Report on the Beck event in DC today

[seabelle]

Thanks for the trip report 5412 !  I too was there, though my son and family got stranded in Vienna, VA when he couldn't get his car within a mile of the metro station 

We stayed at the L'Enfant Plaza hotel, right behind the Smithsonian Castle (and your metro stop!).  So we had an easier time of it, and more sleep, though were able to get within "30 porta potties" of the main stage at 6 a.m.  Though halfway through the rally, we needed to get up and walk around.........only to realize that there were many more people there than you'll see at the "official AP" photo or other tv coverage.  It was a solid sea of patriots as far as the eye could see .... from the base of the Washington Monument !  And people were still arriving at the end of the rally.  The DC transit and highways were choked to a shutdown.  The metro was filling up at the first stop only to pass all the other stations into the Mall.  Good ole DC ran their weekend metro schedule AND had only one lane open on I-66 inbound (from Dulles) into the district, for repaving.  I feel badly for those who got stuck in that mess, I hope they're counted. 

Groups came from all over the country......including Alaska!  The rally speeches and messages were great, but the real inspiration came from the people who showed up....and at their own expense!  We met so many (and many former Dems) who were there for the Giant Group Hug 

The media is trying to kill the buzz now, don't believe them    We are going to be fine!

[canuckian]

Speaking as a Canadian I'm impressed, Canadians are so apathetic they don't give a da.n....

I thought Glenn Beck had a very positive message and did his best to keep it non-political/non-partisan while on the on the other hand, Al Sharpton made fun of the Beck rally being quite negative toward it.

Beck, Palin and other speakers at the Restoring Honour Rally asked the crowd to help restore traditional American values and honour Martin Luther King's message (where MLK's niece, Alveda King, chose to speak)
I found portions of Sharpton's messages to be quite negative and possibly serving to increase the divide, while Beck was inclusive, Sharpton was not. Quite a troubling picture actually.

Our left wing CBC which exists through public money, severely underestimated the crowd by tens of thousands   LOL   This really has the lefties in a howl  LOL

[5412]

Speaking as a Canadian I'm impressed, Canadians are so apathetic they don't give a da.n....

I thought Glenn Beck had a very positive message and did his best to keep it non-political/non-partisan while on the on the other hand, Al Sharpton made fun of the Beck rally being quite negative toward it.

Beck, Palin and other speakers at the Restoring Honour Rally asked the crowd to help restore traditional American values and honour Martin Luther King's message (where MLK's niece, Alveda King, chose to speak)
I found portions of Sharpton's messages to be quite negative and possibly serving to increase the divide, while Beck was inclusive, Sharpton was not. Quite a troubling picture actually.

Our left wing CBC which exists through public money, severely underestimated the crowd by tens of thousands   LOL   This really has the lefties in a howl  LOL

Welcome,

I have spent a good bit of time in Canada during my working career.  Canadians are, on the whole, generally wonderful, sharing and tolerant people.  At the same time, I do not underestimate them at all.  Let your government start to govern against the will of the majority of the Canadian people and you will see the same backlash as you have in the US. 

Al Sharpton had to criticize the Beck rally.  They must keep the hatred alive, that is how they have made their living since the original MLK rally years ago.  Were they to admit that there is truly equal opportunity in the US, then they are out of a job, who needs them?

regards,
5412

[canuckian]

Thanks, It's nice to have found a conservative forum, most forums I frequent seem to be heavily tilted to port side  -  I do like following U.S. politics, much more interesting than ours  LOL   

I don't see Canadians getting excited enough about anything to come out in such large numbers, although the lefties were all in a howl over our Prime Minister proroguing Parliament  ( postponing a session of Parliament) last year, they even set up a huge FB page.   What they all ignored was the fact that that the Liberals had a corner on proroguing having done it numerous times, but it's only a problem when conservatives do it.  They did get pretty worked up about it, but then the media helps to stir it up too.

If any one would like to pm me here I can give a link to a smaller forum that could use some diversity   

[seabelle]

Violation of the Hatch Act ?  Wonder if Bush's ED secretary did this 


http://hotair.com/archives/2010/08/31/education-secretary-pushed-employees-to-attend-sharpton-rally/

President Obama’s top education official urged government employees to attend a rally that the Rev. Al Sharpton organized to counter a larger conservative event on the Mall.
“ED staff are invited to join Secretary Arne Duncan, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and other leaders on Saturday, Aug. 28, for the ‘Reclaim the Dream’ rally and march,” began an internal e-mail sent to more than 4,000 employees of the Department of Education on Wednesday.

[The Hollywood NeoCon]

Just saw this comment from a friend of mine posted at another blog, and I thought his take on it was interesting, if not positively spot-on regarding Beck's intent to get America back to a value-based society, despite an individual's particular religion or creed...

Okay, at first this seemed intuitively obvious and I wondered why it was a big deal.  OF FREAKIN’ COURSE that is what Beck is trying to do.

So I did whatever I do when I find myself thinking something is intuitively obvious, and look more closely.  Think about it.  Try different angles.  Is it really obvious, and is the “obvious” explanation defensible?  And I conclude that yes, it is.  Beck is trying to lay the groundwork for people who believe in America to come together over their common ground, and to examine and articulate what it is that they believe in.

The example of Penn Gilette is a good one, Penn being an atheist.  It demonstrates that what we, as Americans, believe is not based on religion but on what we hold to be universal concepts.  Nobody is being asked to join a church, and that is where we have allowed the leftists to drive the debate.  Years ago I realized that if I ever complained that our schools do not teach ethical behavior some smug leftist would so preciously ask “Whose ethics?” with the sneering self righteousness lefties substitute for conviction.  I always respond with “Basic human ethics - that it’s wrong to abuse people, or to lie to them, or to take advantage of their weaknesses, or to steal from them, or to treat them as less than human - and why does that threaten you so?”

It always wrongfooted them.  First of all, because they are not used to being challenged, and secondly because there isn’t an answer they’d be comfortable giving.  The only way to attack ethics is with moral relativism, which even most leftists are ashamed to express openly.  When they say “All cultures are equal” they’re really saying “You people not in our club are inferior.” If you’re going to be a decent person because you fear God is watching, great, that’s close enough.  If you don’t accept a god, then does that free you up to be a psychopath, or will you try to derive an ethical framework for your behaviour so you still can respect yourself?  A rational atheist will do the latter, a reflexive atheist (the sort who doesn’t actually disbelieve in God but who actively hates Him) will, in rejecting faith, also reject any ethical basis for behaviour because he has not only destroyed God, but set himself up in His place.

An elitist hatred of human beings is, I am convinced, at the core of all leftist ideology.  That’s why they can’t let people go about their business while minding their own.  They aren’t content just knowing they are superior, they need to ensure everyone else acknowledges their superiority.  Beck is just one of the people attempting to stand against the cultural nihilism that is a precondition to the leftist’s dream utopia.  You can’t make people perfect because our frailties are part of our common clay - you first must deconstruct humanity and then remake it.

Conservatives aren’t interested in creating Heaven on Earth.  The religious ones know that’s blasphemy, the secular one know that’s impractical.  We simply want to ensure that everyone here, in the time he is alloted, can live the best life he can mange.

And obviously I am using “he” in a general sense, and not an exclusive one based on gender.  Not that I expect any of the womyn here are going to miss my point.

[Eupher]

The central point being that, yes, Beck was trying to find common ground for a gathering of people who respect life and the rationale that there is a Power Greater than us.

His leftist-bashing sort of takes away from that argument (not that I disagree with it), but the central point is viable and accurate.

Any approach other than this would not have worked so well. The religious right is rather dogmatic about religion, especially Christianity and Beck, I'm sure, felt that it would be folly to cater exclusively to that club but to invite other points of view, other religions, other philosophies to the rally. I'm not sure that the religious right found that oppressive or argumentative - perhaps nothing more than inclusive.

When you think about it, this is the kind of approach that worked for Obama so well. This is not to suggest that everybody at that rally had the Obama-like worshipful glow, but that Obama's handlers did find the chord that he could strike. Events such as this are reflective of that approach, methinks.

[AllosaursRus]

Those promoting the Bummer used peoples guilt in order to get him elected! I'd be hard pressed to see it any other way!

[5412]

Just saw this comment from a friend of mine posted at another blog, and I thought his take on it was interesting, if not positively spot-on regarding Beck's intent to get America back to a value-based society, despite an individual's particular religion or creed...
 

Hi,

While I think you are on to something, I see it in much simpler terms.  There is a group of people who want power over others.  They also are very greedy and want something for nothing.  They will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.  They applaud folks like Mao, Castro and Chavez and want to destroy individual liberty and capitalism so they can be the kings.  They exploit others making hard working achievers and companies the bad guys and the government the wonderful God of redistribution.  That sells well when the non-producing members of society can out vote the producers; particularly when the media is carrying their propaganda machine at full throttle.

Americans in general push back on that crap and are starting to figure out what is going on and do not like it one bit.  Probably going to get a lot worse and very ugly before it gets better.  Hopefully God will help us.

regards,
5412

[Chris_]

Might as well post this awesome photo someone I know took here too:


That rally was one of the most inspiring events I've ever attended.