One Mans Opinion
8/29/10
By Dewaine Shoulders

The Restoring Honor Rally on 8/28

Say what you will about Glenn Beck, but the man knows how to throw a party.

This weekend marks several milestones. It’s the 5th anniversary weekend of Hurricane Katrina, the 2nd anniversary of Sarah Palin getting the V.P. nod from John McCain, and the 47th anniversary of the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech by Dr. Martin Luther King.

And the dream on 8/28 was to restore honor in America. The Special Operations Warriors Foundation (SOWF) was the recipient of over $5 million dollars because of this rally. Glenn Beck wasn’t sure he’d be able to raise the $3.7 million he originally wished to raise because he had to spend so much money on extra security. But the money came, despite the fears that The New Black Panthers were promising to be there, and was promising trouble. I never heard of any trouble, nor any of the Black Panthers even showing up. Maybe their van broke down?

But all in all, it was a beautiful day, albeit hot. With temps in the upper 80’s to around 90, people sought shade under the many trees in the area surrounding the Reflecting Pool, obscuring them from aerial view. But the estimated 300,000 people that would be at the rally looked to be more like 500,000 or more. Some even estimated it closer to 750,000 people in attendance. And if you looked upon the lawn surrounding the Reflecting Pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, you’d be hard-pressed to find much in way of trash. Compare that to Obama’s Inauguration, where 100 tons of trash was scattered about.

So much for the eco-friendly left.

The theme of the rally was Faith, Hope and Charity. The Reverend C.L. Jackson won the medal for Faith; Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals took the Hope medal, and Jon Huntsman, Sr. received the Charity medal (although he wasn’t in attendance due to his granddaughter’s wedding in Utah). Each was chosen due to their commitment to those values.

Among the speakers was Sarah Palin, who spoke of three special veterans and of their service and sacrifice to the nation. And of her own son, Track, who has been deployed to Iraq himself. And Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, who spoke to the crowd of her uncle’s dream, and her own dream of America transcending politics and embracing one another, as we are all Americans!

And one of the things spoken of by Glenn Beck was of a slave ship captain named John Newton. He was a man of little character. He was not a pleasant man by any stretch of the imagination. Yet, while en route to America, with a ship filled with slaves, he came across a mighty storm. And during the course of the storm, Mr. Newton dropped to his knees and asked God to help him and his ship get through the it. And God answered his prayers… And apparently God touched his heart.

John Newton never continued to captain a slave ship from that point forward. Instead, he went onto write a wonderful song. It’s called Amazing Grace.
A wretch like John Newton was saved, and Glenn Beck basically was saying that if a man like that could be transformed, then surely all of can be. And America needs saving right now. With all that we face, God can uplift us and set us upon the right course, and give us shelter from the storm we are in the midst of. We were blind, but now we see!

Glenn Beck, who sounded more like a preacher than a political commentator on 8/28, was preaching about the salvation of the nation. And that salvation started on 8/28. If we wish to save this country from the evil that we face, we had better pray that more people awaken to the three virtues that built this nation: Faith, Hope and Charity. Otherwise, we are doomed to fail.

But that’s just my opinion, I could be right!