IMHO, there was quite a lot of irony in Beck's rally being held on the day of King's "I have a dream speech", and on the very spot he gave that speech. There was a lot of talk about getting the government out of people's lives, and I liked that to quite an extent. However, this is where the irony kicks in. I remember Selma Alabama and Jackson Mississippi in the 1960's, when blacks were murdered and churches blown up because people wanted to exercise their constitutional right to vote, to get served at lunch counters, and to ride in the front of the bus. It was in that context that Martin Luther King made that famous speech, and in that speech, he was not advocating for less government, but for more government, in order to protect the rights of those who were being murdered and their churches blown up.
On this day in history, I very much respect the fact that Beck and Palin ran a good and peaceful show, and put out a great message of Americans coming together. I think Dr. King would have liked that. But let us also remember that, no matter how much we are against the government controlling our lives, there are pivotal times in history when government intervention is absolutely vital, in order to protect the rights of ALL Americans. Let us never forget what the civil rights struggle was really all about.