Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear happened today on the National Mall. There were several musical performances including Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Bennett. Stephen and Jon even sang a number together. And they of course did some of their usual comedic banter. Stephen even brought out a giant, Godzilla sized version of himself in puppet form. It was basically a bunch of silliness and fun. Then at the very end, Jon did the speech we were all expecting.
Personally, I thought it was brilliant. Thanks to the modern convenience of pausing and rewinding television, I have gone through and typed out my favorite parts (which to be honest has turned into almost the entire speech).
“If we amplify everything, we hear nothing. There are terrorists and racists and Stalinists and theocrats, but those are titles that must be earned. You must have the resume. Not being able to distinguish between real racists and tea partiers or real bigots and Juan Williams or Rick Sanchez is an insult, not only to those people but to the racists themselves who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate. Just as the inability to distinguish terrorists from Muslims makes us less safe, not more. The press is our immune system, if it overreacts to everything we actually get sicker and, perhaps, eczema.”
“I feel good, strangely, calmly good. Because the image of Americans that is reflected back to us by our political media process is false. It is us through a funhouse mirror. And not the good kind that makes you look slim through the waist and maybe taller. But the kind where you have a giant forehead and an ass shaped like a month old pumpkin and one eyeball.”
“We hear every damn day about how fragile our country is, on the brink of catastrophe, torn by polarizing hate. And how it’s a shame how we can’t work together to get things done. But the truth is, we do. We work together to get things done every damn day,”
“Most Americans don’t live their lives solely as democrats, republicans, liberals or conservatives. Americans live their lives more as people that are just a little bit late for something they have to do. Often something they do not want to do. But they do it.”
He then makes an analogy comparing the American people to a video on the screen of 10 lanes of traffic having to merge into one lane to get through a tunnel.
“you go then I’ll go. You go then I’ll go. Oh my god is that an NRA sticker on your car? Is that an Obama sticker on your car?...............well that’s ok you go then I’ll go. And sure, at some point there will be a selfish jerk who zipps up the shoulder and cuts in at the last minute but that individual is rare and he is scorned and not hired as an analyst.”
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