I Have A Dream

[filkertom]

Forty-seven years ago today, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered one of the most famous speeches in American history.

I understand some privileged white guy is going to attempt to co-opt the time and place for his own purposes.

(Back in June, he said, "It was not my intention to select 8-28 because of the Martin Luther King tie. It is the day he made that speech. I had no idea until I announced it." Ergo, Glenn Beck is a lying sack of shit.)

There are reactions dramatic and hilarious across the political spectrum, but I have my own thought.

Glenn Beck has described himself as a rodeo clown. The job of a rodeo clown is to distract the nasty, dangerous beast that has caused injury and has not yet been corralled. This is done so that others may help the fallen.

In this case, the nasty, dangerous beast is the Tea Party. But this rodeo clown isn't trying to distract it. He's trying to focus it. He's trying to aim it.

Gonna be an interesting day.

Comments

[mythochromos]

"It was not my intention to select 8-28 because of the Martin Luther King tie. It is the day he made that speech."

I initially misread the meaning of this. It reminded me of Cordelia from Buffy saying, "I don't like expensive things because they're expensive. I like them because they cost more." >.>

[tantra-cat.livejournal.com]

I don't even know what to say about this. It makes me sick and sad. And MLK's niece is going to be there to spread the message of love...and hatred of gays and women who choose abortion.

[tcgtrf.livejournal.com]

Here's her article about her intent. I challenge you to find any hate in it"

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/0826/Glenn-Beck-8-28-rally-It-s-a-matter-of-honor

Tom T.

[smparadox.livejournal.com]

Actually, the nasty dangerous beast that this particular Rodeo Clown is trying to distract is America, the America that woke up temporarily and elected Obama. The injured matador (a job dedicated to making the torture and slaughter of a magnificent animal) that he is trying to protect is the Neocon power bloc that selected George Bush and tried to put Sarah Palin into office. So your analogy works better than yo realized...

[ipslore.livejournal.com]

And then it falls down again, because US rodeos don't have matadors.

[urban-terrorist.livejournal.com]

Tom,

You shouldn't call Glen Beck a 'lying sack of shit', you are insulting lying sacks of shit worldwide who have better morals than he does :)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I have to confess, I take a bit of pride in knowing that my day won't be too personally interesting... because I live along the Green Line metro.

Although no matter what happens Beck is going to claim a great victory and a huge crowd, I rather look forward to looking at the local news photos and seeing how the crowd looks - esp. when compared to photos of the Inauguration, the March for Women's Rights, and other happenings. I'm fully expecting there to be a pretty limp turnout in comparison to those.

[judifilksign.livejournal.com]

Tom, I actually believe that Glen Beck didn't realize that 8/28 was the anniversary of Dr. King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

You see, for him to have deliberately chosen the date means that he would have had to accurately studied history, and paid attention to black history, a subject on which Beck has shown repeated contempt and blatant ignorance.

I bet he's pleased with the coincidence, though, because that means the media may pay more attention to his partisan, divisive event as a result.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

You have a good point, well put.

[his-spiffyness.livejournal.com]

One progressive site aptly referred to the event as the Million Moron March.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

huh? Glenn Beck's doing something stupid again? Is this really important? Or news?

Yeah, I can see why allowing someone like that to be within two blocks of the Lincoln Memorial so soon after the Bush Presidency might be considered distasteful, and a slap in the face to the millions who lost their jobs, can't marry their loved ones, etc., but what can ya do?

This is America. We have a First Amendment. American nazis are allowed to parade in Jewish neighborhoods. Klansmen can have parades in Selma. And Glen Beck can have a parade in America's Capital. It's the same thing, really. Members of noxious organizations go out of their way to show off their existence in places that represent everything they hate and despise and that they've sought unsuccessfully to destroy for generations. And then they go away, and the places and the values they stand for remain.

The Jewish People outlasted the Third Reich. Civil Rights outlasted the Klan. American freedom will outlast Glenn Beck, and thrive, even, no matter how hard he tries to stomp it down.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

You made me tear up.

Thank you. (sniffle)

[gorgeousgary]

I'm glad all the errands I have to run today are well out in the MD suburbs of DC (and nowhere near a Metro line). I don't need the increase in blood pressure that would come from passing anyone bound to or from Beck's rally.

As it is, heading into the Metro yesterday I passed two folks who were clearly here for the rally. I just barely kept the mutter of "Ah, the idiots are arriving" inaudible over the usual street noise.

[partiallyclips.livejournal.com]

That's all I have to say about that.

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

Accurate observation, Rob.

[ginkage.livejournal.com]

I can only hope that most of the denizens of my fair hometown keep a wide berth from the area. As much fun as it is to play with the tourists, this would not be a good time to do so.

[guruwench.livejournal.com]

While I know certain quotes from Dr. King's famous speech, until now I had never sat down to watch his speech in its entirety. Contemporary US history was never on the curriculum in my school days, so it's an area I've missed out on in some ways.

I just sat and watched a video of the speech, all 17 and some minutes of it, and I was in tears by the end. The US lost a great person when he was assassinated, and I'm sorry to see that Dr. King's dream still has so far to go (from an outsider's perspective, at least). Canada isn't so different in a lot of ways, either - we may not have had official slavery, but we're not a fully equal society either, and I know we have our own racism issues.

Oh, and this Glenn Beck person? I think William Shakespeare said it best - "...it is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, in the short term, the turnout signifies a bit more than nothing.

[ravenclaw-eric.livejournal.com]

So just because King made a speech on this day, nobody else is allowed to?

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

What's got under some people's skin is not just that Beck is giving a speech and rally on this particular day. It's that he's giving it on this particular day, in the particular place where the earlier speech was given, and with the stated goal of "reclaiming" the movement wherein the earlier speech originated.

The First Amendment guarantees Beck the right to make the speech, and the right of his followers to peaceably assemble to hear it in any location. It also grants the same rights to other groups, such as the one led by Rev. Al Sharpton staging a counter-rally nearby today. Personally, I'm looking forward to the coverage of both.

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

The thing is, he seems to be waking up the Left. The Right are chanting along, but the Left finally seems to be saying, "Okay, this stuff has gone far enough," which they hadn't been in the last election cycle. I'm not sure which side Glenn Beck is truly on.

[stormgren.livejournal.com]

He's not smart enough to be an agent provocateur.

[mythdude.livejournal.com]

What I don't think people understand is that it's not about Freedom of Speech. I love Freedom of Speech and no one, Left or Right, is wanting to take that away from anyone. Yet what I don't think people understand is to my perspective Glenn Beck is shouting the philosophical equivalent of "2+2=5" and he is successful at convincing people this is true!

I'm really worried that Glenn Beck will use this surge in popularity to try to gain a political office somewhere, and THEN he will become something truly terrifying.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

More so than Sharron Angle, Rand Paul, Ken Buck, Michelle Bachmann, Joe Miller, Marco Rubio and Sarah Palin, none of whom show any signs of being any smarter or quieter or more moderate than Beck, and all of whom (maybe not Palin this year) are running for statewide political offices RIGHT NOW?

[tcgtrf.livejournal.com]

What amazes me, really, is that the same people who told me that it was all right for the Muslim community center/mosque to be built near the 9/11 site (even though many say that that's "disrespectful") are objecting to a conservative speech being made on the date and site of MLK's speech on the grounds that it's "disrespectful."

Tom T

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

What amazes me, really, is that the same people who are cheering on Glenn Beck at the Lincoln Memorial (even though many say that that's "disrespectful") are objecting to that community center in downtown Manhattan on the grounds that it's "disrespectful."

(See my comment above, for my take. I pretty much believe they're equivalent and both entitled to go forward for the same reasons).

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Oh, look at the T-shirts they're wearing. How festive!

http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/let_freedumb_ring/

[his-spiffyness.livejournal.com]

Earlier today I found a blogger that had the most apt quote for this situation:

"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." ~Karl Marx

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Watched 5 minutes of the thing while looking for an MST3K disc to put in.

1) All the speakers kept blabbling about wanting "unity" - and to prove it, they mentioned Their Lord And Savior Jesus Christ about 20 times in that 5 minutes. Way to unify with Jews, atheists, agnostics, the current favorite punching-bags of the right (Muslims)...

2) While watching this event, I imagined myself saying to a friend, "I'll give you $100 for every black person you find in that crowd." In that 5 minutes, camera panning over the hundreds of faithful, I wound up owing that imaginary person $200.

3) When Beck announced Malvina King, I groaned. Talk about xenogenesis...This niece of MLK is anti-choice, anti-abortion, and homophobic -- as anyone who's been politically aware for the last 15 years or so would know. Of course TPers, with all the political savvy of a tiger prawn, will only say "Wow! A descendent of the Great Man!" and "All right! A real live black person! That proves we're not racist, so there!"

4) Someone came down good and hard on the faithful: No Signs. The only thing I saw in the air was American flags, and one "Don't Tread On Me" banner. A wee bit touchy about their public image, perhaps.

5) Tor make bundt cake! (Oh, that was the MST3K.)

[his-spiffyness.livejournal.com]

One theory (http://www.alternet.org/story/148005/glenn_beck%27s_messiah_complex) put forth about this rally was this was more about firmly welding the Tea Party movement to the faltering Religious Right than anything else. That's why there's all the talk about God, miracles, and faith.

[secoia.livejournal.com]

I got an email from my stepmother letting me know that she and my father were on their way to DC for this. *facepalm*

I wondered for a while what the otherwise brilliant man is THINKING, even if he has become more conservative the last few years.

But people don't believe things because they're true or because they make sense, they believe things because they WANT to believe them. The last 10 years have changed so much about the way we live, I'm still trying to adjust to it (me and a lot of other people).

It probably seems a lot stranger and more threatening to retired folks who don't HAVE much earning ability. I don't blame them for wishing things would go back to the way they "used to be," or "should be." I just don't think Glenn Beck is going to accomplish it for them.

[lariss.livejournal.com]

Statistically, the TP is "slightly" more male, white, educated, and upper-middle class than the American average.

[tcgtrf.livejournal.com]

NBC News put the crowd size at 300,000.

Tom T.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't 300,000 people have packed the Mall like sardines? That crowd I saw -- lots around the podium of course, but a bit more scattery along the Reflecting Pool -- looked more like single-digit thousands.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

What spikes my blood pressure highest is that gauzy B&W ad for the rally highlighting various great achievements of this country -- every single one of which was vehemently opposed at the time *by* *conservatives*.

stevemb & I were otherwise occupied at the Maryland Renaissance Festival's (http://www.example.com/) opening day. Even in faux 1543, we were parsecs closer to reality than any teabagger.

Edited for HTML fail.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Obviously by the same ad company that made one "Yes On 8" ad showing the "traditional families" they were trying to protect by outlawing same-sex marriage -- and every single fraggin' example of "traditional marriage" displayed was a multi-racial family (smiling Black/Hispanic, Black/White or Hispanic/Asian heteros with their kids). You know, the previous generation's Threat To Traditional Marriage, that these bastards' spiritual ancestors fought tooth and nail to prevent?

(curls up to re-read Judge Vaughn Wilson's ruling again with a cup of cocoa)

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Is there a voter bloc they haven't alienated, yet?

[tcgtrf.livejournal.com]

My prediction, Lumpy, is that most of the TP-backed candidates will win in the November elections. It would be very hard to do that if they had, indeed, alienated all of the voting blocs.

Watch Kentucky and Nevada and see what happens. It is disappointing to me that the TP-candidates still have to run under the Republican banner, but with any luck, that will no longer be true in five years or so.

Tom

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

So, did anyone else notice that they used Appalachian Spring in their musical selections?

Way to go! A gay Jewish socialist from Brooklyn!