Like many other people Saturday, October 30, I watched Jon Stewart's and Stephen Colbert's "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" on television. I was extremely delighted by the large crowd and by the serious words on this country's ridiculous polarized politics. It was profound to have someone as infamous as Stewart hone in on our alikeness as humans, as Americans, despite having differing ideologies and/or religious backgrounds. I'm always disheartened to hear or read stories where each side, Democrats and Republicans; conservatives and liberals, is decimating the other. I feel like we may have reached a time where our differences will prohibit us from reaching betterment for everyone. However, my fears of this were shattered when I saw Stewart and Colbert poke fun at the absurdity of fear-mongering and misinformed prejudices, and speak to us, Americans, about how those ideologies, those values don't isolate us but rather unite us as humans. Stewart used the metaphor of traffic and how cars have to go from multiple lanes of traffic to just two to venture across the Holland Tunnel, and how we take turns going and waiting, waving fellow travelers the go-ahead to move forward despite having political bumper stickers of opposing sides. And he made the point clearer by listing off multi-dimensional characteristics of people to exemplify the likeness of us despite having our differing religious ideologies or political ideologies.
It's hard for people, for me, to believe in D.C. and in change when all I hear and see is hate being thrown around and by both sides. I worked on President Obama's campaign in 2008 because I was tired of Bush's reign and wanted change, and then Presidential-hopeful Obama seemed to capture all I wanted for myself and for this country: hope and the promise of a better tomorrow, working from the ground up on change. Don't mistake me, I still believe in President Obama, but I have grown somewhat calloused to the words and promises of a better tomorrow with all the media creating fear out of mistakes or a chance encounter with disaster. And I have trouble seeing the light with all the hoopla out of President Obama's nationality, religion, and ideologies. But watching this restored my faith in people, in the intellect of our country, and how hate really only runs rampant in the Capitol and on the front-pages of our papers; hate sells an idea or a show, while acceptance merely gives you a strong character, and that isn't worth a damn in the media world.
Overall, this event signaled to a large number of folks our inability to make change independently of one another, but if we all come together for a common cause, we can make great strides in the right direction. And we needn't be burdened by fear with our ability to recognize it and put a stop to it - a click on the remote or flipping the page. I have become hopeful, once more, in a country full of promise and dreams, equality and betterment for all. And I find this the most amazing of all.
- Katie Dozier
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