Martin Luther King, Jr.’s niece, Dr. Alveda King, spoke on the show this morning about why she attended Glenn Beck’s rally. Here’s what she said:

"My uncle had a dream that black people and white people would get along and that Protestants and Catholics and Gentiles and Jews would join together…and so when I heard about [Beck’s speech], I said, ‘Wow, this is just good.’”

Many of our listeners disagreed with Dr. Alveda King and strongly critiqued Glenn Beck and the premise of his rally, but listener Susan Bond-Masterson wrote in support of Beck on our Facebook page:  “The event was wonderful. He kept away from politics and focused on the human spirit. He praised Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and all those who put their own personal safety at risk for the sake of others. He praised God and America, good for him." And the conversation continued.

Also writing on Facebook, Mark Hershberger had a different take:

I think in claiming to be placing the mantle of the Civil Rights movement to where it belongs, after boosting the works of pseudo-historians that call the Civil Rights movement a Communist plot to destroy America, and holding a rally on the... anniversary of MLK's speech, he's attempted to reframe the values and imagery of the Civil Rights movement as something that belongs only to his brand of conservatism, and saying that virtue belongs to him and those who follow him as real Americans, making his movement about us versus them, and therefore furthering the partisan divide for his own gain.

The conversation is continuing to build on our website:

shredfestival writes:

Glenn Beck is nothing more than a trickster or social engineer who deliberately deceives and manipulates people, exploiting human weaknesses to obtain personal benefit to feed his self-worth. Anyone who believes what Glenn Beck has to say is a weak minded individual who can’t think for themselves. Too many people look for those to tell us what to think rather than to do the homework and make an educated decision.

Rick Evans from “Taxachusetts”

Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally was about Glenn Beck.

Zachary Terry from Salt Lake City, Utah

I must disagree with Dr. Alveda King. Neither the founding of the nation nor the movement for civil rights are about belief in supernatural power. Both are about belief in humanity, in the right and duty of “we the people” to make, and remake, governments and other institutions to better serve humanity. The founders of the country were not of a united religious opinion (in fact many states were reluctant to adopt a Constitution regarded as so unprecedentedly secular), and the civil rights movement brought together people of all faiths and none (though particularly orthodox and conservative sects were reliable indicators of who was against it.)

Al from Oklahoma City emailed us to say:

The Beck rally is just one more piece of proof that the conservative movement AND the Republican party have been hijacked by the religious right. They just can't seem to separate religion and politics... or may be they just don't want to because the religious far right is where these people make their living.

And listeners called 877-8-MYTAKE.

Theresa from New York called to say:

He’s [Glenn Beck] trying to bring peace and order to us all together and make us really get back to our core values as Americans and I think it's wonderful what he did and he has a great message.

And Bruce from Staten Island left this message:

That’s a shame on these people using Martin Luther King’s name. I think they're trying to mislead people… the right wing is trying to fool people that the liberals like Obama and the Democrats are their enemies. I wouldn't trust this group. I'm very skeptical and suspicious of  them.

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