King rally is forced to share D.C. stage with conservatives
Members of the People’s Organization for Progress and other residents traveled to Washington, D.C., last weekend to help “Reclaim the Dream” on the 47th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech.
For the thousands of people who participated in Saturday’s activities, which were organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, they were not the only ones in the nation’s capital. “Restoring Honor,” which was put together by conservative talk-radio host and Fox News pundit Glenn Beck, drew approximately 100,000 people.
The differences in locations between the two events was unavoidably significant. The Sharpton rally organizers had their event in the football stadium of Dunbar High School. Meanwhile, Beck and his followers had theirs at the Lincoln Memorial on the Washington Mall — where King and the civil rights movement reached the apex of their crusade with the 1963 speech.
The symbolism of a conservative movement some people would call the antithesis of King’s message having their event on the same day and in the same location as King’s speech was not lost on Hamm.
“I find it extremely disingenuous the same crowds who were screaming it’s insensitive for the Muslims to build a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero in New York don’t also think it is insensitive for Glenn Beck to have held that rally and march on the anniversary of Dr. King’s march and speech,” said Hamm.
“I’m not so sure that it’s a matter of ‘reclaiming the dream’ because Dr. King‘s dream was the American dream,” Hamm continued. “It was a dream for everyone in America, and I think everyone — right, left and middle — has to work on the dream.
Hamm said “Reclaim the Dream,” with a march that ended at the King Memorial, was “very impressive“ and represented a “good united front effort” from all the major groups, such as NAACP and the Urban League.
For the thousands of people who participated in Saturday’s activities, which were organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, they were not the only ones in the nation’s capital. “Restoring Honor,” which was put together by conservative talk-radio host and Fox News pundit Glenn Beck, drew approximately 100,000 people.
The differences in locations between the two events was unavoidably significant. The Sharpton rally organizers had their event in the football stadium of Dunbar High School. Meanwhile, Beck and his followers had theirs at the Lincoln Memorial on the Washington Mall — where King and the civil rights movement reached the apex of their crusade with the 1963 speech.
The symbolism of a conservative movement some people would call the antithesis of King’s message having their event on the same day and in the same location as King’s speech was not lost on Hamm.
“I find it extremely disingenuous the same crowds who were screaming it’s insensitive for the Muslims to build a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero in New York don’t also think it is insensitive for Glenn Beck to have held that rally and march on the anniversary of Dr. King’s march and speech,” said Hamm.
“I’m not so sure that it’s a matter of ‘reclaiming the dream’ because Dr. King‘s dream was the American dream,” Hamm continued. “It was a dream for everyone in America, and I think everyone — right, left and middle — has to work on the dream.
Hamm said “Reclaim the Dream,” with a march that ended at the King Memorial, was “very impressive“ and represented a “good united front effort” from all the major groups, such as NAACP and the Urban League.
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Comment by Jim Gerrish on September 2, 2010 at 5:23am -
The world came close to seeing a Miracle on 8/28/10. But the historic time was not yet right because the Miracle did not take place.
Glenn Beck held a gathering of conservatives on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The title of the gathering was "Restoring Honor."
Rev. Al Sharpton held a Civil Rights march of liberals nearby at the future site of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, to commemorate the 47th anniversary of the historic Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Both groups were gathered peacefully, but separately. They were held apart because the two leaders of the groups were not ready for the historic moment prophesied by Martin Luther King, Jr. Neither of them believed that the Dream could come true that day. If they had, they would have witnessed a true Miracle; that conservatives and liberals are all human beings, and human beings can put aside their differences, if only for a day, and instead of passing one another, they could have come together for an historic reconciliation of biblical proportions. But they did not. Each clung to his own distrust of the "other side," and neither recognized even for a moment that the "other side" was the "same side."
Rev. Al Sharpton was, no doubt, guided by his mistrust of conservatives, linking the idea of conservatism with the white race of people with whom he has to share this country and with whom he has struggled over Civil and Equal Rights issues since the 1960's.
Glenn Beck was, no doubt, guided by his distrust of liberals, linking their ideas with socialism=communism=something to be feared.
So each group of people listened to its leaders, nodded their heads in agreement, and went back home, never realizing that they could have participated in a true Miracle; a Dream come True. If only their leaders had led them together instead of keeping them apart! Can you imagine the shock and awe this would have inspired? It would have been the culmination of that 47 year old dream.
But they couldn't see what this devout, born-again non-theist could see: a group of mostly white people ready to be friends with a group of mostly non-white people, held apart by the stubborn clinging to the past of their two leaders. So the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., of blacks and whites and people of all colors, religions and cultures coming together and working together to restore honor to this nation, didn't have much of a chance.
As a non-theist, I could say, "I told you so! Miracles don't really happen!" But as a human being, I had great hopes that human beings could actually make the Miracle happen, and then it would be real... if only for a day.
It still can happen.
Must we wait for a day when all the people who remember the trials and tribulations of the civil rights movement, when America truly was divided along lines of race and color, have all died out?
Must we wait for a time when conservatives, who want no change, adjust to the liberals who want everything changed... and immediately! ... have melded into people who can give a little and take a little?
Then we must continue to wait for that Miracle on the belief that it still can happen, and hope that humans will not have destroyed every chance of that ever happening by following leaders who miss opportunities through lack of vision instead of leaders who seize every opportunity to bring a truly worthwhile Dream to reality.
It can still happen. It just awaits the right time, a moment of history that I may not live long enough to see.
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