WATCH LIVE: The Rally to Restore Sanity

Some here have mentioned wanting to read the transcript of Jon Stewart’s speech. Here’s an unofficial transcript courtesy Rolling Stone, the NYT and Examiner.com:

I can’t control what people think this was. I can only tell you my intentions. 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 that we have nothing to fear. They are and we do. But we live now in hard times, not end times. And we can have animus and not be enemies.

Unfortunately, one of our main tools in delineating the two broke. The country’s 24-hour politico pundit panic conflict-onator did not cause our problems, but its existence makes solving them that much harder. The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems and illuminate problems heretofore unseen, or it can use its magnifying glass to light ants on fire, and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected dangerous-flaming-ant epidemic. If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.

There are terrorists and racists and Stalinists and theocrats, but those are titles that must be earned. You must have the resume. Not being able to distinguish between real racists and tea partiers, or real bigots and Juan Williams and Rich Sanchez is an insult — not only to those people, but to the racists themselves, who have put forth the exhausting effort it takes to hate. Just as the inability to distinguish between terrorists and Muslims makes us less safe, not more.

The press is our immune system. If it overreacts to everything we eventually get sicker. And perhaps eczema. Yet, with that being said, I feel good. Strangely, calmly good, because the image of Americans that is reflected back to us by our political and media process is false. It is us through a funhouse mirror, and not the good kind that makes you slim and taller — but the kind where you have a giant forehead and an ass like a pumpkin and one eyeball.

So, why would we work together? Why would you reach across the aisle to a pumpkin assed forehead eyeball monster? If the picture of us were true, our inability to solve problems would actually be quite sane and reasonable. Why would you work with Marxists actively subverting our Constitution or racists and homophobes who see no one

From the Rally – photo from the Comedy Central site:

[img]http://www.indecisionforever.com/files/2010/10/fear.jpg[/img]

[img]http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20101030/capt.b452e12a4da14085b4f08b170dfb159a-b452e12a4da14085b4f08b170dfb159a-0.jpg[/img]

[img]http://d.yimg.com/a/p/rids/20101030/i/r3876834119.jpg[/img]

[img]http://d.yimg.com/a/p/rids/20101030/i/r1066535461.jpg[/img]

Here it is, Jon Stewart’s speech at the end of the rally: