One man, Glenn Beck, a television and radio personality, was responsible for a peaceful gathering in Washington last Saturday of up to a half-million people from all parts of the country.
Beck and other speakers addressed the mass of people in the area between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.
He and others preached love and peace and adherence to high principles. By design, there were no political signs.
In the area behind the speakers was a line of 240 members of the clergy, which Beck identified as the Black Robe Regiment, reflecting representatives of Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim faiths.
Beck emphasized that the intent was to reach and include all people who believe in God. “Look to God and look to love,” he said.
I wasn’t there for the event. I didn’t even see it on television. But I was interested in what happened, given the build-up to the gathering and the various predictions of what it would be like. All in all, it seems that it turned out to be just what Beck had said it would be.
The emphasis was on restoring honor, on truth and on changing the lives of those participating. This is what Beck reported later in TV interviews and on his hour-long program that I watched Monday evening.
It happened that the event was on the 47th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s stirring “I Have A Dream” speech at the same location, and King was mentioned frequently. His niece also spoke.
In his comments on Monday Beck drew special attention to the concluding sentence to the Declaration of Independence, which reads:
“And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”
He tried to convey just how much those words meant, and how the real test of what happened on Saturday would depend on the individual responses of American citizens to the challenge of living up to the nation’s founding principles.
The above only touches on the event and what led up to it, and certainly Beck does not convert all who listen to him about the perils facing the country today. Nor should everyone simply accept what he says.
What I think is needed, however, is for more people to form their opinions about him based on what he actually says and does, not on what others say about him.
In my opinion, too many have taken the views of others and made them their own. Beck deserves better.
