Restoring Honor Rally

Kent and I attended the Glenn Beck "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington, DC on 8/28. We were going to take the metro, so we drove to the station right at 7:00am when the trains start running on Saturdays. There were already hundreds of people walking towards the station, including busses dropping people off at the station. When we actually got to the station, there were about 500 people in line, so we decided to drive into DC. (I wish I'd taken a picture!) We figured even with traffic we'd get into the city earlier than we would waiting in line at the metro. It was a good decision, because there was no traffic getting into DC, and we were able to park at Arlington Cemetery and start walking across the Memorial Bridge by 8am.

We'd brought chairs and umbrellas, so we sat on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, using the umbrellas for shade from the sun.

This was the stage from the back before the rally started.

There were people as far as the eye could see even two hours before the rally started.

Where we were sitting was right next to the marker on the Lincoln Memorial with the inscription that said Martin Luther King had given his "I Have a Dream" speech.

After the rally started we discovered that we couldn't hear very well because none of the speakers or jumbotrons were facing to the back of the stage. We could see pretty well, (which is when we took the picture of Glenn Beck at the top of the post) but after Sarah Palin spoke we decided to move to a shady place where we could hear better.

These are some of the pictures we took after we moved to a spot to the left of the reflecting pool past the Korean War Memorial.

This picture was taken after the rally was over, which is why we were able to get close enough to take the picture of the stage. One thing that was pretty neat was how patient and nice everybody was at the rally. I've never been to anything with that many people, but there was no pushing and shoving, people were polite and considerate of others, and most people were positive and upbeat. I think we were all so happy to be amongst people who think alike; too often the media makes us feel like no one else in America agrees with the way we think. There weren't any political signs because Glenn Beck announced not to bring them, but lots of flags and patriotic clothes.

The message I got from Glenn Beck's speech was to focus on faith, hope and charity. He said Americans need to pray on their knees every day, and show our kids that we pray. He encouraged everyone who was listening to be honest and truthful at all times, and to make our families our highest priority. Really sounds like racist, political hate speech, doesn't it? The whole rally was more like a religious revival tent meeting (or what I imagine one would be like!)instead of anything political.