Because of a long-standing prior commitment to some darling lesbians and a boat, I will not be performing at the Restoring Sanity Rally in DC this weekend. Not that anyone asked.
While I believe that humor can do serious work, I'm worried that the Restoring Sanity Rally will be a bit too ironic for its own good. I've read Comedy Central's disclaimers that they are going to try not to be political. I hope the Rally to Restore Sanity is not political in the same way that cry-baby booby Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally was not political.
The whole notion of restoring sanity relies on the lovely if naive premise that there was some baseline of national sanity in the first place. Perhaps a displaced but witty Native American will give the opening blessing.
The Restoring Sanity Rally sounds like a huge national Alcoholics Anonymous Round-Up with a focus on AA's second step: "Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." Unfortunately many believe that greater power is Sarah Palin.
If you think of our dear nation as a child, and of Europe as our qualifying, crazy-ass, violent alcoholic parents, the Sanity rally has perhaps more of an ACOA spin. As an adult children of alcoholics nation, we have been trying to make the world safe, through hideously inappropriate behavior: pre-emptive wars, nation building, 'free' trade. We owe the whole world an amends at this point.
I'll try to TIVO the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. I'll get the on-the-ground scoop from my friends, but I hope [not Beck-restored hope] that the rally does not dissipate real political anger. It already has siphoned off a lot of last-minute door-to-door get-out-the-vote volunteers. Of course I would prefer incitement to riot, without the guns or tear gas, to enticement to rally. At this particular moment in our nation, ironic bonhomie is no substitute for making a stone cold sober decision to turn our political will into greater political power. That is also a good starter amends.