That’s Right Nate

A crowd estimated at approximately 5,000,000 including yours truly made their way to our nation’s capital for a rally hosted by Glenn Beck and designed to restore our country’s honor.  It was a heady mix of patriotism and religion and I got chills when one of the speakers spoke on how Catholics, Christians, and Jews were all gathered there in Christ’s name.

I first knew something was up when I was at the Denny’s on Benning Road.  With all the people coming to Washington, the line was out the door and they ran out of food before people like myself could get in.  It was no big deal though.   The crowd had such a positive vibe as we moved on elsewhere.  I made my way to the Bob Evans in Woodbridge and despite its long distance from the rally, it too was packed, but my daughter Emily and I got in and got seats.  Word soon spread through the crowd to avoid the Denver Omelet because it wasn’t agreeing with people so we just had poached eggs and cereal.

The rally was truly amazing.   There was a veritable rainbow.  I saw people of all colors–white, off white, egg shell, pearl, and orange.   We made are way to the lawn and despite five million people being there, I didn’t find it too crowded and we were able to get to good seats.  Soon we were called to prayer and the speaker reminded us just how wonderful it was to see “Christians, Catholics, and Jews all gathered in Christ’s name.”

I felt very badly for the couple who were in front of us, they had a “Restore Onor and Stop Fashism” sign, but were told that signs were a no-no.  I heard the event called Whitestock, but what it really felt like to me was a sort of Sturgis for mobility scooters.   The irony of the event wasn’t lost on me.  I saw so many people protesting for their second amendment rights and Martin Luther King who spoke on the very same day at the very same location in 1963 was silenced by an assassin’s bullet.  If King had been armed, would things have gone down differently?

A big Indian chief came up to speak and I was kind of worried that he was going to guilt us about broken treaties, but he was just talking about the importance of keeping your word in a general sense.   When Sarah Palin spoke though it was truly magic.  She performed a montage of lines from other classic speeches with a few Springsteen lyrics thrown in for good measure before honoring several war heroes.  She reminded us all of Martin Luther King’s “still spine”   against communist aggression in South East Asia. I was very proud of the warriors, but very disappointed to see no minorities in with the group.  I like to think they love this country too.

A sense of dread fell over the crowd as we heard that a couple from Idaho had gotten on the subway’s Yellow Line and encountered minorities.   We felt terrible for them, but eventually they took a cab and got to the rally.  They received a heroes welcome when they were introduced.

A very stirring moment was when Martin Luther King’s niece Alveda King spoke.  It gave me goose bumps.   Emily said it reminded her of when I took her to see Frank Sinatra Jr.  sing his father’s song book.  Beck later told us that some people who appeared really put themselves at risk.  I know a few of the speakers only appeared with the agreement that the rally’s message wouldn’t be political or coherent.

Finally, the man we were all waiting for spoke.  Glenn Beck warned us about the hate that was spreading over this country.  I wish he would have told us where it was coming from so we could be sure to fight it.   He also told us that we must insist that our churches stand up for things that are true, like Jesus appearing to the Native Americans after his death.  All in all, it was  a beautiful thing.  The only awkward moment was when speaker Albert Pujols was reported to immigration authorities, but was able to prove he was here legally.