University students traveled to Washington, D.C., this weekend to attend comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.”
More than 200,000 people gathered Saturday at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to hear Stewart and Colbert put out the flames of partisan politics. The rally’s message was to counteract the angry, loud name-calling of today’s politicians.
“We love Jon Stewart, and I wanted to support the call for more rational, reasonable political discussions,” said Rachel Berard, international studies sophomore.
Berard flew Friday to D.C. with history sophomore Mikelle Humble.
Humble said the rally made her feel good about her political views.
“More people have a moderate position than I really thought about,” Humble said. “You only hear people with extreme opinions.”
Berard said students should learn from the rally to be careful about what they’re watching on TV and to ignore irrational talk.
“There are a lot of people who agree that we can have reasonable discussion and that it’s easy for us to cooperate,” Berard said.
Berard said she also enjoyed Ozzy Osbourne and Yusuf Islam’s collaboration of “Peace Train.”
The rally was a mix of comedy and entertainment, with a serious political undertone.
“We live now in hard times,” Stewart said. “Not end times.”
Colbert, who personified fear at the rally, wore a capsule like those that rescued Chilean miners. He pretended to distrust all Muslims until basketball great and Muslim Kareem Abdul-Jabbar came onstage.
At Stewart’s request, members of the audience identified themselves as varying demographics, like half-Mexican and Asian American.
“It’s a perfect demographic sampling of the American people,” Stewart said. “If you have too many white people at a rally, your cause is racist. If you have too many people of color, then you must be asking for something — special rights, like eating at restaurants.”
Protesters carried signs expressing their distaste in party politics. Signs included “If you keep shouting like that, you’ll get big muscles all over your face” and “Christine O’Donnell turned me into a NEWT!”
Several signs poked fun at the purpose of the rally, such as “Is this the line for Justin Bieber tickets?!?!” and “Ironically, this rally is insane!”
 
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Contact Catherine Threlkeld at [email protected]