Thousands Gather At Glenn Beck Rally

(NewsCore) - Thousands gathered Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the ’Restoring Honor’ rally, where Fox News broadcaster Glenn Beck and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin addressed crowds at the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech, on the 47th anniversary of that speech.

The rally was billed as a non-political event. Organizers said the purpose of ’Restoring Honor’ was to honor those who ’embody our nation's founding principles of integrity, truth and honor," including servicemembers.

Palin said she was speaking not as a politician, but as the mother of a U.S. soldier.

’I am proud of that distinction,’ she said. ’Say what you want to say about me but I raised a combat vet and you can’t take that away from me.’

Palin said the best way to honor King’s legacy of fighting for civil rights is to honor Americans serving in the military.

Despite Beck’s insistence that the rally was not political, Palin took the opportunity to tell voters that they should reject President Barack Obama’s call to "fundamentally transform America," and instead ’restore America."

Beck said the rally marked the day when "America ’ begins to turn back to God."

’For too long, this country has wandered in darkness,’ Beck said. ’This country has spent far too long worrying about scars and thinking about scars and concentrating on scars.’

Beck said it was a coincidence that the rally took place on the anniversary of King’s famous speech. A counter-protest led by Rev. Al Sharpton began at a nearby high school and planned to march three miles to the site of a planned memorial for King, near the Jefferson memorial.

Sharpton said ’Restoring Honor’ was an anti-government rally that supported states’ rights, countering King’s message that the federal government had to step in and ensure civil rights equality for all.

Organizers of ’Restoring Honor’ had a permit for a crowd of up to 300,000. Beck said he expected 100,000. Crowd estimates had not yet been released Saturday afternoon, but Beck opened his speech by joking, "I have just gotten word from the media that there is over 1,000 people here today."