Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear thoughts

"We live in hard times, not end times." - Jon Stewart

For those...I don't know, two of you wondering why Your Modest Guru hasn't been posting lately and missed his Halloween themed posts, I will have you know I was recuperating after a long vacation. This vacation is one that brought me to many states I had yet to visit, but my primary missions on the trip, and that of the captain of the trip, my grandfather, was to make it for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington D.C. and then straight down to Florida to watch the Discovery space shuttle launch for its last time. Unfortunately we were only able to see one of those happen and that was the rally (typical NASA wasting my time with bah! safety measures).

Possibly in a parody to Political Media mogul and lunatic Glenn Beck's Rally to Restore Honor (no, no that's not a joke) as well as Al Sharpton's retaliation against Beck with his Reclaim the Dream rally, Jon Stewart had been planning a rally for people to get together and sort of just weed out all of the drama, all of the bullshit, all of the insanity that plagues this country every damn day. Stephen Colbert co-hosted in his satirical right wing persona as the man presenting the arguement for fear mongering in America (the Glenn Becks, if you will). As I am told, Stewart and Colbert expected a turnout of at 100, 000 to 150,000 people at the most to show up in the National Mall. It ended up being approximately 215,000 people, the ones who could make it, of course.


I was in the thick of it and it was quite a sight. It was a collection of people of numerous ethnicities, religions, and cultures, all together, tolerant and peaceful with each other. I suppose I shouldn't go into too much detail, seeing as how I had very long range view of one of the jumbotrons, my whole body was worn out from standing up so long, and summaries of the rally can be found from numerous internet sources. Still I will get my thoughts out there.

First off the musical guests were all top notch people. From the rally long performance of The Roots (with John Legend in the beginning) to the trio performance of Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow, and a recorded T.I., they were all wonderful. My favorite instance would most definitely have to be the unconventional duet of Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) and Ossie Osbourne, playing back to back and back again their respective songs Peace Train (for Stewart's side) and Crazy Train (for Colbert's side); and The OJs following up with Love Train just topped it off. And though the music was good, it did seem to drag on a little too much (the opening act especially), but then again that's how I feel at concerts. Yes I know, I'm stupid. Still dragging or not, the music and the performers were top notch.

The comedy, which is what I imagine people were waiting for during the music, was very good. Stewart and Colbert can come off as cheesy out of their television element, but they are still very funny and clever. And the guests, ranging from Sam Waterson and his reading of Colbert's fear poem to the beloved R2-D2, were all stellar. The Sanity/Fear Awards were certainly entertaining. A couple of my favorite moments were when Anderson Cooper's tight T-shirt was awarded as well as the Qu'ran rescuing hippie from our latest 9/11's proposed Burn a Qu'ran Day (I love that the guy tossed his award into the crowd). Then of course the basis for the whole damn rally, the sanity against fear warfare between Stewart and Colbert. Colbert had some of the biggest highlights including his montage of media based fear mongering and his Fearzilla puppet that attacked the stage, defeated with the Pan-like assistance of hilarious Stewart co-host John Oliver. And who can forget for the rest of their days Stewart and Colbert's absolutely horrible attempt to sing their own song, The Greatest, Strongest Country in the World. The signs were also funny, and there were plenty of signs. My favorite one, and arguably one of the most simple, read "Calm the F*ck Down." Glorious.

The main highlight of the event was no doubt Jon Stewart's final speech to the massive crowd. It was from the heart and made plenty of sense. In tumultuous times like these, people should not be so bent on rocking the boat or just acting crazy or stupid. This get together was obviously important to him and turned out far greater than he ever expected.

The rally as a whole was an unregretable experience. It was amazing being there and the feeling that people were that ready to be good to one another and not try to get vicious about anything. It is true indeed that in a time when so much badness is going on that a bunch of us sane Americans can get together and say tell the world to Calm the F*ck Down. For a guy like me, it could be one of those once in a lifetime things, so I am no doubt holding this as a dear memory. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go through the rally crowd photos and see if I can find myself. Haha, just kidding...or am I? Yes.

This has been a return from another freaking long absence from Your Modest Guru. Thanks for reading, especially since my next post will more than likely have to unwrapped on Christmas.