'Sanity' rally draws tens of thousands - USA Today

By Douglas Stanglin and Jessica Durando, USA TODAYWASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of people turned out on the sun-splashed National Mall on Saturday to hear comedian Jon Stewart proclaim "reasonableness" as the norm in American life and to jab the cable news media for being purveyors of fear and division."The country's 24-hour politico-pundit-perpetual-panic conflictinator did not cause our problems, but its existence makes solving them that much harder," said Stewart in a speech that wrapped up the event.

The three-hour "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" mixed comedy and music with a message that was non-partisan, yet deeply political.

Stewart, using the Capitol behind him as a physical and rhetorical backdrop, hammered home a simple message — that most people go about their lives trying to solve their day-to-day problems, even in the worst of conditions.

"The truth is, we work together to get things done every damn day," he said. "The only place we don't is here, or on cable TV — but Americans don't live here or on cable TV."

The host of The Daily Show spoke directly to the audience at the close of the program, noting that as a comedian he may well be breaking some unwritten rules of the punditocracy. "I'm sure I'll find out tomorrow how I violated them," he said, in a reference to commentators who have questioned his place on the political landscape.

Later, Stewart underscored his disdain for how some of the media operates when he was asked how he thought they would react to his barbs: "Don't care."

"Our currency is not this town's currency," he said to reporters at the National Press Club after the rally. "We're not running for anything. We don't have a constituency. We do television shows for people who like them."

Still, Stewart said, "We're proud of ourselves" for actually pulling off the rally and putting on a good show.

Crowd sizes are notoriously hard to judge, but Comedy Central, which broadcasts The Daily Show, estimated the crowd at 250,000.

The rally started out as a response to the "Restoring Honor" rally by conservative commentator Glenn Beck at the Lincoln Memorial this summer.

Katie Tackett, 32, of Washington, D.C., attended the rally because she saw it as a cultural phenomenon, rather than a way to send America a message. "I don't think having a rally by a satirical comedian is the best way to get out a message," she said.

At the end of the event, Stewart took the stage, somewhat puzzled by what it all meant.

"So what exactly was this?" he asked as the rally wound down. "I can't control what people think this was, I can only tell you my intentions. This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith or people of activism, or to look down our noses at the heartland or passionate argument, or to suggest that times are not difficult and we have nothing to fear. They are and we do."

The rally's purpose, he said, was to show that there is more that unites Americans than divides them, and that the nation should not let others use fear and bombast to undermine that.

"I'm a little bit choked up after listening to Jon Stewart talk," said Hy Alvarah, 28, who works for the Human Rights Campaign, the largest U.S. gay civil rights organization. "He covered all the things we're missing in life, not just sanity and reasonableness. I was moved to tears. You expect that from politicians and preachers, not a comedian."

While the remarks were sometimes pointed and stinging, the rally was notable for its lack of partisanship. No one noted from the stage that midterm elections will be held on Tuesday.

The tone struck an important chord with many in the audience. Pat Reynolds, 76, said she came from Florida for the opportunity to "get some reasonableness."

"I was tired of the yelling and the screaming. I believe sanity is reality," Reynolds said. "We've got to put the best men in government that can compromise and that work for the American people."

That theme played out during the three-hour rally as Stewart, using fellow comedian Stephen Colbert's bombastic character as a foil, handed out awards for "reasonableness" to Colbert's awards for "fear."

To counter Colbert's call that Muslims should be feared, Stewart said, "There are a lot of Muslim people who you might like."

He then brought out basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was way too tall for the two to high-five.

Abdul-Jabbar made the point, "No matter whatever religious position someone plays, we're all on the same team."

The audience came prepared to play along. Many brought signs to underscore the message of reasonableness, or just to be funny.

Among them:

•"I'm somewhat irritated about extreme outrage."

•"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself — and spiders"

•"Stand united against signs"

"I'm really glad this is an optimistic rally. All the other ones are serious. We can just laugh and realize that things aren't so bad," said Brian Steele, 19, a student at George Washington University.

Onstage, the comedy was both high and low. At one point, Stewart gave an award to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper's tight, black T-shirt, which Cooper has worn covering natural disasters.

Kid Rock performed, as did Sheryl Crow, Jeff Tweedy and Mavis Staples. Ozzy Osbourne got in a mock dispute with mellow folk singer Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens.

Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, arranged for buses to transport about 10,000 rally-goers from New York for free. She took issue with news organizations that wouldn't allow their employees to participate in the rally because they considered it political.

"It doesn't make any sense to be agnostic about sanity," said Huffington. "The rally is not political. It's not partisan. Contrived objectivity does not serve journalism."

Huffington also said the rally "helps us recognize we can have big disagreements as a country without demonizing opponents."

Contributing: Lindsay Deutsch, Marisa Kendall, Sara Newman, Bruce Schwartz

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