From my buddy Bryan:
The Glenn Beck Show is having a Rally for America this weekend in Omaha. I love America and rallys are a nice freedom here in the US. The rally is to show support for the US troops. I also am in awe and admiration of the brave men and women enlisted for this country. They are patriots willing to be put in harms way.
But you see, I must not be a patriot because I am against a war with Iraq...
...I've tried to convince myself, I don't want to live in a country that starts unjust wars. It's not that I'm some softy-liberal who thinks EVERY war is unjust. There are just wars. They are rare, but they are there. And this ain't one of them.
...So is it possible to wear a T-Shirt this weekend that says---"I support our troops, that's why I don't want them to die in an unjust war."
How would that go over this weekend? [JCD]
I dig Glenn Beck. A lot. I don't know that Bryan is a fan, or even a frequent listener. I like that Beck can be both irreverent and smarmy. I like that he can do satire as well as sentimental pieces, and intensly seems to mean both of 'em, pulls them both off well. Few radio personalities can show the sort of full, 3-dimensional good-with-the-bad and high-with-the-low sort of genuine humanity that characterizes his program. He has a way of speaking about matters of spirit and life that intrigue me as a communicator. He's doing something as a communicator that is not easily done -- he's able to catch me offguard and suck me in before I know it, and yet ever deals with me as a listener in gentleness and grace.
As much as Beck seems to genuinely love "Joe American," the common man -- he strikes me as a most uncommon sort of man himself. He seems to be the kind of guy I'd enjoy having hang out here around the house, eat my food and share my personal downtime-space here on the hill. Like Bryan, like PopeSleipnir, like the RawkStah and the rest of you who hang out here virtually or every weekend in real life.
I am going to the Rally for America in Omaha this weekend. It frankly has a lot less to do with my being awash with gushing patriotism, and a lot more to do with the fact that for better or worse Glenn Beck is one of those rare people I warmly welcome to share significant brain-space in my life.
And oddly enough, that too is what America is all about.
