Glenn Beck 828 Rally

A Monumental Day:
SoL’s Report on Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor Rally in Washington D. C. August 28, 2010

Steve flew in Thursday and on Saturday he and I left our daughter’s house in Maryland (where I have been staying for a month helping with her 10-month-old triplets) at seven a.m. Emily drove us to the metro station nearby and before we got out of her van we saw people obviously doing the same thing we were doing: heading for Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally at the National Mall. “Where are you from?” Steve asked nearly everyone we came close to and we heard Delaware, Missouri, Ohio, Connecticut, Arkansas. Everyone was so surprised we had come all the way from Utah. When asked if we drove or flew, Steve quipped, “We pushed our handcarts.” “What’s a handcart?” somebody undertoned, embarrassed. A Texas group with matching red t-shirts stepped on board, their leader rousting us all with a stentorian, “Anybody here going to the rally?” There was a feeling of unity and gratitude and excitement in the air. People offered each other seats, introduced themselves, spoke with the strangers sitting alongside them of things close to their hearts.

Steve and I remarked to each other that we had no way of knowing how many people would show up. But it was obvious when there was standing room only on the Metro ten stops out three hours before the rally was to start, that the crowd was going to be overwhelming. It took us a while just to get on the escalator to exit the Smithsonian Metro station. Everywhere people were talking, smiling, patient and willing to help each other.

I have never been anywhere with so many people gathered in one place. They just kept coming in never-ending parades. I was grateful it was not nearly as hot and humid as it had been earlier in the week. Steve and I walked past the Washington Monument, down the lawn, past the World War II Memorial, and got as close as we could to the Lincoln Memorial where the speakers and performers would stand. This ended up being on the north side of the Reflecting Pool three quarters of the way toward the World War II Memorial on the side under some trees. From here we couldn’t see the actual set-up, but had a good view of the last of six JumboTtrons. We could see across the Pool and back toward the Washington Monument. The place was suffused with color and movement, every empty space filling in. We set up our chairs among some others and relaxed. Two hours to go. As more people came along those of us already situated squeezed closer together to make yet another spot.

And there were all kinds of people. As we waited for the rally to start I looked around me and saw a pretty lady in a sun dress, a well-coifed grandma with hair as white as her jeans, a Viet Nam vet with a long gray ponytail, a business man in metal-rimmed glasses and khaki shorts, a southern belle in a sunbonnet, three teenage boys in baseball caps, a round-bellied guy in a Hawaiian shirt, a black woman with a gold camera on her wrist, a young couple in love, a little girl in a yellow shirt with pig tails sitting on her father’s shoulders, an Asian woman under a bright orange umbrella, a lady in black short-shorts with pick hearts munching popcorn with her husband, a heavy lady with a fanny pack passing around a bag for trash, a young woman in cropped jeans pinning a small jeweled American flag on her navy shirt, a retired couple reading the paper side-by-side in polka-dotted camp chairs, and families, families everywhere.

“There’s a sea of people everywhere you look,” said someone near.
“Still coming,” said another.

What I didn’t see was a single sign (Glenn asked that there be no signs), a single bit of stray trash, or a single act of rudeness. “Don’t let me get in your way,” a lady said to me. Courtesy and good spirits abounded. Just as the rally was set to begin at 10, a large flock of Canadian geese in perfect V-formation suddenly appeared and flew low, straight over the middle of the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Memorial. All eyes looked up and everyone clapped, then people wiped their eyes under their sunglasses. The Greeks believed birds were a good omen, too.

We were treated to a recording of the Tabernacle Choir singing, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and a slide show of cities and states all across the USA. People clapped when they recognized their homes. As a woman belted the National Anthem I watched a great big man, trembling with tears, wipe his face with the palms of his two big hands.

Glenn Beck wasted no time in setting the tone for the rally. It was to be a revival of American religiosity, of love of God and country. And everyone there, as far as I could see, was on the exact same page. Beck’s announcement, “Today, this country is turning back to God,” was met with rousing applause. He gave a short sketch of the first colonists, adding, “The first thing they did was pray,” and so this is what we did, too. The prayer was all about our nation’s need to repent. It was all about Christ the Redeemer.

It struck me that here we were, living in a time when the very freedoms we were at that moment so freely exercising, heartened and emboldened by our sheer numbers, are being threatened by our own government. Among other things, was Glenn Beck peaceably defying leadership gone astray? I think so, as were we all. It is difficult to express how glorious it was to participle in this gathering, in this prayer, and to say amen to these words, in this place, at this time in America’s history.

The program for the rally continued with an inspiring multi-faceted tribute to the military’s Special Operations Warrior Foundation. This was followed by a speech by Sarah Palin who said there is no “transforming America,” only “restoring America.” Glenn Beck announced that there would be Faith, Hope, and Charity merit awards which were then introduced with inspiring speeches and presented to veteran Texas pastor C.L. Jackson, Christian baseball player Albert Pujols, and businessman and philanthropist John Huntsman Sr. Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, then gave a speech about unity for the sake of honor to rebuild America. Dr. Harry Jackson spoke using lots of scriptures, including Romans 8:28. We heard phrases such as “we are one human family” and “the procreation foundation of marriage,” and “our nations’s moral deficiency will be healed when prayer is once again welcome in public arenas and schools,” and “America must pray that God will forgive us of our sins.” About this time Steve and I looked behind us and saw that people were filling in the lawn all the way to the Washington Monument.

Glenn Beck took up the last portion of the three hours. “Advance or perish,” he said. “God is the answer and always has been.” “Trust in the Lord.” “Look forward.” “Look to people who are honest and have integrity.” “Our values and principles must unite us.”

He talked about how Americans have explored west, up in space, down in the ocean, and must now explore within ourselves.

He spoke of how he has been called a “fearmonger.” To this he said, “On the Titanic, the man who said, ‘It’s an iceberg!” was not a fearmonger. He was warning the people on the ship.”

He reiterated his forty-day challenge:
1. Pray on your knees and profess God (and let your children see your praying).
2. Tell the truth (even when it is going to hurt you) in your own life and expect it from others.
3. Connect with your spouse and children because charity begins at home.

Following are some more of the highlights of his talk from my notes:
Does the American experience expand or end with us?
The words inscribed at the top of the Washington Monument are Laus Deo (Praise be to God). He said that the Founders’ idea was that to really share truth, we must embed it in our monuments.
Find out what you truly believe. Quoted Thomas Jefferson: “Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.” (I looked across the way and saw a lady mouthing these words.)
Realize who God is and who you are. Great benefits and awesome responsibilities will come with this knowledge. You will no longer have a choice in many things.
His favorite line in the Declaration of Independence is “with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”
Washington gave up the life he wanted (to be a surveyor) to do God’s will.
The truth will set you free (after it has made you miserable).
Go to God individually first.
We have to be on God’s side, not him on our side.
Need support of good spouse, families, friends.
We must insist that our churches stand for what we know to be true, universal, eternal.
Churches have fallen asleep. We need a black robed regiment (ministers that preach freedom).
(At this point there were 250 people arm-in-arm standing behind Glenn representing that many different denominations.)
All agree that God is the answer.
Is the next George Washington in this crowd? Our goal must be to raise the next great monument.
We can wallow in our mistakes or learn from the past and ask for redemption.
A tenor, accompanied by bagpipes, sang Amazing Grace. I looked around and saw people singing along and weeping.

The rally lasted three hours. Afterwards, during some afterglow vocal performances, many people ate the picnic lunches they had brought, sat on the lawns enjoying the day, or toured the mall. Steve and I did a little of all three. We even caught a glimpse of Al Sharpton’s “protest march,” but I couldn’t for the life of me understand what they could possibly be protesting. It couldn’t have been a racial thing because there were a great many black people performing and speaking and getting awards at Glenn’s rally.

Speaking of monuments, I think every American sixth grader should visit our nation’s capitol. It should be part of the curriculum. I find myself wondering, Why was I not told of these magnificent stone monuments engraved with reminders of God and the highest human virtues? Whey was I not taught to recite the resplendent sentence that appears above the 19-foot tall bronze statue of Thomas Jefferson? Why didn’t I learn that the building of the monolithic Washington Monument was halted during the Civil War? Why was I not encouraged to consider with reverence the significance of the Lincoln Memorial while seeing its white marble set against a navy blue, star-studded night sky as a child? How are we to be a nation of what Samuel Adams called “experienced patriots” whom our country stands in need of “to prevent its ruin” if we are not schooled in our country’s foundations? And what better way to begin to become those experienced patriots than to see with our own eyes these beautiful massive monuments imbedded with noble truths and built to stand forever?

This wonderful rally put me in mind of some things one of my heroes, Robert Bork, wrote in his 1997 book, Slouching Towards Gomorrah. I will end with some cogent quotes.

“Perhaps the most promising development in our time is the rise of an energetic, optimistic, and politically sophisticated religious conservatism. It may prove more powerful than merely political or economic conservatism because religious conservatism’s objectives are cultural and moral as well.”

“Because it is a grass roots movement, the new religious conservatism can alter the culture both by electing local officials and school boards (which have greater effect on culture than do national politicians), and by setting a moral tone in opposition to today’s liberal relativism.”

“We may be witnessing a religious revival, another awakening.”

“It remains to be seen whether intellectual orthodoxy can stand firm against the current of radical individualism and radical egalitarianism.”

“Victory over modern liberalism will require a robust self-confidence about the worth of traditional values that the relativism of modern liberalism has already seriously damaged.”

We certainly saw a robust confidence in God’s timeless standard of goodness in a big way on that monumental day. It seems America is waking up. Hallelujah.

-Stephen & Janice Graham

Postscript to Sol’s Report on Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor Rally, “A Monumental Day”:
I Demand a Recount!

I am no expert at estimating the sizes of crowds, but some of the numbers I am hearing from newspeople and such are utterly ridiculous. Let me repeat: Steve and I got to the mall two hours early amidst a stream of people getting on the Metro ten stops out. Even then, the closest we could get to the Lincoln Memorial was about 100 yards from the World War II Memorial– that’s on the other end of the Reflecting Pool. I never even saw Glenn Beck or any of the speakers or performers in person. I only saw them on a JumboTron, the last one of six extending from the Lincoln Memorial, and the sound came about two seconds after the words were spoken. I repeat, there were so many people we could not get close enough to see anything in person and we were so far away the words we heard in no way matched up with what we were seeing. And compared to the entire crowd which extended all the way to the Washington Memorial and fanned way out across the path under the trees on the sides of the entire length of the Reflecting Pool, we felt we had primo seats, there were so very many more people behind us. A friend said she was stuck behind the Lincoln Memorial and didn’t get to see or hear a single thing. I would venture to say that most people there could not see anything; I don’t know how far people were able to hear. The thing was, we were all so eager and happy and grateful to be there, to be exercising our freedoms, and to be among such an overwhelming crowd of like-minded citizens.

I think the lies the newspeople are saying are making those of us who were there pretty angry. We came from all over the country at our own expense. How dishonest and hurtful to pretend that even a single one of us was not there. There were more than 80,000. More than 100,000. There had to be at least half a million. At least.

There were a reported 250,000 people at Martin Luther King’s famous speech. Take a look at one of those photos. Now look at photos of the crowd at the rally last Saturday. Scroll down the page to see the photos. You can make your own estimation of the size of the crowd according to these photos. The reflecting pool is 4/10 of a mile long, and you get the correct perspective in areial photos, but it looks shorter in some of the long shots. And it is 7/10 of a mile from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial.

People must be having terrible problems with Glenn Beck’s rally because they are out and out lying about the numbers. They don’t want America to know what a HUGE success it was. This is a mistake because a nice-sized chunk of America was actually THERE.

-Stephen & Janice Graham

Here is a time-lapse type video of the Restoring Honor Rally. It presents a 45-minute walk around the rally in a 6-minute video. It is actually thousands of individual pictures taken as she walked around, so you can pause the video anywhere and see the individual shots.

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