Glenn Beck And Sarah Palin Hold Rally To 'Restore Honor'

What was the point of today's Glenn Beck/Sarah Palin rally in which tens of thousands of Tea Party supporters swarmed the Lincoln Memorial in DC? No one, including Palin or Beck, seemed to really know. There was lots of talk about “restoring honor” but what that means exactly is still unclear.

The New York Times reports on the event:

“For too long, this country has wandered in darkness,” Mr. Beck said Saturday. “This country has spent far too long worrying about scars and thinking about scars and concentrating on scars. Today, we are going to concentrate on the good things in America, the things that we have accomplished, and the things that we can do tomorrow.”

Mr. Beck was followed on stage by Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate and former Alaska governor, who said she was asked, in keeping with the theme of the day, not to focus on politics but to speak as the mother of a soldier.

CBS News has a rundown of Palin's speech at the rally.

"You have the same steel spine and the moral courage of Washington and Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr.," Palin added. She said it was "humbling" to be with the "patriots" who had gathered for the rally, people who understand "to never retreat."

Palin said Americans will always be successful because they are guided by grace. "We will always come through, we will never give up and we shall endure," the former Alaska governor said as a "U-S-A" chant broke out.

There's been much commotion about Beck's decision to hold the rally on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech. Beck seemingly tried to deflect some of that backlash by inviting King's niece, Alveda King, to speak at the event. You may recall that she was also invited by NOM to speak at their Atlanta tour stop.

Al Sharpton led a counter protest event close nearby. Sharpton told the crowd: "Don't let anyone tell you that they have the right to take their country back. It's our country, too...They may have the mall, but we have the message. They may have the platform, but we have the dream."

A clip of Beck at the rally and Palin's full speech, AFTER THE JUMP.

Watch: Alveda King Speaks At NOM Event In Atlanta

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s niece, Dr. Alveda King, spoke in front of another lowly attended NOM event during the Atlanta stop of their Hate-a-Palooza "Summer for Marriage Tour."

Even with an ever-growing population in the US and all over the world, King told the small crowd that humans could face extinction if gays and lesbians were allowed to marry.

Said King:

"I come from a long line of Christian soldiers...we know that people of virtually every faith and culture agree that marriage is a union between a man and woman...marriage of a man and a woman remains the guard against human extinction."

Marriage equality supporters once again greatly outnumbered those of NOM's attendees - only 30 bigots showed up this time. By contrast, about 300 people supporting marriage equality counter-protested the event. One local NOM supporter said he was "so disappointed more people didn’t show up.”

NOM has faced low attendance at their rallies since the start of their tour, but, according to the GA Voice, Brian Brown is now saying that bigots are staying away because they feel intimated by the harassment they've faced from marriage equality supporters. As we've seen before, apparently blocking someone's view is what they consider harassment. Guess they're still painting themselves as victims.

Watch King's speech as well as a follow-up interview, AFTER THE JUMP.

MLK: Thought for a January Day

"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time — the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts… Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."
— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at acceptance of 1964 Nobel Peace Prize.

Photos: shot at Battery Park, Manhattan, January 12, 2007.

Remembering...
Coretta Scott King is Dead at 78 [tr]