Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/15600
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 – Daily News – 5B Competing rallies in Washington highlight nation's divisions By ERIKA BOLSTAD and JAMES ROSEN McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) WASHINGTON — Standing on the hallowed ground of the nation's civil rights icons, the leading conservative luminaries of the tea party movement on Saturday called on tens of thou- sands of people gathered on the National Mall to turn to the val- ues of the founding fathers to restore what they say is a deficit of honor in America. Four miles away, a smaller but no less spirited crowd filled a high school football stadium and the sidewalks around it, then marched through Washington's streets, angrily protesting that the first rally had usurped the memory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the 47th anniversary of King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. The two sides came together briefly as the marchers — nearly all of them black — passed near the Lincoln Memorial, where tens of thousands, if not hun- dreds of thousands, of people — almost all of them white — had streamed to hear Fox News per- sonality Glenn Beck and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally. One marcher hoisted a white sign with black letters reading: "Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are racists," and there was verbal sparring. But there were no physical confrontations and no arrests as police on horseback and motorcycles, along with U.S. Park Protective Service agents in navy blue SUVs, kept the two groups apart. Conscious of the stigma of some of the anti-Obama imagery of tea party rallies during the health care debate this spring, Beck urged attendees not to bring signs. There was still plen- ty of self expression, however. The Stars and Stripes and the tea party standard, the yellow 'Don't Tread on Me' flag, all waved above the crowd. Plenty of people wore T-shirts or stick- ers with pithy sayings such as "I can see November from my house, too." Wearing "Proud to Be Amer- ican!" shirts, the Beck boosters hoisted American flags and event uncomfortable. "I think it takes away from what the focus of today should be," said Leah Allen, 17, a Howard University freshman who attended the rally out of curiosity with her friend, Lind- sey Parker, 18, a political sci- ence major. No crowd estimates for either demonstration were available, though it was clear the Beck rally was much larger. People lined both sides of the reflecting pool facing the Lincoln Memor- ial for the Beck rally. Hotels throughout the Washington, D.C., region were sold out, and Metro, the Washington-area sub- way system, put out an advisory Saturday morning warning of crowded conditions on all lines. It was so crowded that many people had a limited view and couldn't hear the event well. At one point, people chanted "loud- er, louder, louder" as Beck spoke, and Beck complied. Maria Conto, 47, of Albany, MCT photo Thousands of Tea Party activists gather for a "Restoring America" rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Saturday. chanted: "USA, USA!" as the marchers passed the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Department building. The marchers waved photos of King at them and chanted: "MLK, MLK!" "The First Amendment is a wonderful thing," John Green, a Beck rally attendee who works for a furniture leasing firm in Akron, Ohio, said as the King marchers passed him. Beck's "Restoring Honor" event had the air of a sprawling church picnic on a steamy late- summer day — part somber ser- mon and part rally. Beck repeatedly alluded to King and Abraham Lincoln, and at one point read excerpts fro the Gettysburg Address. He said he believes the rally marks the day that America will begin "to turn back to God." "For too long, this country has wandered in darkness and we have wandered in darkness in periods from the beginning," Beck said. "We have had moments of brilliance and moments of darkness. But this country has spent far too long worried about scars and thinking about the scars and concentrat- ing on the scars." "Today," Beck said, "we are going to concentrate on the good things in America, the things we have accomplished and the things we can do tomorrow." At Dunbar High School in northeast Washington, the Rev. Al Sharpton sounded a different theme as the throng there pre- pared to march across the capi- tal's center city to the site of a planned memorial for King not far from the Lincoln Memorial. "They want to disgrace this day!" Sharpton said. "We ain't giving them this day! This is our day!" Sharpton said it didn't matter that Beck and Palin spoke from the very spot where King addressed the March on Wash- ington in 1963. "We can dream anywhere we are!" Sharpton said. "We can dream from hospital beds! We can dream from jail cells! We don't need to stand on the spot!" Among Beck's featured speakers was King's niece, Alve- da King, whose presence in part prompted the question: Who exactly owns the legacy of the country's civil rights pioneers? Palin, whose address to the rally was its most overtly politi- cal moment, suggested that those attending the event have "the same steel spine and the moral courage of Washington and Lincoln and Martin Luther King." "It is in you," she said. "It will sustain you as it sustained them." That sentiment made some of the rare blacks who attended the N.Y., said she and her 11-year- old son, Anton, were enjoying themselves, despite the difficulty in hearing and seeing. They'd staked out a spot on a beach towel, in a place where they could enjoy a crowd of like- minded people. "I like the idea that it isn't a straight-ahead political thing, and it's about honoring our heroes," Conto said. There was no disputing, how- ever, that the two rallies showed the country's political divisions more than its unity. As the marchers moved down Sixth Street through Washington's Chinatown, onlookers cheered them from apartment balconies in the Wah Luck House com- plex, its name displayed in Chi- nese characters. Lawrence Hillman, who'd come from Detroit on a bus with other members of the Central United Methodist Church for the Sharpton-led march, barely con- tained his anger at the Beck rally. "Beck's doing what he's doing for a publicity stunt," Hill- man said. "It's absolutely disre- spectful. Why would you mimic a great man who was all about unity? Glenn Beck is not about unity. It's a slap in the face." Glenn Beck says not to look for 2012 Beck-Palin ticket By Michael A. Memoli Tribune Washington Bureau (MCT) WASHINGTON — Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin had a message to deliver that the nation was at a dire crossroads, and thousands showed up Saturday at the National Mall to receive it. But Sunday, Beck reiterated that the pair would not join forces in 2012, leading a national ticket for president and vice president. "Not a chance," Beck said in an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," on the same network that broadcasts the radio and TV host's daily show. "I have no desire to be president of the United States. Zero desire. I don't think that I would be electable." He added: "And there are far too many people that are far smarter than me to be president." Palin, whose appear- ance on the National Mall came nearly two years to the day after Beck she was introduced as John McCain's running mate, told Politico in a brief interview that she and Beck "like what we're doing now." Howeve r , Palin, who resigned after two years as Alaska's gov- ernor, is widely pre- sumed to have national political ambitions. Estimates of the crowd size at Saturday's "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial vary. A CBS News count based on aerial photog- raphy pegged atten- dance at 87,000. Organizers said it was closer to 500,000, and Rep. Michele Bach- mann, R-Minn., chair- woman of the congres- sional Tea Party Cau- cus, argued it approached 1 million. Beck stirred contro- versy with his choice of date and location for the rally, which coincided with the anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have Dream" speech at the a Lincoln Memorial. Beck called it a coincidence and "divine provi- dence." He continued to downplay the notion that Saturday's demon- stration had political intent. Still, he said a mass gathering like that spoke to the fact that Americans were con- cerned over the direc- tion of the nation. "You don't get that many people to come to Washington and stand there and have that kind of a moment without signs, without any polit- ical messages, for no reason," he said in the Fox interview. That's "the first message" that politicians should get, he said. "People aren't really happy with things." Beck also said he regretted but would not retract his controversial statement from 2009 saying Obama had "a deep-seated hatred for white people." "It was poorly said. I have a big fat mouth sometimes and I say things," he said, "and that's just not the way people should behave. And it was not accu- rate." Tehama County’s Personal/Professional Service Directory Bankruptcy Attorney Local Bankruptcy Attorney Jocelyn C. Olander 530-824-0288 Free Consultation Payment Plans Available Web: www.jcoattyatlaw.com email: mail@jcoatty atlaw.com A federally qualified Debt Relief Agency under 11 U.S.C. 101(12(A)) Clock Repair 530-736-7079 Grandpa’s Clocks Jim Paul 20910 Pebblestone Dr. Red Bluff Shelf & 31 Day Clocks Repaired Call for appt. Member NAWCC Cuckoo Clocks, Anniversary, Wall, Clock Repair AT YOUR SERVICE! $ 9900 3 month Advertisement If this was your Service Directory ad customers would be reading it right now!! Call us at 527-2151 For more information James W. Tysinger, Jr. M.D. Eye Physician & Surgeon Fellow American Academy of Ophtalmology We accept Medical, Medicare & most Insurances Office Hours: Mon-Thurs 8am-4:30pm Fri & Sat 8am-12 noon For Emergencies, After Hours, Week-ends, Call 530-567-5001 345 Hickory St. Red Bluff Tel: (530) 529-4733 Fax: (530) 529-1114 Orthotic Therapy is our Specialty, also treating all aspects of the feet including Bunions, Hammertoes and Plantar Fasciitis with conservative and surgical intervention. We offer comprehensive skin care products from; FOOT AND ANKLE SPECIALIST 2530 Sr Mary Columba Dr Red Bluff (530) 527-7584 commitment Runs every Tuesday - Thursday - Saturday Eye Physician Financial Services BANKRUPTCY Free information $50/mo. + court fee MICHAEL O. HAYS Attorney at Law 1-800-387-9299 Feet Health CREAMS, SALTS, MOISTURIZERS, GIFT SETS www.aerosilknatural.com SPA SKIN CARE PRODUCTS ALL NATURAL INGREDIENTS