Rally for America was this weekend

[jenjie]

I didn't go but was very interested in the outcome. This is the Rally for America that was started by the Glenn Beck radio program. There had been rallies throughout the country (one was started by a 16 y.o. girl whose friends wouldn't even come because they didn't agree with her politics - she expected maybe 250 people to attend but had over 2,000) but this was the big, "national" one held in Jessica Lynch's hometown of Huntingdon, WV.

It cost $250,000 to hold the rally. Glenn Beck wanted to show the troops that America really does support them. So rather than ask for corporate sponsorships, he asked for individuals who support the troops to send donations in, one dollar at a time. Each dollar was to represent one person supporting the troops. I sent in a check for $4 for my small family. I was so happy to hear that the final tally was $400,000. He presented the USO with a check for $150,000 for what was left after costs of the rally.

You can see pics of the rally at http://www.glennbeck.com/news/04212003.shtml

 

[Aprille]

DH and I were there. We traveled over 1,000 miles to be there. The day Glenn Beck announced it I was booking airfare, hotel and rental car.

We also attended the rally in Houston on March 1 with 10,000 in attendance. GB attended the rally in San Antonio that weekend.

Sydney Whitmyer is the 16-year-old girl who started her own rally in Duluth, Minnesota. She spoke at the Huntington rally and I would not be at all surprised if she became the first woman president of the United States.

She is amazing.

West Virginia is Pfc Jessica Lynch's home STATE. Her hometown is Palestine. Some members of her family were there and spoke as did Spc James Kiehl’s parents of Comfort, Texas, who lost their only child in the war.

It was an incredible experience. Estimates are around 25,000 were in attendance. Perhaps less than what was hoped for but still a great success, IMO.

 

[jenjie]

How great to hear from somebody that was there! I listened on the radio but they cut so much out of it. I had actually taped it to send to "my" soldier but felt that alot of the good stuff was probably missing.

I heard Spc James Kiehl’s dad give a speech. It was powerful. Who was Jessica Lynch's "mystery" family member that spoke?

 

[Aprille]

Originally posted by jenjie
I heard Spc James Kiehl’s dad give a speech. It was powerful. Who was Jessica Lynch's "mystery" family member that spoke?

Randy and Janie Kiehl are incredible, courageous people. God bless them.

Not sure exactly who the Lynch family members were. It was two women. I believe maybe one of them was a sister and the other maybe an aunt or something?? Their names were announced. I don't remember what their names were but one had the last name of Lynch and the other had a different last name. They didn't give a prepared speech. GB brought them out on stage at the end of Randy Kiehl's speech so the families could meet. (Talk about a tear-jerker as if Randy's speech hadn't been enough of one!!) GB then asked one of them how Jessica was doing. She said Jessica was a trooper and would come back given time. That was all we heard from them.

As I said, the whole rally was an incredible experience. My only complaint is that it ran very long. It was scheduled to last 3 hours and went 4 hours long. Factor in the 2 hours early that we arrived at the stadium and it was a very long day.

Lee Greenwood hi-jacked the show. He came on stage about 5:30 (30 minutes before the scheduled closing time). He was only supposed to perform 15 minutes and went about 45 minutes instead. Don't get me wrong. He's a great performer and put on an amazing show but it appeared he took the opportunity to promote an upcoming album he has coming out. Pat Gray (GB's best friend who was at the rally and has a local morning radio talk show in Houston that airs before GB's show) was making fun of it on his Tuesday show following the rally. He kept pretending to go back to Marshall University Stadium to see if Lee Greenwood was still performing and, sure enough, each time Greenwood was still singing. LOL! The sad part was that there was still quite a bit of "show" after Greenwood but many people left during his performance. Families had young kids getting restless.

A little trivia for you: Pat Gray does many of the "voices" on GB's show. He's the one who calls him "fatty, fat, fatso". That cracked us up to find that out as we've been listening to Pat Gray forever and knew he was a good friend of GB but had no idea he was doing some of the voices on GB's show. I always thought GB did them all himself.

Sorry, I got a little long-winded answering a simple question, didn't I?! LOL!

 

[jenjie]

"They didn't give a prepared speech. GB brought them out on stage at the end of Randy Kiehl's speech so the families could meet"

No wonder they didn't include the Lynch family members speech on the radio broadcast - it never happened. LOL I did hear where Glenn said they are going to meet for the first time. I didn't realize that was it b/c they went to commercial break.

"Pat Gray (GB's best friend who was at the rally and has a local morning radio talk show in Houston that airs before GB's show) was making fun of it on his Tuesday show following the rally. He kept pretending to go back to Marshall University Stadium to see if Lee Greenwood was still performing and, sure enough, each time Greenwood was still singing. LOL!"

I heard Glenn do that same exact thing about Joe Liebermann last week! LOL they must be good friends if they do alot of the same material. I did hear Pat Gray's speech. I too thought it was Glenn doing alot of impersonations, also thought alot of it was Stu. What was Stu like at the rally?

BTW I'm glad you were long-winded, I want details!

 

[Aprille]

Originally posted by jenjie
What was Stu like at the rally?

I don't think Stu ever showed his face on stage. Not that I recall anyway. He did the announcements from off-stage somewhere.

BTW I'm glad you were long-winded, I want details!

Would love to give you lots more details about the rally but I just don't have the time right now. I'm in the middle of pre-trip meltdown mode. I'm leaving for WDW tomorrow morning for 10 days. Woohoo! If this thread is still going when I get back, I'll post again. Maybe you can PM me to remind me to come back here. Sound good?

 

[jenjie]

Have a great time at WDW! I don't know if you know about this, but if you are at American Adventure in Epcot, you may want to see the American flag recovered from the rubble at the WTC. When you go in, it's on the right wall. There's no big announcement that it's there. Just the flag and a few pictures, along with a description of how it was found.

 

[Aprille]

Originally posted by jenjie
...if you are at American Adventure in Epcot, you may want to see the American flag recovered from the rubble at the WTC.

I'm so glad to hear the flag is still there. DH and I went in Nov for a very short trip (3 nights) and I knew about the flag then but we completely forgot to go see it!! I was so mad at myself as I thought it was there for only a limited time and I had missed my opportunity. I will definitely go check it out. Thanks for the reminder.