via cnn.com
Assisted by a colorful cast of characters, Comedy Central funnymen Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert held a raucous rally on the National Mall Saturday in typical fashion before a cheering throng of supporters.
Amidst all the hilarity, however, the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” carried a message about Americans turning their backs on hate and working together to make the world a better place.
Stewart and Colbert staged a mock battle, with Stewart supporting peace and sanity and Colbert promoting fear before a crowd that stretched nearly the length of the mall, most of the distance between the Capitol and the Washington Monument.
During the rally’s opening, Colbert appeared on a video screen, saying he was trapped in his “fear bunker” and worried no one had shown up. Drawn by cheers, however, Colbert ascended to the stage in a device like that used to bring up the trapped Chilean miners earlier this month, wearing a superhero costume.
“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,” Stewart told the crowd as the rally drew to a close. “They are, and we do. But we live now in hard times, not end times. And we can have animus and not be enemies, but unfortunately one of our main tools in delineating the two broke.”
He was speaking of what he called “the country’s 24-hour politico pundit perpetual panic conflictinator.” It did not cause the nation’s problems, Stewart said, “but its existence makes solving them that much harder … If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.”
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Article courtesy cnn.com
