Mr. Wow Blog
A Brief ‘Real’ Musing From Mr. wOw
1:30 pm | August 29, 2010

Author: Mr. Wow | Category: Point of View | Comments: None

Image: CC/Katerkate/Flickr

Sunday night, Mr. wOw sat here in front of his computer at home, watching the Emmys, commenting on the awards, the gowns, the face-lifts, the varying degrees of sobriety of actors who mean absolutely nothing to … anyone. Come on, let’s be real. It’s empty fun. For me and (hopefully) for you. It took our minds away for a few hours.

Saturday, however, I was sorely tempted to call Miss Joni Evans, our blonde and brilliant leader, and tell her I’d changed my mind. I wasn’t up to it. I’d spent the day watching and reading the various reports on the Glenn Beck/Sarah Palin “Restoring Honor” rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, drawing an impressive crowd. (Estimates will vary, as they always do for all gatherings.) Beck’s call to his lemmings came on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s immortal “I Have a Dream” speech, at the very same spot. (Beck insists he “didn’t know” the significance of the date – although going back about a year, when he first began hyping the event, it seems indeed he did.) Dr. King spoke to a sea of people, both black and white, all committed to ending the horrors of racial inequality. Mr. Beck’s partisans were almost overwhelmingly lily white. They want to end the horror of … a black man in the White House.

Oh, sure, Beck didn’t employ his usual lunatic paranoia, accusations of racism against President Obama, and managed – except for a couple of well-timed near-sobs – not to weep like a man confined to a straightjacket and denied his meds. He spoke of “restoring America’s honor” and a lot about God. I wonder what “honor” he refers to. Slaughtering the American Indian? Stealing land that didn’t belong to us? Interning the Japanese? Being forced to accept a woman’s right to vote? Being forced to accept civil rights for African Americans? Still denying gay men and woman the simple right to marry? Oh, that honor.

I have rarely been as chilled and depressed as I watched Mr. Beck ramble on. I found it difficult to even understand what he was saying at times, his logic seemed so convoluted – at one point he appeared to be saying we should all be free of being “ruled” by anybody, that all Americans should take their lives into their own hands. Isn’t this anarchy? And what about the next Katrina or oil spill? Shall the nosy government look away and let these noble self-sufficient Americans fend for themselves? There was an overabundance of God-talk. Beware of men who don’t wear the cloth and aren’t standing at the altar, telling us all about The Deity. Unless He has spoken to you, you know nothing of His wants.

To be honest, Beck did not incite the rally to vocal denunciations of Democrats or that great devil, Barack Obama. He didn’t have to. We all know what he has said in the past and will say in the future. He is interested in his own power. He is so similar to so many charismatic figures who have stood at podiums across the centuries. In his case of course – and in Mrs. Palin’s case – the adjectives “charismatic” or “mesmerizing” are good things. Not the bad charisma of that dark person in the White House.

When the rally was over, when the good white people scattered, Mrs. Palin was asked if this was a first strike at a Palin/Beck presidential run in 2012. In the manner of politicians everywhere in every party, she replied, “We are happy with what we are doing now.” (Italics mine.) Beck’s people and the Tea Partyers say they “don’t recognize their country anymore.” Well, I do, and I’d rather not return to that land.

Oh, one more thing. Even on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Mrs. Palin couldn’t help twisting the truth to suit her needs. She spoke of “Raising a combat vet … no matter what, nobody can take that away from me.” Mrs. Palin’s memory, as usual, is selective. Actually, she raised a troubled teen who was involved in vandalizing school buses and who used drugs. His enlistment was less patriotic than the only sensible maneuver to keep the boy out of harm’s way while Mama campaigned for the vice-presidency. Also, it was great way to squelch any public declarations of pride coming from Joe Biden, whose son was also on his way to Iraq. “Na, na … I got a soldier boy too! – can I call you Joe?”

During the Beck and Palin Show, was that a tear I saw trickling from the marble cheek of Abraham Lincoln as he gazed somberly across the great lawn – when will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?

I hope you enjoyed the Emmys. Mr. wOw was as foolish as the show dictated.

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