You may have overheard the buzz in recent weeks about the political pundit team of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert coming together in DC this weekend to gather the masses in an effort to rally in the name of sanity and reason. Thousands came to show their support for the cause, a cause that’s worth looking into and worth defining in the first place.
What goal did these two have in mind? It’s safe to say that the idea was conjured in response to Fox’s infamous Glenn Beck and his Restoring Honor rally held in DC just over two months ago. Jon Stewart opened by jokingly explaining to the crowd that the two criteria a successful rally is judged upon are “color and size.”
A crack to the fact that an awkwardly obvious majority of people in attendance were white, ‘If you have too many white people at a rally, your cause is racist,’ he said. ‘If you have too many people of color at a rally, then you must be asking for something … something we as a society are not ready to give.’
Everyone laughed at all the right moments but were we laughing because this is the guy that makes the jokes on TV or were we laughing because it was true? Even if the truth was a bit uncomfortable to admit, even in the name of irony and sarcasm.
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Stephen Colbert, the second half to the pair and always in character no matter the occasion, represented the absurdity of illogical fear that seems to dwell inside so many Americans today, or at least the ones that the media can get a hold of and put in front of a camera and microphone. He frantically warns the crowd that he’s released peanut butter laden, fear-smelling killer bees, that we’re to panic and sacrifice our children to these deathly insects, “Save yourselves!” he says. Stewart calmly points out that Colbert is simply fabricating fears that don’t exist.
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Light bulb. This is what it’s about, essentially telling people and the media to take it down a notch. We’d like to see responsible reporting, conservative to liberal, right or left, up or down just give us our boring information straight up without trying to make it entertainingly scandalous. Only when this happens will we be able to make informative decisions and opinions about our country and where it’s headed. To serve as perhaps a mantra in support of the rally the crowd was asked to whisper to each other “I’m concerned with the direction of our country and I’m open to some new ideas.” Sounds reasonable enough to me.
Aside from its political wrap-up message basically telling people to calm the hell down the event proved to be packed with entertainment and comedy. The Roots opened, followed by featured musician John Legend. Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow performed together and were warmly received. The show-stealing scene came from Yusef Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) and Ozzy Osbourne who battled out their songs on-stage simultaneously. Stewart and Colbert even exercised their vocal cords and serenaded the crowd with their homespun song titled “Greatest Strongest Country in the World.”
A couple show off their dry humor while supporting the rally on Saturday
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The crowd played a vital role in keeping up t
