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BY SUSIE WILSON
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
SEX MATTERS
Whatever the estimated size of the crowd at the sun-drenched Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on the Washington Mall this past Saturday — six billion if you believe featured performer Stephen Colbert, 30 to 40 million estimated by a Comedy Central executive, or 150,000 to 200,000 by others on the ground — I was one of the counted. But rather than one of billions, millions, or thousands, I was one of only a handful in the crowd who could boast that Jon Stewart — who called for the rally on his program The Daily Show — was from my hometown.
For 40 years I lived in Lawrenceville, N.J., where Jon Stewart grew up. One of the women in my group had a son who went through the public schools with Stewart. When I asked her about him, she said only one word: "smart."
Lawrence is one of those small New Jersey towns that you drive through before you realize you've done it. To have grown a super-talented comedian of the stature of Jon Stewart — with the help of his family, of course — makes me feel more invested in what he does. Although I've never met him, our connection through the town makes me feel as though he were kin.
Therefore I wouldn't have missed rising at dawn to catch a train from Trenton with two friends to participate in the rally. But to be perfectly honest, I might have gone to the rally even without the hometown connection to Stewart, as I have a personal affinity for attending marches in Washington. Over the years, I've made the same pilgrimage via Amtrak to our nation's capitol to participate in rallies called by Planned Parenthood, the National Organization for Women, the Children's Defense Fund, and the Million Moms March. So, the Stewart rally felt natural.
I feel more intensely alive when I attend marches and rallies. Being part of a huge, happy, and peaceful crowd — and listening to and learning from speakers — makes me feel that I'm truly exercising my rights and duties as an American citizen to listen, learn, and take responsible action. I expected Saturday to be no different. I was not disappointed.
In his opening remarks, Stewart said that everyone only wants to know two things about a rally on the Mall: its size and color. He decided to actually count the crowd one by one, starting with those who probably got up before dawn to find places in front of the stage. But after getting to person number five, he abandoned that idea and let others do the counting.
As for color, the crowd seemed mostly white and far younger than me. Yet standing right in front of me was a small group of medical students from Johns Hopkins University that added some diversity: One was Chinese American, one South Asian, one Canadian, and one South Korean.
Knowing the importance of signs at these events, I had thought of writing one for myself: "Left-Leaning Liberal Yearning for Sanity." But in the end, I opted for "Sex Educators for Sanity." Although my sign didn't make the 10-funniest signs lists that were posted on some websites, I got quite a few thumbs up from members of the crowd. (The only other sign I saw that alluded to sexuality read "Abstinence Makes the Church Grow Fondlers.")
The tone of the signs and the rally itself were more thoughtful than political. With the exception of one sign with a picture of Sarah Palin and the words "Spill, Baby, Spill," most were not about individual politicians. Many spoke to deeper yearnings beyond campaign sound bites.
The crowd around us was patient and good humored. Although a couple of people pushed through us to get closer to the stage (we were fortunate to have places not too far from a Jumbotron screen, where we could see and hear with relative ease), most stood attentively from 10:30 a.m. to approximately 3 p.m. in a tiny amount of space.
Key activities of the day include cheering on conversations between Stewart and Colbert, listening to performances by a host of musicians. The atmosphere was completely civil and respectful, and I wouldn't have wanted to be any other place on earth at that moment.
Before his final, eloquent speech, Stewart showed the crowd a collage of excerpts from TV programs hyping fear and made simple points. My friends and I grabbed our pencils and scribbled some of his most memorable quotes to share with family and friends. Among the ones I wrote were "we live now in hard times, not end times," "we can have animus, but not be enemies," "if we amplify everything, we hear nothing," and "if we are to get through the darkness and back into the light, we have to work together."
I really appreciated Stewart's comment about "amplifying everything and hearing nothing," because I think the media has coarsened our political discourse and encouraged people to yell at each other. He made some unflattering comments about cable television news that I thought hit the nail right on the head. His main point:
"The country's 24-hour political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator did not cause our problems, but its existence makes solving them that much harder. The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected dangerous flaming ant epidemic."
"The press is our immune system," he said. "If we overreact to everything, we actually get sicker — and perhaps eczema. The image of Americans that is reflected back to us by our political and media process is false. It is us through a fun house mirror, and not the good kind..."
One of Stewart's most moving moments came when he showed an illustration of traffic merging into a single lane at a tunnel entrance. He said, "Look on the screen. This is where we are. This is who we are."
"One driver thinks his taxes are too high," he said, "and one can't think of anything except her two kids in the car. In the other cars, there is a gay person, an atheist, a Mormon, Jay-Z fans, and so forth. All of us are pointed in the same direction and have a common purpose: to get through the tunnel."
His tunnel analogy reminded me of the many times I've driven my children through the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, requiring me to squeeze from several to a single lane of traffic. Had I had Stewart's example in my mind, I would have been able to talk to my kids about cooperation and the importance of understanding other people's differences. My kids are grown now, but if I ever have my grandchildren in my car and have to merge with other cars to get through the tunnel, I will talk to them about what Jon Stewart said.
He concluded with a customary touch of humor: "We work together to get things done every damn day. And most people don't live their lives solely as Democrats, Republicans, liberals, or conservatives. Americans live their lives more as people that are just a little bit late for something."
Some years ago, a president might have been the person who delivered a speech asking us to be more reasonable, less fearful, and better people. He would have used the occasion as a bully pulpit to appeal to "the better angels of our nature."
But given the power and influence of celebrities in our culture, I was pleased that a boy from Lawrenceville, New Jersey, could hold a huge audience in the palm of his hand and encourage us to be and do better.
Like me, Stewart must have a special fondness for New Jersey, and he referred to the Garden State toward the end of his speech: "And the truth is, there will always be darkness. And sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel isn't the promised land. Sometimes it's just New Jersey. But we do it anyway, together."
With the U.S. Capitol building nearly glowing in the afternoon sun behind him and the American flag standing straight out from its pole, he ended the rally saying: "Sanity will always be and has always been in the eye of the beholder. To see you here today and the kind of people that you are has restored mine. Thank you."
As the crowd walked back to buses, trains, and cars, heading toward many points across the U.S., I wondered if many felt the way I did: a little bit saner, a little less fearful, a little calmer, and a little more understanding of what is takes to be a reasonable American.
Local boy did good, indeed.
Susie Wilson, former executive coordinator of the Network for Family Life Education at Rutgers University's Center for Applied and Professional Psychology (now renamed Answer), is a national leader in the fight for effective sexuality and HIV/AIDS education and for prevention of adolescent pregnancy. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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