I agree with your sentiment here, I think sometimes people are too sensitive and there needs to be a bit of humor about our differences.

For instance, I'm a Catholic raised Irish/Scot who became a 'very moderate' muslim, married a stunning dark skinned half African/half Middle Eastern woman and produced two beautiful little boys. My boys are very white, in fact other than their dark eyes and tendency to tan, there is no sign of their mothers skin tone. We get asked about it quite often (the kids do look like their mother though- that's why I used the term beautiful :)) and I simply reply: "If you mix Middle Eastern brown tones and Irish pale gray you get white."

We as a family are pretty seriously moderate. Heck as muslims, my wife and I are very lax. We drink a nice bottle of wine here and there and I'm planning on sharing a beer with you all one day. I'll share with you one of the nicest things for me about the 'real' Islam. It is something written in the Qu'ran. "The only person who has a right to judge your relationship with god, is you..." (hence states like Saudi Arabia and NOT Islamic.) I like that sentiment, it works for me...

Obviously, as someone with a ridiculously mixed family, I haven't got a racist bone in my body- it would be impossible. Additionally, I also do not think there is a single racist on this board. I actually don't even think Glen Beck is a racist. I just think he has a tendency to spout insensitive, inflammatory statements which do nothing to forward his argument and are just as likely to exaggerate political difference. For instance, Michael Moore... I'm not a big fan myself, but he's a film maker and he has the right to make whatever film he wishes. No need to state that you wish to kill him. Very irresponsible for someone in the media knowing that there are a load of unstable and impressionable individuals out there... he may not be serious, but others may think he is. (See O'Reilly and the Tiller murder).

Personally, if I were to choose someone to speak about the very real progress in US race relations over the past 40 years, I'd be a bit happier with someone a bit more tolerant and 'King-like'. That said, he has the right to speak where he wants and to whomever he wants and it sounds like he held a responsible rally - well done on that. However, perhaps we could have Nelson Mandela next time? Or Tom Hanks? :)

As for the Poor/Rich comments from Baba- totally agree - somewhere between the unhindered, greed driven society with little or no 'policing' of corporations and the socialist states with loads of poor and underprivileged getting used to generational welfare there lays some kind of happy medium. I'd say we have the balance pretty good here in Switzerland (I've never seen a homeless person or a beggar in 8 years here, yet the multi-billioarie behind IKEA lives just down the road) but that's relatively easy when your population is 8 million. The US has a much bigger challenge with over 300 million souls. I'd say the first step is to stop the finger pointing on both sides and to take a page out of Kings book-

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity"