Jon Stewart acknowledged during the Rally to Restore Sanity that it is necessary to act rashly sometime. With this admission Stewart gave a "medal of reasonableness" to Jacob Isom, a 23-year-old Texan resident who rescued a Koran soaked in kerosene.
Many people participated in the rally including college students. Explaining the reason behind his decision to attend the rally, a college student from North Carolina named Anders said, "'Cause I'm a rationalist." Another student added that he wanted to "stick a thumb in the eye of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck and their media divisiveness."
A girl was seen holding a poster: "The fear is too damn high." Two girls were seen holding poster that detailed nice things done by President Barack Obama including increase body armor for troops and scientific education funding. A dad was seen holding a placard reading: "Don't be a baby, stop whining."
A self-proclaimed "militant atheist with a gay agenda" also participated in the rally. He was seen offering "free hugs." Someone was holding a tagboard reading "Minnesota Nice Sane." Even the weather was very nice.
According to CBS around 215,000 people participated in the rally. Earlier, Stewart had planned to have the crowd count off one by one, but he gave up his decision after witnessing the surging crowd. The CBS had commissioned a firm to count the number of people. It is to be noted that the same firm had estimated a mere 87,000 for the Glenn Beck event in August.
"We hear every damn day how fragile our country is," he said, nigh-on presidential candidatedly. "But we work together to get things done, every damn day. The only place we don't is here, and on cable television … If we are to get through the darkness and back into the light, we have to work together,” said Stewart.
