Sep 02 2010
Washington, D.C. Day 2/4 (Part 2)
We’re back home now, with two other days still to talk about, but after reading my post about the rally I wanted to write more about it.
I feel it’s my duty, as an eye witness, to make sure I give a complete and accurate account of the entire event. The media coverage along with the various others making comments about it are far off the mark. Most of them weren’t there, didn’t watch it and in some cases if they did, they’re totally missing what I believe is a brilliant approach by Glenn Beck to try and solve the issues he sees in our country, not to mention solving some of the issues in ourselves.
Honor
Last night I was asked by someone ‘What was the rally meant to restore honor to?’ This was a logical question given the name of the rally (Restoring Honor) and coming from a person who I believe is honorable themselves. I’m unsure if the inability to see the answer comes from the projection of their own character on to others or their nature to see only the good in the world, but before answering that question, I think it’s important to answer the question my 12 year old son asked me during the rally – ‘What IS honor?’
In so many words I told him, honor is about meaning what you say and saying what you mean. It’s about making sure your word means something, that you keep promises and that you do things that are honorable. It’s about being the very best you can be no matter what you do in life. It’s about the things you do when no one is watching. It’s about not requiring a trophy for something you’ve done. Having honor means that your actions, values, words and principles are in line and do not contradict each other. It’s about integrity. It’s about being consistent, honest and truthful in regards to your motivations and otherwise.
The words I most think of when thinking of honor are – Sincerity, Honesty, Responsibility, Courage, Self-Sacrifice, Selflessness, and Respect.
At the tomb of the unknown soldier, as we watched a man with a rifle over his shoulder pace left to right counting his 21 steps with the very highest degree of discipline, I leaned over and whispered softly in my son’s ear as he watched – HONOR.
So, to return to the original question ‘What was the rally meant to restore honor to?’ Is it more obvious after honor is defined? Do you think honor exists in each of us? In others? In society? In our government? Do you see self-sacrifice, honesty or courage often in everyday people? Sure. We do in some places, but mostly in our military.
To answer fully, the rally was meant to restore honor to ourselves. The beauty of Glenn Beck’s rally was the knowledge that 1 person can make a difference and if you want to change the world, start with you.
God
The other day when I wrote about the rally I gave pause to the heavy theme of God throughout the event. I believe now that I was wrong to do that. After reflecting on the day, I think it’s safe to say that the spiritual theme was, for the most part, rooted in my very own beliefs. My problem is typically when someone tells me what to believe, but I don’t feel that is what was going on here.
If you understand the founding documents and the role of God in them, you’ll understand that without acknowledging God, or at least the founder’s understanding of God, you have no rights in the United States.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
You’ve no doubt heard this a thousand times, but you need to focus on the word Creator. This sentence specifically says that your rights were not provided to you by man. They were given to you by your Creator with unalienable rights. Unalienable here means that they can not be separated from you. The founders knew that if your rights were given to you in any other way, they could be taken away. They believed in Natural Law. This is a very important concept.
Someone I had a discussion with the other day told me that their rights came from themselves. I think this is a tremendous mistake as it means that written law or policy could give those rights away. The idea is that there is a power beyond ourselves that we can not control and that power gives us rights. They are unalienable. We can not lose them if we tried.
Also, many people nowadays have issues with a belief in God. Obviously I think it’s fine to believe what you want to believe. At the same time, I find the people who don’t believe have such a problem with people who do. They feel believers are unintelligent, misguided or living in a fairy tale world. They believe somehow that they are superior to people who believe in God. Well, I think there is a major issue with this outlook. Yes, people who speak in tongues are creepy, but I have no problem with other people believing anything – notice I have not disclosed my own belief about God here, even though you think I might have.
Either way, I believe the theme of God was simply Glenn Beck’s belief that God is a method that can be used to restore honor. I believe that is one way to do it.
Idea
The Restoring Honor rally, IMO, was a brilliant idea. Glenn Beck used, in all aspects of the event, the power of example. Martin Luther King Jr. also used the same approach throughout the civil rights movement – show what you believe is right to the American people against the bad examples we see everyday and they will understand.
Three honorable purple heart recipients from our military presented 3 non-military people with the original purple heart (George Washington’s Merit Badge) to symbolize their honorable contributions to society.
Politics were not mentioned. It was about Restoring Honor.
Also in the plan was the crowd. Glenn Beck knew that the crowd themselves would be honorable and for 500,000+ people, everyone was amazingly patient and understanding. They were the story. Many in the media waited to report on the negative, but were unable to because of the make up of the crowd.
In an article by the Wall Street Journal called Glenn Beck’s Happy Warriors you can find quotes like these:
One would not be able to find a more polite crowd at a political convention, certainly not at a professional sporting event, probably not even at an opera. In fact, judging by the behavior of the attendees following the event, you’d have a tough time finding churches in which people display more patience as others make their way to the exits.
Or this one regarding the single time the president or congress was mentioned:
But it didn’t end there. Dave Roever, a Vietnam veteran, offered a closing prayer in which he thanked the Lord for the president and for the Congress. Despite the unpopularity of the latter two, no booing or catcalls could be heard.
And then another about what even had me amazed:
After the event, walking from the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool through Constitution Gardens, this reporter scanned 360 degrees and could not see a scrap of trash anywhere. Participants and volunteers had collected all their refuse and left it piled neatly in bags around the public garbage cans. Near Constitution Avenue, I did encounter one stray piece of paper—but too old and faded to have been left that day.
So in the end, in such a brilliant way, the people who were there were a true example of honor and shined for everyone to see – especially the people who eagerly waited to see violent, angry people at the rally. It just simply didn’t exist.
Highlights
Instead of writing out every single detail of the event, I thought maybe it would be better to simply give you the highlights as I saw them.
1. Visiting the Lincoln Memorial the night before.
The site of people with their blankets and chairs, the set and Lincoln himself lit up behind it all was exciting. My Son asked me “how many people do you think will come?” and I remember saying I didn’t know, but behind my lips I was hoping for the place to be packed to the rafters. Later I asked my son if he realized how large a crowd of a half a million people were. I used the example that Madison Square Garden, where we went regularly to see New York Ranger games, only held about 20,000. He was priceless trying to imagine the amount.
2. 6:30am the next morning
We were all hopeful about the turnout as we drove to the Lincoln Memorial in a yellow cab, but when we walked up the stairs to the right of the Lincoln Memorial towards the reflecting pool, we realized we didn’t need to hope any longer. We had to walk to the mid-point of the reflecting pool to find a place to sit and it was still only 6:30am.
3. Making our way back
As Jonathan and I tried to make our way back to Sandy (we had to go buy batteries) we were met with a crowd unlike any I had ever seen. There was no way to get through from the front. The crowd simply wasn’t moving. Jonathan and I weaved up and through 100s of people and their chairs, blankets, etc meeting some, talking to others. Some of them gave us advise on the best way to get around and others just simply introduced themselves to us. It wasn’t easy, but we eventually got back to Sandy about an hour later.
4. The people
The people in every direction were nice, respectful and patient. In fact, I’d have to say they were those things times two. It’s hard to even go food shopping and get such a group of quality people and this was a 500,000+ crowd of people from all over the country. I can not stress enough how impressive it was.
5. Geese Formation
About 9:55am, just before the rally started, a flock of geese in perfect formation, fairly low to the ground, directly over the reflecting pool, flew the length of the water towards the Lincoln Memorial. The entire crowd errupted and took it as a sign of things to come.
6. Pledge of Allegiance
To start off the event, a boy scout came out onto the stage and led us all in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. As I put my hand on my heart I was unable to speak for the first two sentences, but then caught my breath to join the crowd. Later Sandy said the same thing. Just simply mentioning this to someone else who wasn’t even there caused that person to choke up. It was amazing. All of those people reciting the Pledge is a sure way to give any proud American goosebumps.
7. Pastor Charles Lewis “C.L.” Jackson
It was inspiring to hear someone speak who was actually at the ‘I have a dream’ speech all those years before. He spoke with passion and history in his voice and made me proud to be an American.
8. Glenn Beck
I have an admiration for Glenn. The themes in the event were truly something of vision. He managed to relay a positive message of pride, hope, faith, honor and charity all in one showing and he made us all feel that message. He made it clear that the honor everyone sees missing from the world needs to start with us as individuals. He focused on the one thing that the enemies of his message can not fight and that is ‘good’. You simply can’t fight against something that is right and good.
9. Amazing Grace on Bagpipes
Towards the end, bagpipers were invited on to the stage to play Amazing Grace and it was extremely emotional.
10. Ending Prayer
Despite the unpopularity of the president and congress, Dave Roever who performed the ending prayer, prayed for them and not one person in the crowd said a negative word. The prayer was given with such sincerity and passion that it put a nice touch on the ending of the rally.
Summary
Monday night, Sandy and I watched the news and they recapped the rally. With tears in her eyes she turned to me and said “Thank you for bringing us”. It was that special. I’ll never forget it and I hope the others who were they don’t either. I hope the momentum from this event carries.
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