Follow that dream …

I’m loath to do it, but it seems like somebody here should comment on this weekend’s Beckapalooza in Washington. In promoting tomorrow’s “megalomania at the memorial” (OK, he didn’t really call it that), Glenn Beck has thoughtfully observed that “African Americans don’t own Martin Luther King” and “We are on the right side of history! We are on the side of individual freedoms and liberties and, dammit, we will reclaim the civil rights moment. We will take that movement—because we were the people who did it in the first place.” Not sure who Beck’s “we” is here or how they “did it,” nor is it clear what they will do with it when they take it back. Use it to sell gold coins before the coming Apocalypse perhaps. Does he really imagine himself and his listening audience as somehow disenfranchised kin of the Civil Rights vanguard? Isn’t it more likely that were he active today—or, better, Beck were cast back to the 1950s, a historical plane he longs to inhabit—MLK would surely be among the featured on Mr. Beck’s famous chalkboard? (And BTW: when does he plan on returning that to Fulton Sheen?) That King guy sure used a lot of that social justice language Beck finds so socialistically suspect.

Beck has said divine providence (not kidding) directed his selection of Aug. 28, the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech. The Good must have a sense of humor. In case you tune in for any of the coverage on Saturday and find yourself wondering why you swallowed so many crazy pills, I thought I would offer the following antidote. Take as often as necessary until lucidity returns: