While there is much to be eye-rolling and astonished by in regards to Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial, on the 47th anniversary of MLK's "I have a Dream Speech" I wanted to pick up on something both revealing and kind of hysterical:
But organizers of Saturday's rally are telling attendees not to bring signs, "as they may deter from the peaceful message we are bringing to Washington."
This boggles on so many levels, first and foremost is the implicit recognition that those who would likely attend a rally to "take back America" featuring Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin" are crazy birthers, Muslimers, Naziers and flat-out racists.
It is pretty much the definition of putting lipstick on a pig, "let's not be so overt in our lunacy", "let's not stress our ironic flag covered anti-patriotism", "We know what you want to say, but for appearances sake, please don't."
"Dr. King never had to ask anyone to leave their signs and guns at home," said Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the NAACP. "To say to your followers, don't bring your signs - it's like saying don't open your mouth."
Exactly right. But Mr. Beck doesn't want the message to be diluted, and his message of course is devoid of politics...according to Glenn Beck (he said with a straight face):
Beck, a popular figure among tea party activists and a polarizing Fox News Channel personality, is headlining the event, and Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and a potential 2012 president candidate, will be a prominent speaker. But Beck told his television audience again on Thursday that it's not about politics.
So what is it about then?
The website urges citizens to attend and "help us restore the values that founded this great nation."
Oh sure that sounds completely non-political, coming from someone who has called Obama a racist and daily excoriates this Administration in the most wacky and fervently over-the-top manner. Not political at all.
There's more, of course
"This is going to be a moment that you'll never be able to paint people as haters, racists, none of it," Beck says of the event featuring Sarah Palin and other conservative political and cultural figures. "This is a moment, quite honestly, that I think we reclaim the civil rights movement."
Get it? Don't bring the signs, not because they are distasteful, but because it makes us look bad. And seriously, reclaim the "civil rights movement"? now to be fair the Republican Party has some claim to providing for Civil Rights in its past, but now...for the last 20 years? And Glenn Beck and his rabble rousing gang of "Smarter than a Fifth Grader" rejects? What civil rights movement are they hoping to reclaim? It is so comical I can't even make it any funnier.
Anyway, I think asking folks to not bring signs is anti-American censorship, but I think they can encourage toned down signs, such as..
"I'm not saying Obama is a Sekrit Muslim Practicing Secret Jihad, I'm just asking the question"
"I want to believe you Mr. President, Just show us the birth certificate and I will defintiely stop making shit up?"
"My Obama as a Monkey sign was not meant to be racist, just funny, get it?"