I’m recovering some old files and video from an old harddrive and wanted to share this funny clip at one of our old LAN events back in highschool.

I’m very excited that the rights and liberties of the people of Cullman Co are no longer being infringed and they have the right to legally purchase alcohol.  It is not the government’s or the right of other citizens to tell people what beverages they can or cannot purchase or consume.   Morever, I’m even more pleased at the thought that Christians in Cullman who feel lead spiritually to abstain from purchasing alcohol can do so not because the government bans it, but because they are making the decision for Chirst. 

Are you afraid of brothels and bars? Don’t fret.  Now is the time to make a difference.  Invite people to church, minister to those in need, and lead people to Christ.  People can’t be in a bar if they are all in church.  People won’t search in alcohol what they can find in the arms of Jesus.  Influence your community today for Christ and don’t complain because the government isn’t doing it.

So why the rally? What does it mean anyway? For the answer to that question, I rely on my friend Lex Greene.

“Beck is building solidarity and cultural confidence in America, its Constitution, its military heritage, its freedom. This is a vision that is despised by the people who have long held the commanding heights of the culture. But is obviously alive and kicking. Beck is creating positive themes of unity and patriotism and freedom and independence which are above mere political or policy choices, but not irrelevant to them. Political and policy choices rest on a foundation of philosophy, culture, self-image, ideals, religion. Change the foundation, and the rest will flow from that. Defeat the enemy on that plane, and any merely tactical defeat will always be reversible.Beck is unabashed that God can be invoked in public places by citizens, who vote and assemble and speak and freely exercise their religion. They are supposed to be too browbeaten to do this. Gathering hundreds of thousands of them to peaceably assemble shows they are not. But showing that the people who believe in God and practice their religion are fellow-citizens who share political and economic values with majorities of Americans is a critical step. The idea that these people are an American Taliban is laughable, but showing that fact to the world — and to potential political allies who are not religious — is critical. Beck is attacking the enemy at the foundations of their power, their claim to race as a permanent trump card, their claim to the Civil Rights movement as a permanent model to constantly be transforming a perpetually unjust society.
He is nuking out the foundations of the opposition’s moral preeminence, the very thing I proposed in this post. Ronald Reagan said we would not defeat Communism, we would transcend it. Beck is aiming to have America do the same thing to its decaying class of Overlords, transcend them.
Beck is prepping the battlefield for a generation-long battle. He is that very American thing: A practical visionary.

See, simple. Restore pride and confidence to your own side, and win the long game. As Ronald Reagan also said, there are simple solutions, just no easy solutions.God bless America.
One commenter, Richard40 who attended the rally said “As a conservative secular libertarian, I felt a bit left out … .” He said Beck could have included him by having a non-religious person on stage, and by saying “our only requirement is you believe in the founding principles of America, and wish to return to those principles.” He noted further, correctly in my view, that “The key to the Tea Party coalition is to stay unified on issues where conservatives and libertarians agree, like spending, deficit, size of government, and honest government, but allowing a big tent, that respects differences on social issues … .”

I did not go to the rally, I don’t know Glenn Beck, I don’t have a TV so I don’t know watch his show, and I am not a mind reader. So I can only speculate about this event. Other people have been a little bit stumped by it, too. I think that it was expressly not labeled as a Tea Party event. If so, that would make sense. The Tea Party is one circle on the Venn Diagram. The target audience for this event is an overlapping but not identical circle. The goal here seems to have been to encourage and mobilize one very large group of people, a huge segment of the population. No event is going to accomplish everything or appeal to everybody. Since the event included a call for forty days of prayer for the country, it was pretty obviously directed to people who pray. The totality of the coalition which is growing, which I think of as The Insurgency, is made up of several components. The unifying element is exactly the political and economic factors Richard40 mentions. A purely political event would have been a different event. There is room for all kinds of events.

And as a Roman Catholic, I will extend my hand to Richard40 and all other non-religious fellow citizens who share the same civic, political, economic and Constitutional principles I do. For the small number of doctrinaire libertarians who cannot stand dealing with someone who goes to church, I can only say, wake up, look hard at what is happening, and see who your real opponents are. We can have a civil discussion about the issues we disagree about when this current menace has been beaten back. We are in this thing together.”

In telling of my experience at the Lincoln Memorial its important to notice that this was a personal and non-political event. When most people hear that I was going and now that I went the question is why? If it’s not political what could the event be about? It was obvious from the small amount of progressive protesters at the event that they had absolutely no idea.

Glenn Beck was one of the first people to realize that before we can fix what’s economically and politcally wrong with America we need to adjust ourselves, its people. Conservatives and Patriots ask why don’t we have a Grorge Washington or a Thomas Jefferson today? Where are the strong political leaders we need? The answer is we aren’t raising them at home. We need to restore ourselves and our families – return to God and the principles we hold most dear like faith, hope and charity.

We arrived just after the rally started at 1000 EST. I can’t explain my excitement, not only to be part of such a honorable and historic event but also to be in my nation’s capitol and such a historic place. The crowd count was said to be around 500,000 but it seemed like more. There were people on the opposite side of the Washington monument sitting in chairs just listening hundreds of yards from the platform where Sarah Palin was speaking at the time. I knew then that that wasn’t going to be enough for me. I had to see with my own eyes who was speaking. I knew it was going to be tough but I was essentially going to have to go through the entire audience to get to where I could see the platform and Glenn make his speech. While the other speakers continued I started making my way through the masses. All being said it was easy. I was among some of the best Americans this country has to offer and that was evident. For the next two hours I was shoulder to shoulder with people from all over the country trying to get a glimpse of the platform. Thousands of people trying to get where they needed to be all being very patient. Not one person push or shoved in that time. No one got trampled or knocked down. There was a lot of apologizing when someone would accidentally step on a toe or graze a check. Then a lot of resolving and smiles. I can’t describe it. Most people there were not moving they were just enjoying the excellent sound system that was setup and the large LCD screens setup every few hundred yards. It was like when people saw myself and several others always pressing forward it was like they understood. ‘Those are the people who just have to see for themselves’. When I finally made it close enough to the stage where I just absolutely could not go forward any more I could see GB as he was just a few statements into his speech. I would have never thought that so many people could be so reverent, respectable and quiet. Glenn spoke about America. Who we are and what we can do to restore ourselves for the America we know of in history. An America of God and faith. An America of honor and strength. There were so many faucets to his speech its easy to get lost in all of them as you could easily expand into each cavuet. At one point he presented Amazing Grace and the crowd broke into singing the words as it was played on the bag pipes.

When it was  over I rested for several minutes after walking and standing so long. I knew the Lincoln memorial was just a short walk away. It was very crowded there of course because everyone had the same idea. The Vietnam memorial was next. There was a lot of stuff around. I had walked past the WWII memorial and all the people around it at the rally to get where I was but I really wanted to know where Arlington National Cemetery was. I have dreamed about going there if I ever made it to DC. I checked Google Maps on the blackberry and it wasn’t that far!

I say it wasn’t that far but the truth is it was probably at least two miles to just get to the gates. The one thing I had to see was the ceremony of the changing of the guard. I first watched a video of the ceremony when I was in a high school. It was amazing! I was completely captivated. I stayed long enough to watch the ceremony three times! Just by chance I was watching the Sargent of the guard disappear into the guard quarters after the ceremony. When suddenly they reappeared this time. This hadn’t happened before so I didn’t understand what was about to happen. There was a third guard with them. They started marching out towards the cemetery by themselves! No one seemed to notice or act like they cared but I knew one thing was for sure. I had to follow them! After a quick nod of approval from the Dept of interior officer I ran after them and what I realized is that they were about to begin the Cemetery Ceremony of lowering the flag. It was 500PM! It was fantastic and an added bonus.