Perhaps a million Americans gathered in the mall for an event the mainstream media barely mentioned in advance. Talk show host Glenn Beck led what might be called the largest worship service in Washington D.C. for many years.
Only extended video of the speakers can portray the essence (see bottom); accounts by the mainstream media do not cover the Judeo-Christian nature of the event.
-- From "Beck, Palin tell thousands to 'restore America'" by Philip Rucker, Amy Goldstein and Krissah Thompson, Washington Post 8/28/10
A sea of people rallied on the hallowed steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday as conservative commentator Glenn Beck and other heroes of the "tea party" movement honored Americans serving in the military and delivered stirring calls to turn the nation back to God and to protect the traditional values that they said make the country exceptional.
Claiming the legacy of the nation's Founding Fathers and repeatedly evoking civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., Beck, Sarah Palin and other speakers at the "Restoring Honor" rally exhorted a sprawling and overwhelmingly white crowd to concentrate not on the history that has scarred the nation but instead on what makes it "good."
Beck's rally has been billed as a peaceful and non-political "re-dedication" of the traditional honor and values of the nation. Beck, a Fox News host, has developed a national following by assailing President Obama and Democrats, and he warned Saturday that "our children could be slaves to debt." But he insisted that the rally "has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with God, turning our faith back to the values and principles that made us great."
King's niece Alveda King addressed Beck's rally with a plea for prayer "in the public squares of America and in our schools." Referencing her "Uncle Martin," King called for national unity by repeatedly declaring "I have a dream."
A dense assembly, which contained few young people, stretched from the Lincoln Memorial past the reflecting pool to the World War II Memorial and spilled onto the grounds of the Washington Monument. The crowd was not visibly angry. Rather, people said they had come to express their fear that the country is at a perilous moment.
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From "In Washington, a Call for Religious Rebirth" by Kate Zernike And Carl Hulse, New York Times 8/28/10
. . . while Tea Party activists and other conservatives have generally focused on fiscal issues and steered clear of social themes this year, Mr. Beck, in speeches Friday and Saturday, imbued his remarks with references to God and a need for a religious revival.
Mr. Beck was followed by Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor. She said that she had been asked, in keeping with the theme of the day, to focus not on politics, but to speak as the mother of a soldier.
On Friday night, Mr. Beck made a surprise visit to a convention that FreedomWorks, a Tea Party umbrella group, held for its activists. He was greeted by a thunderous welcome from a crowd of about 1,600 in Constitution Hall.
Still, the political overtones were unmistakable. Several candidates addressed the Friday crowd, and people could get signs and other campaign paraphernalia for Tea Party-backed candidates.
Marco Rubio, the Republican nominee for Senate in Florida, told the crowd, via a video-taped video message, that he would fight for a balanced budget amendment. Rand Paul, the Republican nominee for Senate in Kentucky, made the same pledge, adding that he believed in term limits, and in requiring Congress, before passing any bill, to cite the specific passage in the Constitution that gives the federal government the power to enact such legislation.
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To view video of the entire event (or selected speakers), CLICK HERE.
