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Former vice-presidential candidate
A participant behind the stage of the Restoring Honor Rally waves an American flag. Conservative commentator Glenn Beck and former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin spoke to a massive crowd on the National Mall.
Fox News host Glenn Beck holds a 'Medal of Merit' Members of the crowd at Beck's rally cheer. Another rally in Washington yesterday honored Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech, given on the same date in 1963. |
BY JONAS BEALS
Local turnout was strong for yesterday's Restoring Honor Rally on the National Mall--a massive gathering organized by Fox News commentator Glenn Beck.
Tea party organizers with the Fredericksburg Virginia Patriots initially expected about 200 people for their bus trip to Washington. They ended up with eight buses and 386 riders.
Throngs of tea party faithful packed the open spaces along the reflecting pool from the Lincoln Memorial to the foot of the Washington Monument. It was a crowded but peaceful affair, devoid of the divisive signs that have marred past tea party events.
"It was awesome," Sandra Heidel of Spotsylvania County said. "I was awed that everywhere I turned, there were more people."
The rally was billed as a non-political gathering to honor the armed forces and "other upstanding citizens who embody our nation's founding principles of integrity, truth and honor," Beck's website said.
Beck more or less kept his word. Instead of the political rants he sometimes delivers on his programs, the rally was like a fervent sermon, with Beck and others testifying to the role of God in their lives and in the history of the United States.
He implored the crowd to look past the "scars" caused by injustices of the past and find common ground in their faith in God.
"Faith is the cornerstone of our founding," he said.
There was no disagreement among the Beck faithful, who responded to his speech like a respectful, if somewhat subdued, congregation.
"He's been placed here at this time to try to wake people," Patricia Rewis of Spring Hill, Fla., said of Beck. "He's the new Moses."
Awakening was a consistent theme among attendees. Some of those traveling from Fredericksburg saw their devotion to Beck and the tea party as an eye-opening experience.
"I feel like sometimes I'm the only one paying attention," said Brad Lewis of Spotsylvania. "Nobody in Washington is listening to the people."
Marge Barrales, also of Spotsylvania, said that it was great to be among kindred spirits who cared about the Constitution, God and the future of the United States.
"A lot of people felt this way, but they thought they were alone," she said.
It was former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin who best expressed why those 386 locals got up at the crack of dawn and boarded a bus for the Lincoln Memorial.
"May this day be the change point," she said. "Look around you. You are not alone. You are Americans."
As she implored listeners to work to "restore America and restore her honor," she turned to perhaps the most notable moment that ever took place on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
"We feel the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.," she said.
King's legacy reverberated throughout the event. Beck played off King's message of tolerance, liberty and equality during the three-hour-plus rally. Beck had said on his radio show earlier this year that the rally "is a moment, quite honestly, that I think we reclaim the civil rights movement."
Though the stage of Beck's rally featured a cavalcade of multiculturalism, that diversity did not extend to the mostly white crowd.
The rally was a tough sell for some who feel that the tea party usurped an important date in African-American history. King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech on the same date and in the same location in 1963.
Bernice Harris came from Maryland to attend a competing Reclaim the Dream march that ended in a rally adjacent to Beck's. Although it was dwarfed in comparison with the Restore Honor Rally, Harris said she was energized by its spirit.
"I came to reclaim the dream, to honor the speech Dr. King made," she said. She looked at the mostly black crowd gathered in front of a modest stage.
"It's insane," she said. "Forty-seven years and we're still marching separately."
Jonas Beals: 540/368-5036,
Email: jbeals@freelancestar.com
