Or do you prefer fear?
Unused slogans for Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity
Saturday is the Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear. For those not tuned in to the news satire scene, Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity and Stephen Colbert’s March to Keep Fear Alive combined forces with Oprah’s help. Colbert joked that the alliance resulted because he lacked the necessary permit to stage his own event.
The rally — at least Stewart's part of it — aims to gather “the 70-80 percenters" who don't have radical political views, which he feels dominate the media. Stewart describes it as a rally for people “who’ve been too busy to go to rallies, who actually have lives and families and jobs … not so much the Silent Majority as the Busy Majority.”
Slogans for the event include reasonable phrases like, "I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler," and "Take it down a notch for America."
Colbert, forever parodying right-winged extremists, said, "Now is the time for all good men to freak out for freedom!" when he announced his march.
Will Stewart and Colbert debate sanity and fear? Or will Colbert playfully interrupt Stewart, as he often does via green screen on The Daily Show?
The two comedians have kept mum about the specifics of the event, which takes place at noon at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Luckily Metromix's Washington DC website published a tentative schedule, which confirms guest performers Sheryl Crow, The Roots, Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco) and Mavis Staples along with actors Don Novello and Sam Waterston.
While silver fox J-Stew is reason alone to attend the rally, I hope the guest list improves. I’ll get behind Tweedy and The Roots … but Sheryl Crow?
Crow, a 48-year-old, mainstream singer-songwriter, hardly seems appropriate for The Daily Show crowd. Stewart’s audience is liberal and young, mostly ranging between 18 and 34 years-old.
(Interestingly enough, though Bill O’Reilly refers to Stewart’s audience as “stoned slackers,” its viewers are actually 78 percent more likely than the average adult to have four or more years of college education. But who said stoned slackers can’t graduate college? I’ve dated plenty who have.)
Many cities will hold their own rallies in support of Stewart’s call for reason. Unfortunately, Houston is not one of them. Although a Houston Facebook page for a rally exists, as of early Saturday morning, pivotal details such as a location and time for any H-Town meeting were still missing.
It’s a shame, as the Bayou City could use a dose of sanity. Here are a few reasonable slogans Houstonians could adopt:
“I understand the danger of driving down a severely flooded street in my small sedan.”
“I don’t think I’m better than everyone just because I live inside the Loop.”
“I criticize Rice’s administration for KTRU going off the air, not KUHF.”
“Slower traffic irritates me, but I resist the urge to honk and/or run over cyclists."
