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TagsBY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Fans from miles around assembled Saturday on the National Mall for the Rally to Restore Sanity, blending laughs, activism and a call for civility from comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
Jon Stewart, who grew up in Lawrenceville, and Stephen Colbert, a Montclair resident, drew thousands of exuberant supporters to Washington on Saturday for a televised and live-streamed joint rally that shut down streets, overloaded the transit system and flooded the Mall.
Between noon and 3 p.m., Stewart and Colbert held forth from a stage on the opposite end of the Mall from the Lincoln Memorial steps, where conservative commentator Glenn Beck led a similarly vast crowd two months ago. That rally, with its religious theme of "Restoring Honor," had conservative political undertones and prompted Stewart's response.
The idea of the rally was to provide a counterweight to all the shouting and flying insults of these polarized times. But there were political undertones, too, pushing back against conservatives ahead of Tuesday's election.But the two comedians kept most of their three hour show to nonpartisan bits, musical entertainment and gentle ribbing of the purported enemies of incivility.
The list of entertainers included musicians Jon Legend and The Roots, along with actor Sam Waterston and Don Novello, who years ago played Father Guido Sarducci on "Saturday Night Live."
Philly.com reported Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow also performed, singing if "I can't change the world to make it better, the least I can do is care." Ozzy Osbourne and Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, engaged in something of a battle of the bands as the heavy-metal rocker barged in on the folkie's hit, "Peace Train," in a mock clash of music and cultures.
At the conclusion of the program, Stewart got to the point of his rally, arguing that the rally's intended butt of the joke was the level of discourse in Washington and cable television's hyperbolic 24-hour news cycle. He showed a left wing/right wing video montage on jumbo screens, featuring, among others, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and James Carville.
Political affiliations aside, he said, everyone throughout the country found a way to work together. "The only place we don't is here or on cable TV," said Stewart, according to the Washington Post. In earnest terms he orated, "If we amplify everything, we hear nothing."
According to politicsdaily.com, Stewart cited the importance of distinguishing between "real racists and Tea Partiers, or real bigots and Juan Williams or Rick Sanchez," because failing to do so "is an insult, not only to those people but to the racists themselves, who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate."
Shortly before 1 p.m., "Mythbuster" Adam Savage announced there were 150,000 folks trying to do the "wave" across the Mall. CBS, which hired professional crowd-counters, put the number at 215,000.
The crowd waved hundreds of creative, hand-made messages, including these:
Sanity Is A Pre-Existing Condition
I can see America From My Back Yard
I Came Here Illegally. I Went 5 mph Over the Speed Limit On I-95.
This Sign Contains Correct Grammar and Spelling
I Love America. Even Though We Get It Wrong Sometimes, It's Still a Nice Place To Raise a Family.
Speak Softly And Carry a Bibliography of Statistics
An Associated Press report in the Courier Post reported Stewart wants attendees to help restore the National Mall, which has a $400 million backlog of deferred maintenance. Colbert asked people to contribute to Donors Choose, which raises money for school supplies; proceeds from sales of rally merchandise also will go to the Yellow Ribbon Fund to help injured soldiers.
If you want to know whether Yusuf Islam supports the fatwa, you need look no further than his personal web site:
I never called for the death of Salman Rushdie; nor backed the Fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini--and still don’t. The book itself destroyed the harmony between peoples and created an unnecessary international crisis.
When asked about my opinion regarding blasphemy, I could not tell a lie and confirmed that--like both the Torah and the Gospel--the Qur’an considers it, without repentance, as a capital offense. The Bible is full of similar harsh laws if you’re looking for them. However, the application of such Biblical and Qur’anic injunctions is not to be outside of due process of law, in a place or land where such law is accepted and applied by the society as a whole.
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That is not normal, normal people already know that normal people exist and what normal people think. It was just a bunch of radicals holding a counter demonstration to the restoring honor demonstration. And as is correctly noted, none of the participants, Kid Rock, Sheryl Crowe, Ozzy osbourne, Jon Stewart, etc et all could ever be considered "Normal" people by normal people, although all of the ones at the Restoring honor, black robe, palin, beck et all are normal people.
If you don't think so, then you might consider your definition of "normal" meaning someone you will never meet in normal society.
I'm just saying.......................
LOL! Boy, have you been hoodwinked. The fact that people believe him does not make Glenn "I don't check my facts" Beck less of a comedian. What you don't seem to understand that you and the rest of his throng of credulous followers is the joke he is making. (And guess who's laughing. I'll give you a hint: They call you "Useful idiots".)
"these people were going to washington to do what? Appears nothing really."
People go to political rallies to make a point. I understand the point. The fact that you and those like you don't is the exact reason that the rally is important.
My guess is that their sanity is still not yet resored, if this is the case.
From pictures and video, it does seem like Saturday’s rally had more people in attendance than Beck’s. But since there’s not an exact turnstile count for every person there, we’ll never really know. And does it really matter? It shouldn’t be all about the numbers. What we do know is that a lot of people were at each event.
Lefties
get a life.
;)
Yeah, right. And what do you tell your mate? 12"?
You must know you're not fooling anybody who isn't willfully self-deceived to begin with, so I can only suppose that you feel obliged to smooch the patootie of the angry right for some other reason. Well, at least you've got a job, if not journalistic integrity.
check your sources on the crowd size