorial Wall on the other. The WW11 Memorial was full all the way to the street. Across the street it was full to the Washington Monument. 100,00 were present by 8:00 Am that morning.
I walked by Al Sharpton's stage and the only noise was from a recording and the clapping was fake, real loud but coming from the speakers. Yes, he marched through the streets with about 1-2,000 people following him. I wish he could have seen fit to speak at the Beck rally and leave race and politics in the back-ground and put America first. Oh yes, they did carry a very large "AMERICAN FLAG". You won't see this on the news so I'll describe it. It was painted over to resemble a huge African flag and they started to carry it through the Beck rally. When they started to cross the street by the WW11 Memorial, Security told them that they would have to return to their rally. Wonder what would have happened if the tide was tirned? Bet you would have been arrested.
06:33 PM
Dr. Seuss says
whoops, sorry for the duplicate post. You can delete this one as offensive if you wish. I must ask why there is not a delete button so we can delete our own posts if we decide we want to do that?
06:30 PM
Dr. Seuss says
Sarah I have visited many stories on here and you're not having much luck having your blogs stick. What are you saying that is so offensive? I never seem to make it back in time to read them, they are always removed shortly after being posted.
02:44 PM
Taxpayer says
The count was estimated to be a HALF MILLION, that is 500,000 PEOPLE, not freebie dollars for you liberals. But, what does it really matter? I totally agree about those that could not or did not attend this Restoring HONOR rally. The real test will be in Nov. THEN the liberal news, including the Sandusky Register, and ALL you crybaby liberals can slam the PEOPLE for how they voted. After all, these "honest" new media outlets "recommended" voting for all this total failure. Yeah, lets get your excuses and accusations ready. Let's see, the liberals took a horrific BEATING because dead people were voting. Oops! I forgot, that is a liberal playbook tactic. The liberals and democracks lost because of false criminal voting registration. Oops, that is an ACORN basic concept. Looks like you liberal freaks are running out of excuses and LIES. How about all of you fainting before the "anointed" one after the Nov. elections. That will get you people ready for the 2012 election. Ha! Ha!
12:20 PM
6079 Smith W says
@ bs:
Don't get too hung up on the count. Had it been an official "Tea Party" rally, the numbers would undoubtedly have been much, much higher.
However for everyone that attended, there are probably 25 or more sitting at home who share similar views and couldn't or didn't wish to attend.
Sharpton per usual probably got Obama grant money to help bus 'em and feed 'em for his rally.
As it stands, Nov.'s gonna be awful for the Dems. Ya gotta keep the faith though, right?
12:03 PM
brutus smith says
If I go by teatard count Al had 2 million show up.
August 28, 2010 6:32 PM
Glenn Beck Rally Attracts Estimated 87,000
An estimated 87,000 people attended a rally organized by talk-radio host and Fox News commentator Glenn Beck Saturday in Washington, according to a crowd estimate commissioned by CBS News.
The company AirPhotosLive.com based the attendance on aerial pictures it took over the rally, which stretched from in front of the Lincoln Memorial along the Reflecting Pool to the Washington Monument. Beck and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spoke at the rally.
Beck, who predicted that at least 100,000 people would show up, opened his comments with a joke: "I have just gotten word from the media that there is over 1,000 people here today."
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20014993-503544.html
Repubs have nothing, nada, zilch.
11:53 AM
Taxpayer says
Now THAT was an GREAT example of people who want to retore HONOR to this nation. What a turn out. Notice all the people cleaned up their own trash and there were NO arrests, NONE, out of the half MILLION people. Can you liberals say that? That is what I thought. So, liberals, how was the turn out for Al Sharpton's march in DC. Did he even have one?? Lots of HONOR there right? Ha! Ha!
08:12 PM
Salvatore says
One youtube deserves another youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfEcZlO-APE&feature=related
07:46 PM
yourallpetty says
All the current version of Glenn Beck is just another gimmick hes had many on CNN he wanted to protect the border. Now he wants to save America well the best way to "save America" is to turn off the TV get out to town meetings and public debates as long as people listen to the opinions of others instead of the facts nothing will get better. The road Glenn Beck wants to travel is the one of pre 1950's when the whites controlled everything and blacks, women, and all other minority's were put in their place.
The tea tards are made up of dirt poor white people who use racism as a way of feeling better about themselves they are the bottom of the ladder and want to feel better about themselves so they hate everything that's not white and strait but yet scream for tax cuts for the richest (what they so badly want to be) they keep themselves poor and full of hate
and here is one of Becks gimmicks from his early days (zippy the late night monkey will never be a guest of beck again as he has too high of an IQ)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJkxBLgd5Hs
06:52 PM
Minuteman says
The success of the rally can be determined by the level of namecalling and worn out retorts from the opposition. You can say "they got nuthin'", but unless something of substance is offered up, "You ain't got nothin'!"
All the arguments are in hopes of derailing this positive American rebirth. Crying "racism" is getting old and losing weight each time it is thrown out for political gain.
03:14 PM
MiddleRight says
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/08/30/obama.economy/index.html
"Obama rips GOP for blocking business aid bill"
Funny how the republicans have the ability to block this bill, but couldn't block the socialization of health care, or the institution of the most liberal(& underqualified) judges to the supreme court ever.
Apparently Mr. President, you like to have your cake and eat it too.
And this from the CBO. The 8 year Iraq war cost less than the liberal stimulus bill. Let me see, what year did Obama take office...
01:13 PM
Outside lookin in says
THERE WERE BETWEEN 650,000 AND 1 MILLION PEOPLE AT THE RALLY. ALVETA KING SPOKE AT THE RALLY ALONG WITH MANY OTHER AFRICAN AMERICANS...PLEASE DON'T SLANT WHAT REALLY AHPPENED.
12:04 PM
brutus smith says
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
— Sinclair Lewis
P.T. Beck said there was a sucker born every moment. Or was that P.T. Barnum? It doesn't matter, they are/were both entertainers.
Repubs have absolutely nothing, nada, zilch.
11:34 AM
kURT says
I agree Glen Beck. Let's have manditory draft regardless of peacetime or war. Also make the draft where colledge deferment will not apply. That way those with wealth & privelage can realize the true value of service; make the priveliged serve in a 3rd world setting for a minimum of 14months This would force them to appreciate others who have values. Let's also execute hardened criminals who kill & rape saving us, the citizens needed $$, to be used by those who truly need it.
Let's eliminate our officials "so called right" to vote themselves raises. Also give US the people, the same medical care that they receive.
We also want a FLAT tax for ALL.
This would be a start.
10:28 AM
brutus smith says
The last 4 out of 5 Repub Presidents, with the exception of Ford, have expanded the Federal Gov. Who is the "Repub Conservative" that didn't?
Repubs have absolutely nothing, nada, zilch.
10:24 AM
SmithBrothers says
Sarah please don't. some people can't help themselves. They usually are proven wrong all of the time despite their attempts to look smart.
10:24 AM
brutus smith says
Let me think, who increased the size of Gov?
By Jon Ward
-
4:10 a.m., Sunday, Octob
BIG GOVERNMENT SERIES: First of three parts
George W. Bush rode into Washington almost eight years ago astride the horse of smaller government. He will leave it this winter having overseen the biggest federal budget expansion since Franklin Delano Roosevelt seven decades ago.
Not since World War II, when the nation mobilized to fight a global war against fascism and recover from the Great Depression, has government spending played as large a role in the economy as it does today.
10:09 AM
SarahTonin says
OMG! Winston, I've tried to be nice. Do you know what PMS is? Have you ever experienced it!
09:54 AM
6079 Smith W says
ST writes:
“Liberals are not Robin Hoods.”
True.
The RH principal is based on the concept of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.
In the feudal period, the wealthy were the nobility (govt.) and the Church.
Actual RHs would see that the govt. is financially downsized and the money returned to its rightful producers – taxpayers.
Liberals want to see the size and scope of govt. increased and so they are in fact anti-Robin Hoods.
07:14 PM
SarahTonin says
Moderators have removed this comment because it contained personal attacks.
08:43 AM
brutus smith says
ecr, so asking questions about what you believe in makes the guy an idiot? Typical right wingnut response when asked to explain one's self.
Repubs have absolutely,nothing, nada, zilch.
08:26 AM
mikel says
al sharpton..now there is a face for the dems! lmao!
07:14 AM
6079 Smith W says
Smart money is beginning to bet that it’ll be a worse than expected drubbing for the Dems – bigger than ’94.
07:22 PM
SarahTonin says
Moderators have removed this comment because it contained personal attacks.05:56 AM
Dr. Seuss says
This sounds like a bunch of liberals who are scared right into their depends on here. AHHAHAHAHAHA
05:07 AM
EddieOs says
MEDIA BLACKS OUT THE FACTS
Here's one terrific example. John Swinton, the former Chief of Staff for the New York Times, was one of New York's best loved newspapermen. Called by his peers "The Dean of his Profession", John was asked in 1953 to give a toast before the New York Press Club, and in so doing, made a monumentally important and revealing statement. He is quoted as follows:
"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar weekly salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities, and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
Same today as it was then.
02:39 AM
Erie County Resident says
This idiot making this video reminds of some other idot on here that believes this crap.
Your name says it all...BS
07:53 AM
brutus smith says
This from the rally yesterday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g3V2DD4_wA
07:15 PM
SarahTonin says
Moderators have removed this comment because it contained personal attacks.
07:30 AM
Massengill Wins... says
Somebody called "Americanonly" is complaining about the country being divided? Thanks for the heavy dose of irony. If Beck's intent was t o bring people together...... how come none of the leadership on the Democratic Party not invited to speak?
07:28 AM
brutus smith says
Other than the black people on stage, the all white audience was there to bring people together? Really? Why were they told to avoid black neighborhoods when traveling thru DC? Why didn't they want to outreach in these neighborhoods? And how does it bring people together when Beck calls the President of the United States a racist?
Repubs have absolutely nothing, nada, zilch.
07:18 AM
Americanonly says
Brutus, you must be one of the most stupid nut cases ... You couldn't figure out anything because you have the mentality of a moron ... people who think like you are one of the biggest reasons America is so divided. It use to be not whether you were a dem or rep. but what was right or wrong. You found liberals and conservatives on both sides. Now this country has become more divided than ever and it will be the cause of it's downfall.... This rally was to bring people together but you Brutus are to stupid to understand it. Why don't you stay home and watch CNN or just wait for your freebees you are afraid will be taken away from you because REAL AMERICANS work for what they have! Others just hold their hand out and expect the government to redistribute the hard working mans money to you people who don't want to work ... I am not talking to those who have worked hard and are just out of a job because LIBERALS and their "give me" attitudes.
06:57 AM
brutus smith says
Moderators have removed this comment because it contained personal attacks. Discussion Guidelines