A sea of tea party activists, religious conservatives and curious onlookers descended upon Washington, D.C. to attend the "Restoring Honor" rally held by Glenn Beck on the steps on the Lincoln Memorial.
The event which is taking place on the 47th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech was, for the most, free of those who believe Mr. Beck is co-opting the message of America's most beloved civil rights activist.
Although billed as a non-political event by rally organizers, in reality this was a tea party event with restrictions meant to quell extremist or overtly partisan activity. Tea party flags and t-shirts were found everywhere among the crowd. Conspicuously absent were signs attacking specific policies, or President Obama, that many viewed as examples of racism and hate within the tea party movement.
Speaking with several attendees who were at the rally site on Friday, it was clear that many wanted fringe elements kept out of the event. Nearly everyone I spoke with was at least somewhat suspicious of media coverage and did not believe that the tea party and its message had been portrayed fairly in the media. Today, they were intent on not leaving anything to chance.
If there was a single near-universal element among the tens of thousands of attendees, it was the belief that the moral underpinnings of our government had rotted, leaving America with an uncertain and unstable future. Issues such as health care reform, TARP, taxation and federal spending were all hot button issues for most people I spoke with at the event. The vast majority of the crowd was, to a large degree, ideologically homogenous, but not all.
As anticipated, there were also curious onlookers and dissenters within the crowd.
A person interviewing an Indiana man dressed in colonial-era attire was confronted by members of the crowd who appeared to be upset with the questions being asked. During the short verbal skirmish that ensued, one man bullied the interviewer with support from a few onlookers, while others sought to diffuse the situation (see video). Ultimately, things cooled down and the incident ended peacefully.
Although rare and isolated, there were a handful of other verbal disagreements between event supporters and opponents early in the day.
Overall, the crowd was orderly, attentive and non-confrontational. By 12:30 people had begun to leave in fairly significant numbers. I decided to join them and headed for the subway. From my vantage point, some of the worst flare-ups probably occurred on the packed subway cars traveling to and from the event.
For those who could not attend, a video and slideshow is presented below. More in-depth coverage and interviews coming soon.
Comments
There were lots of wonderful things. All this fellow does is put a slightly negative slant on a few mildly negative things.
How is that reporting? Is there one person that doesn't realize that in spite of this being a really nice gathering of people that were being called on to turn their hears to God. (Not the government ... the people were the focus.)
Oops ... finishing the last sentence :)
... there was no praise at all. Just negatives.
Obviously not a reliable news source the quality of the video proves that.
Glenn Beck holding a rally at the Lincoln memorial on the anniversary of MLK speech. So what is so wrong with a Muslim civic center 2 blocks from WTC?
Lol... the Beck-O-Lites want to pick and choose what media is allowed to exist, thereby censoring what they don't believe in or don't want to be published or disseminated- then has the audacity to extol the virtues of the country that guarantees everyone the right to speak, regardless of how completely insane they are (like Glenn-Conspiracy-Theorist-Beck). How completely hypocritical of ANY Beck fans to call anyone else an extremist. Take a good look at your golden cow there, kiddies. Really? FEMA concentration camps? Environmentalism is Nazism? The government wants control of your THERMOSTAT?! Stupid human cattle. You are what is wrong with this country. You equate Christianity with righteousness, and petty bureaucratic tyranny with moral superiority- and you want to pervert our country into... what? Tea Party morons? Extremist goons? The TSA? Beck is quite clear on what he doesn't want, but what the heck DOES he want? Religion and politics to merge? Sounds that way. And what does our Constitution say about that?
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