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US conservatives rally to 'restore America'
AP
Glenn Beck speaks as a television camera moves around him as the 'Restoring Honor' rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2010.WASHINGTON
Petroleumworld.com, Aug 30, 2010Tens of thousands of people gathered Saturday at the site of Martin Luther King Jr's 1963, "I Have a Dream Speech" to hear right-wing icons call on them to "restore America."
In wide-ranging and often religious terms, Fox News host talks show host Glenn Beck told Americans that their country was "at a crossroads" and urged them to return to "faith, hope and charity."
"Today we must decide, who are we? What is it we believe? We must advance or perish. I choose advance," he said to a cheering crowd that stretched from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument.
Beck, who hosted the event to "restore America's honor," estimated that between 300,000 and 500,000 people attended the event. An average of two million viewers watch his show, which airs daily on weekdays.
Many streets in downtown Washington were closed off and patrolled heavily by police, while rally participants packed Metro stations.
The rally, billed as a non-political, faith-based salute to US troops and values, attracted many members of the conservative Tea Party movement, who eschewed their usual practice by honoring organizers' requests to not bring signs.
Hardly an African American was in sight.
The rally drew criticism because it was staged at the very same location where King made his call for racial equality nearly half a century ago.
Critics said Beck and fellow conservative icon Sarah Palin's political stances were sharply at odds with King's civil rights legacy.
Black leaders, including the Reverend Al Sharpton, held a competing march and accused Beck of misrepresenting the slain civil rights leader's message of equality among all races.
"The folks who criticize our marches are now trying to march themselves," Sharpton said. "They may have the Mall, but we have the message. They may have the platform, but we have the dream. The dream was not states' rights."
Beck said the timing was coincidental, and argued he had every right to commemorate King's struggle.
"Whites don't own Abraham Lincoln. Blacks don't own Martin Luther King," he said earlier this month.
The event came ahead of congressional elections in November, when Republicans hope to seize control of Congress back from President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats.
The rally's goal was loosely defined, with Beck telling viewers of his Fox News talk show -- a must-watch for many US conservatives -- that it would pay tribute to "heroes, our heritage and our future."
Lou Tribus, a 67-year-old retiree, said he had traveled hundreds of miles (kilometers) from Tennessee in the south for the rally.
"We want to see our nation return to its foundation principles," he told AFP.
Another attendee, who only gave her fist name, Dawn, said she wanted to "bring back the values that my country was founded on."
Palin, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2012, shared top billing at the event with Beck. Avid supporters chanted "USA! USA! USA!" as she appeared on stage.
She took a jab at Democrats -- Obama chief among them -- who have campaigned on promises of change in US politics.
"We must not fundamentally transform America as some would want," she said. "We must restore America and restore her honor."
Beck focused heavily on the need for Americans to embrace religion.
"We will be the shelter for the world, because the storm is coming. It is not just an American storm, it is a human storm. It is a global storm," he warned, adding that Americans would be called on to "save" the world.
"God is the answer and he always has been."
Beck's critics said it was inappropriate for a man who has accused Obama, an African-American, of having "a deep-seated hatred of white people," to stage a rally on the anniversary of King's speech.
The August 28, 1963 address drew a quarter million people and was designed to raise Americans' awareness of racial inequities that made blacks second-class citizens.
Critics also pointed to persistent allegations of racism in the predominantly white US conservative movement, now most prominently represented by the Tea Party.
Group members have touted openly racist signs at rallies, prompting the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People, the biggest and oldest US organization of its kind, to condemn the Tea Party as racist.
Dawn, 47, a small business owner from northern Virginia, said she could not understand opposition to the rally.
"I think Martin Luther King would agree with us," she said. "I don't see why they think we shouldn't be here today."
Story by Lucile Malandain from AFP
AFP 08/28/2010 23:17
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