Sunday Thoughts on the “Restoring Honor” Rally

 

Patrick Dorinson

 

The mainstream media and liberal, excuse me “progressive” pundits, must have been heartbroken when they picked up their copies of the Washington Post and New York Times this morning. 

In their desperation to save the Democrats in the midterm elections and ultimately President Obama in 2012, the mainstream media have tried to discredit legitimate opposition to the president and the direction of the country as a bunch of bedsheet-wearing, modern-day Klansmen. 

The “Restoring Honor” rally on the Mall in Washington organized by Glenn Beck and featuring Sarah Palin did not turn into the racist Obama bashing event they had all predicted and secretly hoped for. It was peaceful as was the counter-rally and march by civil rights folks led by Al Sharpton. 

All week we heard hyperventilating progressive commentators say “How dare those redneck rubes and knuckle dragging conservatives have a march and rally on the spot where 47 years earlier Dr. Martin Luther King gave his now famous speech that profoundly touched all of America?"

What would Dr. King think?

I don’t know. Nor does anyone else know what he would think. 

Al Sharpton doesn’t know. Jesse Jackson doesn’t know. 

Like Jesus Christ he never lived long enough to write his own gospels. 

Dr. King believed in non-violence, not inciting racial tensions. The media does it because peaceful rallies — Beck’s and Sharpton’s — do not fit the narrative of an imminent race war they have been peddling ever since Obama’s poll numbers began to crater. To be against Obama is to be a racist is the underlying message. Just as they did during the campaign, they are playing on white guilt. 

Here’s a message to the network geniuses. It ain’t working anymore. 

Besides, peaceful rallies doesn’t make good television or YouTube moments. 

Come to think of it, I think Dr. King might be right there with the folks at the rally decrying how the elitist white liberals have treated blacks as nothing more than a voting bloc to be coddled and counted on every election to deliver victory. 

He might be angry at the government policies that have led to the disintegration of the black family, the disproportionate number young black males in prison and the skyrocketing number of births out of wedlock. 

He might be angry that the inner city schools run by liberal politicians and omnipotent teachers unions have consistently fought against school choice condemning black children to forever be behind. 

As a man of God and ordained minister, he might be angry that the nation has abandoned the role that faith and religion have played in our history. After all, the civil rights movement was deeply rooted in the black churches. 

He also might be angry at the coarseness of the culture of today and the loss of the basic values, morals and ethics of America — those underpinnings that have sustained us and brought us through other crises for 234 years. 

Dr. Martin Luther King was an American. Not an African-American or any other kind of hyphenated American, just an American. He doesn’t belong to any one person or group. He belongs to America — all of America. 

The words he spoke that sweltering August day back in 1963 were not just meant for blacks struggling for their rightful place in America. There were meant for us all. 

The following two sentences from his speech should act as our watchwords as we face an uncertain future. 

“And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.” 

His dream was built on faith. So should ours be. 

Or as the Cowboy Libertarian says, “Sorry looks back. Worry looks around. Faith looks up.”