8-28 Honor Rally Wrapped Up In Dreams From One “Black” Person

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I heard about the rally about a month before, both of them, the Restoring Honor and Reclaiming the dream.  I knew that the Restoring Honor rally was a Tea Party/Fox News/Glenn Beck event.  I decided to go to the Fox News Rally. We started walking to the park at around five-fifty in the morning and ran into two ladies who were participating as marshals.  “Are you going to the Restoring Honor” when we replied yes “oh” one of them said, we went on to talk about how they met Glenn Beck the night before, he was at a buffet they had and he shook hands with one of them.  I thought it was funny they were acting like school girls going to a rock concert, they were genuinely excited.  As we approached the park we saw more and more people heading towards the Lincoln Memorial.  We did not see any other brown skinned people and whenever we told one of the white people with beach chairs and wearing a flag of some kind that we were going to the rally they always seemed surprised.

When we got to the park we stood out, one of the people on the tape even said so.  This was obviously a white event.  As we walked through the park the strangest thing happened, people started walking up and thanking us for coming. My daughter was very nervous in the beginning because of how we stood out and people were looking at us. Were there racists in the crowd no doubt about it, were the majority of the people there racist? Since I can’t read minds and going by the people I spoke to personally I would have to say no.

It seemed us being there made some of them feel better and I started to feel better.  As I talked to people and asked them why African American weren’t joining their movement they were truly perplexed.  I sensed they really didn’t know why because they believed they were hearing the facts from Fox News and the word of god from Glenn Beck.  Many people said Glenn Beck was calling people together but the rally itself was a contradiction, there were a light sprinkling of minorities, there weren’t many African Americans but there weren’t  any Asians, Latinos, Native Americans, or Democrats, and let me just say the diversity was sparse at the other march as well.

I did notice these people had three things in common other than being white, and that was Glenn Beck, Fox News, and God (as in Christianity).  Glenn and Sarah Palin were stars because they believed in god.  Some had been listening to Glenn for years many had just started; they referred to his show as educational and inspirational. Glenn Beck, they said was an educator and historian and that he was teaching the people. They said god and faith was missing in history books.  They wanted to bring the country back to the “founding fathers” –that meant honor, faith. There was nothing racist about that because some of the founding fathers were black and “they just found that out the other day”, Glenn Beck told them. 

They wanted to bring god back into our society, country and government but mainly in the schools. They want to stop spending but don’t know how that should happen, maybe social security, they fear social security may not be there in the near future.  They want to preserve their rights, they meant they wanted to keep their money, guns, and do whatever they want, freedom—but were all against building a mosque near the former world trade center sight.  They were also not sure exactly what rights they had lost, they talked about things that may come but nothing that was really happening right now. They talked about TARP and the Healthcare Bill as bad, but the war was okay–necessary.  They were against corporations and did not associate the rich with corporations.

They wanted more self reliance and less “socialism”, socialism meant redistributing wealth. Socialism and God were the words of the day, as in god-yes, socialism-no and they equated Obama not as being black but a socialist and inexperienced, so he too was a no.  I took “socialism” to be the new code word for “black”, but I don’t think that they understood that.  I think some really believed Obama is a Socialist, but for some it was a way out of being called a racist. Oh and Obama may also be a Muslim terrorist.  Honestly I didn’t like the America they said existed but wasn’t sure I’d be happy in the one they described as ideal. 

They spoke a lot about unity and I believed they wanted unity but the crowd was majority “white” Christians so I wasn’t sure with whom or that the controversy surrounding the rally helped in that. 

I started to think about the rally that was happening down the road. I was sure that rally was filled with “black” people, when I went later that day there were mostly black people. How was that going to help bring people together? Was that any different than what I saw at the tea party rally.  And everyone at the Reclaiming the Dream rally claimed they did not know about the Restoring Honor rally.  Sort of like the Tea partiers claiming to have no clue as to why people might perceive them as racist. Both of these groups were being “ignored by government”, and exploited by politicians and pastors.  These rallies showed me how far the media is going to shape news and opinions.  In the spirit of conspiracy I wondered if they weren’t being used by some other entity, let’s say “terrorists”. Particularly, Fox, they have been able to mold its audience’s point of view and control the news of the last decade, as well as influencing all the other networks.

I also knew that Glenn Beck and Al Sharpton were not going to bring this country together—they were too polarizing and they had gained financially from our division.

There are good people on both sides; I don’t think Marlene and Heather had hate in their heart they are just being schooled in a particular ideology. Camille was adorable and walked right up and told my daughter she loved her glasses and the two started to talk. That was a beautiful moment and it solidified my faith in the youth, they were not going to let America down. We needed more individual conversations. The couple that made $40,000 combined broke my heart the fact that they made so little money and took this trip to listen to a con-artist who was swindling them out of their real voices—their vote, was depressing—they were willing to get rid of social security. Chad was a youth just looking for direction, how many of them do I see walking around my own community with their pants hanging low. Both sides are being used and neither is being helped. 

This rally let me know that fox news and the media are probably more racist than the people watching, and may be playing a role in creating racists if anything. The media is aware people are suspicious of differences and they play up our differences and heightens our fears. It made me think of the greatest trick – presenting an illusion as reality, convincing people you are the opposite of what you really are? Like WAR is PEACE.  After all, it’s not so hard to get a person to believe in something that is not real, is it? 

At the end of the day I have only seen one person bring Americans of all colors, ethnicity, social and economic backgrounds together and that man is OBAMA.

Get out and Vote in November.  VOTE FOR your America.

Please go to my youtube channel to watch all four parts:  http://www.youtube.com/user/Pollitikat?feature=mhum

Jon Stewart is Right and Rachel Maddow Doesn’t Get “It”

13 Saturday Nov 2010

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OK after reading the commentary around the web, I finally saw the much talked about interview with Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart. It leaves me very sad, and disappointed in “the left”. I think Jon did a great job explaining his intentions and what the rally was. “I could have gotten on the field” he said in trying to show a distinction between himself and real activism. He also did an excellent job explaining his show and what he considers “media”, what leaves me sad is that Rachel just did not get it but stayed stuck on trying to make the “leftie points”. I don’t understand why she didn’t get that Jon’s show is a criticism of news. Jon is saying there is very little journalism going on in cable news, and everything is sensationlized, when there is a real opportunity to do indept reporting because they do have twenty-four hours of time to fill. Instead of showing lock-up/lock-down msnbc could do real investigating , and try something different like exposing corruption as apposed to just mimicing fox news. I have long complained about the redundancy of the media which Jon reffered to as “the relay” and the way the other channels not only became fox-like but is now totally allowing fox news to write the narrative. The other channels have basically just started covering fox and that is why the country is going to heck, because no matter what the fox agenda gets out. Media if you dont get the what Jon is saying then shame on you.

I think what Jon was saying is fox has done a good job of de-legitimizing the media, while wielding a great deal of power themselves. If they report on Fox News that the mainstream media is just out to get them and they turn on MSNBC and all they see are people criticizing fox and calling Glenn Beck crazy and showing clips of reports from fox news, then what are they to think. Wouldn’t you believe that what Fox was saying may be true? Instead of the other two networks sticking to hard news and facts; they have helped to reinforced fox’s caricature of media. I don’t need the media telling me what to be mad about, I just want the information and I’ll decide if it upsets me. The tea partiers disrupting town hall meetings would have better contrasted if the person delivering the information weren’t also yelling.

I think this problem started during the escalation to the Iraq war, many media sold out to the administration so they could get embedded status. They helped to cover Bush’s lie about “weapons of mass destruction” and they did not cover the anti-war movement in this country. I hardly saw any coverage of the anti-war movement during the Bush years and that was because Bush was able to use homeland security and terrorism as a bludgeon against the people and eventually the media. They had played right into the hands of those who wanted to manipulate the media and essentially helped in their own demise. I have long said the media is the biggest problem facing this country and this interview has reinforced that for me. The reason why it is hard for the media to now paint Bush as a war criminal, is because during the time he was saying that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction every media was running around trying to prove that point, showing chemical labs, and old footage of missiles, and dead Iraqi’s. Instead of talking about the reality of the moment and telling the truth, the media helped promote the war idea.

I remember exactly when the spell of the right wing broke for the media it was the interview with Bill Clinton and Chris Wallace on Fox News. Bill Clinton stood up to the media that day and shortly after Keith Olberman gave a “special comment”, but the journalism didn’t return to the media, commentary became the norm, narratives and opinions, the us vs. them argument only gained reinforcement and in that melee real journalism died. The media became self centered celebrity driven and angry. That is where I believe we are today, and this interview with Jon Stewart crystallizes everything that is wrong with the media. Rachel—it’s not about you, Jon is a comedian and you are part of the media, your job is to deliver facts and the truth, and no Rachel, you don’t have to yell it. Jon’s job is to make us laugh and lately he has been making us laugh at the media.

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