When I was a kid I participated in—well, led actually—one of President Kennedy’s 50 Mile hikes. It was a fad that gained national popularity when Kennedy mentioned in a speech that Teddy Roosevelt initiated a national fitness campaign during his presidency. And of course, most Americans didn’t have Marilyn Monroe to help them keep … fit.
That’s what the “One Nation Working Together” rally reminded me of last weekend.
You see, we were just a group of average high school kids without any of the cool letters or jock jackets. Just five goofy pimple-pocked freshmen. But as we were nearing the finish of the hike, literally limping and worn out, the local press came out of the woodwork. Flashbulbs popping in our eyes, microphones stuffed in our faces, and for one very brief moment we were the stars.
Then for some reason I glanced across the busy highway. There, one of the best cross-country runners at our school was stripped off in his gym shorts jogging up a down the stretch of highway where the radio station had placed the finish line. It was midnight. He was handsome and fit and wearing the school colors. No one was paying attention but he was doing everything he could to steal our moment. His dad was there trying to attract media attention, literally being shaken away by several reporters. He announced that his son would run the same distance next week, but nobody listened. He did run the distance the next week, and nobody watched.
This was the difference I noticed between Glenn Beck’s 8-28 Rally and what took place over last weekend on the National Mall. Americans actually did something that day. Close to 500,000 average everyday folks came together at their own expense and made a statement. When they were done they picked up their trash and went home. There was some Tea Party organization, but mostly it was just the folks.
So now there must necessarily be damage control and spin and a rewriting of history to detract from what was a truly phenomenal event. Liberals excel at rewriting history. They are now calling 8-28 “Whitestock.” One way of rewriting or diminishing a historical moment is to ridicule and mischaracterize it. Althea King is hardly white.
But—lest I be accused of taking liberties with the truth myself—about 175,000 people did attend the One Nation rally. Scary. But there are still some very distinct differences.
Let’s look at the attendees for a moment. There was Code Pink, a group of militant lesbians, (hermaphrodites?) and shockingly ugly women who like to parade coffins around veterans hospitals during wartime. They should join the Westborough Baptist Church.
Several national labor unions were there at dues-payer expense. The American Communist Party was there. Wait a minute, I didn’t think communists existed anymore. The NAACP whose membership dwarfs any Tea Party showed up. And MSNBC’s Ed Schultz and others carefully scripted the event using the largest teleprompter in history to make sure Van Jones didn’t lapse into one of his unhinged Truther and Marxist rants. Schultz proclaimed they were going to “take back” an America they’ve never had.
To cover the misprints and typos of actual truth that does occasionally slip into a byline here and there, the Huffington Post is now announcing that “Sometimes size doesn’t matter” and the Washington Post is asking the burning albeit objective question, “Does it matter?” Well, in a word, yes.
When Louis Farrakhan staged his Million Man March (which didn’t turn out anything close to a million men) they all sure thought it mattered. I can’t believe 20 people showed up, much less 20,000. This guy believes he is in daily communication with aliens! I would have supposed Tom Cruise and John Travolta might show.
Well, these are the assorted fruits and nuts that attended the One Nation rally. It was not a showing of average everyday Americans making a statement; it was a highly organized compulsory assembly of union goons, environmental whackos and degenerates who are intent on destroying what is left of an America that used to raise innocent children, went to church once in a while, and fed the world.
These are the ones who believe freedom means free-for-all and who believe the government owes them a living. They are what happens when our nation’s leaders and media forget about Valley Forge and Antietam and more recently the 58,000 young men who paid the ultimate price in the jungles of Vietnam.
Lastly, these are people who did not think enough of America to pick up their trash before they left the National Mall.
