Salt and Pepper

Posted at August 30, 2010

I have to admit the “Restore Honour” rally that Glenn Beck organized last Saturday at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial was impressive. I believe the estimates are that around 500,000 were in attendance. There was no small bit of controversy surrounding the event, especially since it coincided with the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s historic “I have a Dream” speech at that very same location, 47 years earlier. One thing that did strike me, however, was that the crowd was extremely white. Not too far away, another rally was being held. This one organized by Reverend Al. Sharpton. The news reports covering that event showed a crowd that was overwhelmingly black. So my question is this, what did these exercises really prove after all? It seems to me that the contrast in color proves that the U.S. is still a highly divided country. Is there really any honour in that? So for my very first post in my new blog I want to float this idea. And that is, that no matter how much you talk about honour and how many times you mention God, or Jesus, in a speech, it doesn’t detract from the true message that is sent when 500,000 gather who are 90% white, while a competing crowd gathers nearby who are more than 90% black (I am guessing at the percentages, but from what I could see, I doubt that I am too far off the mark). It is the same message that was sent during my high school basketball games back in the 70′s in Shallotte, North Carolina, when all the blacks sat on one side of the gymnasium and all the whites on the other side. It is the same message that is sent in virtually every church on every Sunday morning across the nation, where people of like color gather to worship a color-blind God. There is no conciliation or reconciliation in that message. It is one of division and it is one of racial tension… the exact opposite of what Dr. King was trying to envoke with his memorable and historic speech. I got to give it to Beck. He was surprisingly nice during the event and received glowing marks from even some of his detractors, but the message sent by the multitudes that clamoured after his and Sarah Palin’s every word, is just more of the same. Honor will be restored in “America” when folks who look the same and think the same find it in themselves to at least try to understand those who look and think differently. Rather than restoring honour, to me it seems that Beck accomplished more along the lines of rubbing condiments into old wounds.