I think it is important for people on the left to acknowledge that yesterday's "Millions More Movement" was organized and led by a complete and total raving lunatic.
I drive past the 700 Club on my way to work. And every Monday through Friday I look over at that huge compound of Georgian masonry and marvel at the fact that it was built by a bastard using the donations of mostly very well-intentioned people. Pat Robertson has build a University, a Law School and a media empire from the money mailed to him by shut-ins and lonely grandparents. And he uses this empire to promote his fanaticism, to disparage homosexuals and to manipulate the Republican party into doing his bidding.
Before moving to Virginia Beach I lived in Chicago. Every weekend I would come across Louis Farrakhan's weekly sermon on the public access channel. It is well known that Farrakhan is an anti-semite and homophobe. But it goes far beyond that. He believes, and will tell you with a straight face, that he was abducted by aliens. The aliens took him aboard his space ship where he was told to hold the Million Man march. (And to prevent Reagan's bombing of Libya. One out of two ain't bad, I guess.)
It gets even whackier. The Nation of Islam teaches that the "Original Man" were a race of black people. (Factually true so far.) And that 6,000 years ago a mad scientist conducted genetic experiments that led to the creation of the first white people. These white people of course were evil.
Pat Robertson believes his prayers once averted a hurricane from the Virginia Beach area. Now Louis Farrakhan is telling people that a bomb cause the levees in New Orleans to bust.
But lunacy is not the only thing they share in common. Their first and only true love is A-V-A-R-I-C-E. They've both become rich and built fortunes by sprewing their chosen pile of nonsense and fear-mongering.
It is shameful for Rev. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and all the other prominent people who spoke yesterday to share a podium with this lunatic.
I froth at the mout when Republicans try to tell me that Evolution is pseudo-science. I don't know how people of conscience can stand for such nonsense. But it is no less ridiculous for REP Sheila Jackson Lee to serve on the board of an organization led by this asshole. Ditto for Jim Brown, Cornell West, and Tom Joyner.
I am glad that the crowd was a small fraction of what it was 10 years ago. (And on a Saturday vice a weekday at that.) For people to act with indignant surprise that he didn't allow a homosexual to speak before his crowd is comical. I am more disturbed by the long list of otherwise sane people who chose to be associated with this snake oil salesman.