Restoring Honor rally

Restoring Honor
8-28-10
At the Lincoln Memorial

Crowds gathered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for Beck's event
Date	August 28, 2010
Participants	Sponsors: Glenn Beck Special Operations Warrior Foundation Promoters: FreedomWorks Americans For Prosperity Tea Party movement Fox News Channel 9·12 Project Main speakers: Glenn Beck Sarah Palin Alveda King
Website	GlennBeck.com/828

The Restoring Honor rally was held in Washington D.C. on August 28, 2010 and was promoted by conservative commentator Glenn Beck as a values-and-patriotism event to "restore honor in America" and to raise funds for the non-profit Special Operations Warrior Foundation. Billed as a "celebration of America's heroes and heritage," several veterans were honored. Along with Beck, speakers included former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and activist Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King Jr.

Beck received criticism from some civil rights leaders and media personalities for holding the event at the Lincoln Memorial, the location of Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic "I Have A Dream" speech on its 47th anniversary. Various media sources have provided attendance estimates ranging from 87,000 to 500,000.

At the event, Beck introduced a "Black-Robed Regiment" consisting of 240 clergy of various denominations.

Announcement

On November 21, 2009, at The Villages, Florida, Beck announced a rally to be held on August 28, 2010, in Washington, D.C., at the Lincoln Memorial. Beck originally intended the rally as political, and planned to promote his next book, The Plan, in which he would outline a century-long plan to "save the country". Over the 2009 Christmas holidays, however, Beck decided to publicize the event as being "non-political", and focus on raising awareness and funds for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation charity, because soliciting tax-exempt funds to pay for the rally through the charity restricts political activity. The charity receives funds collected above the amount needed to pay for the rally. Beck named his planned rally "Restoring Honor," saying its theme was "about honoring character" as well as honoring the sacrifices of U.S. Armed Services personnel.

Commentators noted that the planned date would be the forty-seventh anniversary of the Great March on Washington, at which, on August 28, 1963, King had accompanied an assemblage of 250,000 African-American Civil Rights Movement marchers from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. Beck said the timing and place for his event was coincidental but appropriate, with its theme agreeing with King's "message of focusing on the content of a person's character above all else." The rally would coincide with the Reclaim the Dream commemorative march planned by Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III for further down on the National Mall and adjacent to the Tidal Basin, at the future site of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, which created concern over the two groups possibly clashing.

Preparations

Organizers hoped as many as 300,000 would attend, with the National Park Service preparing for 100,000 and the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency preparing for 100,000-200,000. Former Governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., were as announced speakers. Expected attendees included Major League Baseball player Albert Pujols and MLB manager Tony La Russa, both of whom decided to attend after being assured by Beck that the rally would not be political. Beck broadcast his TV show from the Fox News Washington studio instead of New York in the week leading up to the event.

Pre-event criticism

Civil-rights movement related

Various civil rights leaders of the black community criticized Beck leading up to the event, under the auspice that picking the anniversary of King's speech was a "deliberate way to distort King's message." Rev. Carlton W. Veazey, minister of the National Baptist Convention and president of Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, held a press conference to announce his opposition to Beck's rally. After referring to Beck's comment from July 2009 that President Obama has "over and over again" exposed himself as "a guy who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture", Veazey stated:

What they are trying to do is divert the nation from the agenda of Martin Luther King to their agenda, and I think that's hijacking his legacy. What they have said all the time, have been trying to divide people, trying to exclude people. For him to lead a rally with that kind of attitude taints the whole affair.

Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network called Beck's event an "outright attempt to flip the imagery of Dr. King", while accusing Beck of circumventing and distorting King's legacy. Former civil rights leader Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia’s non-voting representative in Congress, opined that if Beck "has any respect for the unity across racial lines that August 28 represented, he would not hold what looks to be an all-white march that cannot possibly appeal across racial lines because of how he has modeled himself on radio and television."

Martin Luther King III, son of the late Dr. King, noted that as a "champion of free speech," his father "would be the first to say that those participating in Beck's rally have the right to express their views." However, King reminded Beck that his father's dream "rejected hateful rhetoric and all forms of bigotry or discrimination, whether directed at race, faith, nationality, sexual orientation or political beliefs." King also pointed out that his father "advocated compassion for the poor" and "wholeheartedly embraced the social gospel," noting that King's spiritual and intellectual mentors included social gospel advocates Walter Rauschenbusch and Howard Thurman. In a similar vein, Rev. Jim Wallis, of the Sojourners Community, admonished Beck under the rationale that "Martin Luther King Jr. was clearly a Social Justice Christian", noting that this is "the term and people that Beck constantly derides." After pointing out that Dr. King gave a December 18, 1963 speech entitled "Social Justice and the Emerging New Age", Wallis related Dr. King's 1961 warning to the AFL-CIO that "before the victory is won, some will be misunderstood, some will be called reds and communists merely because they believe in economic justice and the brotherhood of man." According to Wallis, if Beck were "an honest man", he would thus have to brand Dr, King a "communist, socialist, (or) Marxist" in the same way that he has branded those currently who are calling for "economic and social justice."

Media reaction and retort

Leading up to the event, Beck attracted criticism from various media personalities, comedians and writers. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann stated that he was worried about Glenn Beck's sanity after Beck said that he wanted to let "the spirit" speak through him at the rally. The day before the rally on the same network, Chris Matthews, of Hardball With Chris Matthews, used his ending segment to announce:

Can we imagine if King were physically here tomorrow, today, were he to reappear tomorrow on the very steps of the Lincoln Memorial? I have a nightmare that one day a right wing talk show host will come to this spot, his people`s lips dripping with the words interposition and nullification. Little right wing boys and little right wing girls joining hands and singing their praise for Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. I have a nightmare.

Political satirists such as Comedy Central's Jon Stewart dubbed the rally "Beckapalooza" and "I Have A Scheme", while Stephen Colbert facetiously announced that he was ready to follow Beck in his "silver freedom spaceship that runs on human tears." Journalist Jason Linkins was critical of what he deemed an "insanely melodramatic video promotion of the rally, replete with Goldline scamflackery", positing that the "Glenn Beck rally will be like (the) moon landing, Wright Brothers and Rosa Parks all rolled into one massive orgasm of American history." Author and activist Glenn Greenwald created a website and video entitled "Glenn Beck is Not Martin Luther King Jr.", which provided a petition featuring over 30,000 signatures the day before the rally, denouncing Beck. Meanwhile Media Matters for America compiled a large compilation of related clips and excerpts criticizing the event. A.J. Calhoun, who attended the original 1963 King rally, took offense at Beck's holding what he called a "rally of right-wingers, Tea Partiers, neoconservatives, fascists, the delusional and the truly wicked, (and) the New Kluxers disguised as patriots wanting something they cannot or will not identify openly."

Alexander Zaitchik, author of the 2010 unauthorized Beck biography Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance, also rejected Beck's embrace of the civil rights mantle, remarking:

This is the guy who has a whole history, going back in Top 40 radio, of using racist jokes, racist humor, making fun of police brutality, and with a very deep hatred for black social justice activists. Beck stood by his claim that Obama is a racist and has frequently referred to the president's initiatives – including health care – as reparations.

According to Zaitchik, the purpose of the rally was not primarily to honor heroes, but was the fulfillment of Beck's long-held dream of holding an event on the National Mall. In elaborating on his "cynical" hypothesis, Zaitchik stated "I view this through a prism of his business – he's in a very competitive media world with many distractions and this will enable him to be the topic of conversation."

Conservative columnist Ross Douthat opined that the symbolism of Beck holding his rally at the anniversary location of King's speech could actually be interpreted as positive: "one could also call the day a strange, unlooked-for fulfillment of King’s prophecies: 47 years after the “I Have a Dream” speech, here were tens of thousands of white conservatives roaring their approval of its author." However, Douthat also referred to the rally as an example of "identity politics" for "middle-class white Christians", and criticized Beck himself as "weepy" and "demagogic".

8-27 Kennedy Center event

On the evening of August 27, 2010, at an event not officially connected with the rally, Glenn Beck and David Barton co-hosted the "Divine Destiny" inspirational patriotic meeting at the 2,454-seat Concert Hall in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Beck and his wife rented the Hall and the audience consisted mostly of religious leaders to whom Beck and Barton had given tickets. The remaining tickets were offered to the general public for free. Many lined up all night inside the Kennedy Center to get the tickets which were released the morning of the 27th, and Beck made a surprise visit to the people in line. The event was emceed by Scott Baker, with Randy Forbes, founder of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, and Christian-Zionist pastor John Hagee offering prayers. Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Raul Gonzales lead the Pledge of Allegiance. An "all-star" gospel music choir performed various religious and patriotic selections (while several of its members performed praise dance), including a rendition of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Twila Paris sang “True North” and J. E. McKissic, co-pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church of Fort Worth, Texas, sang "God Bless America."

Beck was introduced by Pat Gray, his radio show co-host and close friend who baptized him in 1999 into Mormonism, and spoke briefly, remarking:

This building was [filled] by invitation [to] some of the best and bravest pastors, priests, rabbis, clerics in the country. Tomorrow, we will announce the beginning of the Black-Robed Regiment. And here is what’s amazing, here’s what’s amazing, they keep saying this is a political event, and it is not. It is not a political event at all. I'm convinced that not just this event, but this time period is going to be remembered as the beginning of the great awakening in America.

Other speakers included Barton, televangelist Gloria Copeland, Rabbi David Lapin, Dr. Patrick Lee of the Franciscan University of Steubenville, the Rev. Miles McPherson (formerly a San Diego Chargers football player), actor Chuck Norris, and the Rev. Dave Roever (a decorated Vietnam War veteran).

Several theologically conservative Evangelicals criticized Beck's Kennedy Center gathering, believing it doctrinally unsound for Christians and non-Christians to jointly participate in a prayer meeting. Brannon Howse, a professional organizer of Christian conferences, argued: "The Apostle Paul warns Christians against uniting with unbelievers in spiritual endeavors. While I applaud and agree with many of Glenn Beck's conservative and constitutional views, that does not give me or any other Bible-believing Christian justification to compromise Biblical truth by spiritually joining Beck." For their part, Beck and his radio side-kick Pat Gray are Mormons – whose faith, for example, Dr. Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Washington-based Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, in a 2007 interview on Bloomberg Television, said was a "fourth Abrahamic religion," after Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Land himself did not criticize the Kennedy Center event, but after Beck's 8-28 rally said: "This guy's on secular radio and television but his shows sound like you're listening to the Trinity Broadcasting Network, only [ironically] it's more orthodox and there's no appeal for money ... and today he sounded like Billy Graham."

8-28 Restoring Honor rally

Beck asked that attendees to refrain from bringing signs to the event. Speakers at the 8-28 rally included Sarah Palin, Alveda King, as well as Beck himself. Many in the crowd watched the proceedings on large television screens. On the edges of the Mall, vendors sold "Don't Tread on Me" flags, popular with Tea Party activists. Other activists distributed fliers urging voters to "dump Obama." However, the speeches themselves were restricted from overt partisanship as the tax-exempt co-sponsor of the event, the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, required all speakers to sign an agreement promising not to talk politics. Of note, all proceeds raised through Beck's promotion of the event were slated to go to SOWF, after the estimated $1 million costs for the rally itself were covered. Beck gave out "badge of merit" awards to three people for service in the categories of faith, hope, and charity.

Catherine McDonald, head of the Atlanta chapter of the 9.12 Project, opined that Beck was providing a forum for people who believe the nation has lost its sense of honor and focus, remarking "These are people who believe this country was founded on good principles and God."

Alveda King

Alveda King, a niece of the civil rights leader Dr. King, appealed to rally attendees to "focus not on elections or on political causes but on honor, on character ... not the color of our skin. Yes, I too have a dream. ... That America will pray and God will forgive us our sins and revive us our land." King also addressed the civil rights leaders and members of the black community who had been critical of the rally, responding that "My daddy, Rev. A.D. King, my granddaddy, Martin Luther King, Senior – we are a family of faith, hope and love. And that's why I'm here today. Glenn says there is one human race; I agree with him. We are not here to divide. I'm about unity. That's why I'm here, and I want to honor my uncle today."

Sarah Palin

Palin told the crowd that calls to transform the country were not enough; "We must restore America and restore her honor." Palin likened the rally participants to the civil rights activists from 1963, and said the same spirit that helped them overcome oppression, discrimination and violence would help this group as well. Palin's lines such as, "Look around you. You're not alone. You are Americans! You have the same steel spine and moral courage of Washington and Lincoln and Martin Luther King. It is in you. It will sustain you as it sustained them," were greeted by the crowd's standing ovations and chants of "U!–S!–A!"

Glenn Beck

Beck opened his remarks by decreeing that "Something beyond imagination is happening. America today begins to turn back to God." He later said,

Let's be honest. If you look at history, America has been both terribly good and terribly bad. It has been both, but to concentrate on the bad instead of learning from the bad and repairing the bad and then looking to the good that is still out in front of us within our reach— We have a choice today. We can either let those scars crush us or redeem us. We must extend to those we disagree with— But, you are honest and have integrity! There were people on stage that not only took a great personal risk but also, one in particular, organized for our president – lead a prayer breakfast – is a Democrat. You think the media would tell you that "This was only a bunch of tea partiers." No, that person stood on the...stage because of honor. And there is a lot we can disagree on but our values and our principles can unite us. We must discover them again. Recognize your place to the creator. Realize that he is our king. He is the one who guides and directs our life and protects us. I ask, not only if you would pray on your knees, but pray on your knees but with your door open for your children to see.

Beck, in referring to Dr. King, noted that he had spent the night before in the same Washington hotel where King had put the finishing touches on his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Additional features

The event included: the songs “Heaven Was Needing A Hero” and “America, the Beautiful,” sung by Jo Dee Messina; the introduction of a group selected from among the charter member's of the Black-Robed Regiment; the Pledge of Allegiance, led by a Boy Scout, the National Anthem, sung a cappella; pastors' offerings of invocation (uncredited) and benediction (the Reverend Dave Roever); and presentation of the program's honors &ndash, as follows.

Badges of Merit presentation				Comment
To armed services veterans
Badge of Merit purple heart	Marcus Luttrell Navy SEAL, Afganistan	presented by Sarah Palin		Founder Lone Survivor Foundation
	James "Eddie" Wright Marine Sergeant, Iraq			Co-founder Operation Grateful Nation
	Thomas Henry "Tom" Kirk, Jr. Air Force squadron commander, Vietnam			Former POW in Hanoi (cellmate of John McCain)
Civilian
For faith	Charles Lewis "C. L." Jackson	presented by	Negiel Bigpond	Pastor since 1960s at Houston's Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist
For hope	Albert Pujols		Tony La Russa	Founder Pujols Family Foundation
For charity	Jon Huntsman, Sr.		Raul A. Gonzalez	Proxy acceptor: Emma Houston (treated, Huntsman Cancer Institute)

Crowd size

A view of the crowd looking towards the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

The number of people in attendance is a "hotly contested" issue. CBS News commissioned a crowd size estimate with aerial pictures by the company AirPhotosLive.com. The company estimated that 87,000 people attended the rally, with a margin of error of 9,000, meaning that "between 78,000 and 96,000 people attended the rally". AirPhotosLive.com based its estimation on photos taken at noon which is when they thought the rally was at its peak.

However, according to a Politico article, NBC News estimated a much larger crowd of 500,000 people, and NBC Nightly News host Lester Holt said "tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands". NBC reporter Domenico Montanaro wrote on his Twitter account that a Parks Service official at the top of the Memorial unofficially estimated 300,000-325,000. MSNBC estimated "tens of thousands who stretched from the marble steps of the Lincoln Memorial to the grass of the Washington Monument," and MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough repeatedly said "500,000" during his August 30th Morning Joe show. ABC News estimated "hundreds of thousands of people from around the country". The New York Times called it "enormous", and Fox News wrote about "huge crowds" and "thousands in attendance returned home carrying a message of making America better".

The New York Post reported "an overflow crowd of 300,000 people". According to The Washington Post, "The crowd stretch[ed] densely back to the World War II Memorial, spilling onto the hill at the Washington Monument and onto the fields north and south of the reflecting pool." A preliminary Associated Press article put the total at "tens of thousands".

Beck mocked the media's reporting of attendance at the rally, saying, "I have just gotten word from the media that there are over a thousand people here today." He continued, "The reflecting pool holds about 200,000 people. This field back here holds about 250–300,000 people. They are not only full here, they're full in that field, they're full behind me, and they are now across the street approaching the Washington Monument!" He later said he "heard the crowd was between 300,000 and 500,000...if that's coming from the media, God only knows how many." When a helicopter flew over the rally while he was speaking, Beck remarked, "It must be a big crowd, because they violated the airspace to get a shot of it." Beck's website later posted two aerial photographs of the event, showing the crowd extending well towards the World War II Memorial and substantial crowds on the sides.

In an interview recorded after the rally by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace — aired the day after on Fox News Sunday — Beck said, "I can tell you that it was in the hundreds of thousands...Let's be on the low end, 300,000, and maybe as high as 650,000."

Palin lamented about an AP story that put the crowd at only "tens of thousands" and when asked by a Politico reporter about whether she thinks there were more than 100,000, she replied, "Oh yeah."

Aftermath and response

Hours after the rally finished, Martin Luther King Jr.'s personal attorney and speechwriter, Clarence B. Jones, said he believes King would not have been offended by Beck's rally but "pleased and honored". Jones — now a visiting professor at Stanford University — said the Beck rally seemed to be tasteful and did not appear to distort King's message. James Freeman, in an op-ed for the The Wall Street Journal, wrote positively about the rally, remarking that "the day was largely devoted to expressions of gratitude for the sacrifices of U.S. soldiers, for great men of American history like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and for God." After noting how the crowd refused to boo during the closing prayer upon the mention of President Obama, Freeman theorized that "between Saturday's crowd in Washington and the tea partiers agitating for limited government, we may be witnessing the rebuilding of the Reagan coalition, the fusion of religious and economic conservatives."

Liberal radio host Bill Press, who attended the rally personally, criticized the "Christian religious fervor" of the event, remarking that at one point he expected Beck "to part the Reflecting Pool and walk across it." In discussing the setting among the crowd, Press stated that it was "a strange combination of political rally and religious revival", which left him surrounded by the "old, white, and angry." Eric Deggans, media critic for the St. Petersburg Times, hypothesized that with the rally, Beck had created a blueprint for "ultra-conservative" Tea Party activists to "look more mainstream to independent voters" before the November 2010 midterm elections.

See also

• Taxpayer March on Washington

External links

Official

• Restoring Honor Rally Website
• Restoring Honor FAQ for Media
• Fan Page at Facebook
• Video Channel at Youtube

Images

• Restoring Honor rally - moving slideshow by Flickr
• Glenn Beck Rally has People Seeing Red - clickable photos by NPR
• Glenn Beck 'Restoring Honor' Rally Draws Thousands - slideshow by The Washington Post
• Restoring Honor Rally: The Most Ridiculous Messages - slideshow by The Huffington Post