Even as I compose this blog, the Lincoln Memorial grounds are awash with a sea of humanity, gathering for The Restoring Honor Rally, to be held from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Central today, August 28th.

Glenn Beck, Fox News/Conservative Radio Host will be joined on stage by Former Alaskan Governor and Fox News Contributor Sarah Palin, among others.  Beck says that  the event, on the same steps where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech exactly 47 years earlier, isn’t a political rally.  Instead, it’s going to be a celebration of the military, patriotism and American heritage.

Over 300,000 are expected to attend.   Beck has been cautious about not overestimating attendance:

It’s going to be a little overwhelming as we see tens of thousands of people standing together, locked arm-in-arm, peaceful, happy.  This event is bigger than any single one person; it is not about one person.

Rev. Al Sharpton , he of the less-than-honorable Tawana Brawley fiasco and noted race-baiter, is of the opinion that Beck is offering a very different message from the one offered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his “I Have a Dream” speech there 43 years earlier.  I’m shocked.

Beck’s statement that he is reclaiming the civil rights movement, Sharpton told CBS News’ Wyatt Andrews, reminds him of earlier claims that King was a communist: 

When Dr. King and others came here in ’63 to ask the government to protect the civil rights of people and the economic rights of people, they came to ask government to protect them from local states that were robbing them of economic and civil rights.

…Glenn Beck is coming here to ask government to leave us alone, so he’s trying to reverse what King did and there are those of us who are not going to allow that to happen.

Gosh, Al.  You’re having a hard time coping with being irrelevant, aren’t you?

They’re saying ‘we’re talking about the honor of America,’ they’re saying ‘we’re talking about restoring dignity,’ there is nothing more dignified than our country coming together and making sure that everyone has equal opportunity.  That’s not communism, that’s really what this country is supposed to stand for and what Dr. King gave his life for.

You’ve correct.  Equal rights isn’t communism, Al.  The Government controlling our lives is, though.

Beck has said that  the fact that his rally is being held on the anniversary of King’s speech is a coincidence.   He has gone on to say that King’s legacy does not only belong to African-Americans.   And that is what is getting professional race-baiters like Sharpton’s goat.

Sharpton went on to say that while King stood for the government helping poor Americans, Beck deems that “socialism” and “government ruling our lives.”

Actually, I have heard Beck say the same thing most Americans say.  Charity begins with community:  families, neighbors, and churches…a hand up, not a handout. 

Duct tape your head, here it comes:

It couldn’t have been more of a contradiction.  When government stayed out of people’s lives women and blacks couldn’t vote,   When government stayed out of people’s lives we were in the back of the bus. We need government to do what Dr. King came and asked government to do in ’63 and we need government to do that now.

When you start saying you’re going to reclaim the civil rights movement that’s not even coded, that’s a blatant attempt the hijack a movement that changed America.

You’re right, Al.  America is such a Raaaciiist nation.  Why, a black man could never become president.  Hey!   Waitaminute….

A Facebook friend of mine has a different viewpoint.

Dr. Alveda King is the director of African-American outreach for Priests for Life, and the founder of King for America.  Here is an excerpt from an article she wrote about today’s event:

Delineating ourselves as red state or blue, liberal or conservative, minority or majority, we have not quite reached the day when men and women are “judged not by the color of their skin but on the content of their character.” We are still marching toward that day. As Uncle Martin said, “we cannot turn back.”

The rally will also give America another chance to honor and thank the men and women in our armed forces for the dangers they face every day in our stead. Unless you have a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan, it’s too easy to forget that tens of thousands of Americans are far from the comforts of home, are directly in harm’s way, facing an enemy who hates us precisely because we are free. And coming just days before the ninth anniversary of 9/11, the day that roused us from our complacency, we could use another wakeup call, one of our own devising.

When I join Beck and all gathered at the Lincoln Memorial this weekend, I will talk about my Uncle Martin and the America he envisioned. I will talk about honor and character and sacrifice. I will be joined by those who represent the diversity of the human race.

On Saturday, Uncle Martin’s dream of personhood and human dignity will resound across America. And the Park Police should consider themselves forewarned: As we stand in the symbolic shadow of the great American who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, we just might sing.

Dr. Alveda King is a leader in the Pro-life Movement.  She has received all sorts of accusations and insults for her involvement in today’s event.

Whether you like Glenn Beck and/or Sarah Palin does not matter today.  Today is about recognizing that we live in the greatest country on God’s green earth and it is time to reclaim our heritage.  As President John Adams said:

[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.

[W]e have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

It is time for Americans to remember our heritage and to realize the role that God and His Divine Providence played in the establishment of this country as the greatest on Earth.  It is time to restore honor.