Stewart rally's point -- don't divide us

At the end of a bitter political season too often hijacked by the extremes, the Rally to Restore Sanity was a heartening reaffirmation of American humor, smarts and civility.

This year's previous political rallies on the Washington mall -- Glenn Beck's "Restore Honor" rally and the labor/liberal corollary "One Nation" rally emceed by Ed Schultz -- seemed like grim partisan marches compared to the optimism of this overflowing crowd composed of Americans from the sensible center.

While Beck asked his supporters not to bring signs (presumably for fear of the distractions they might create) and Schultz's rally signs were mostly printed up by unions and activist groups, the signs at the Restore Sanity rally were clearly homemade. And like hosts Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, they used satire to comment on the political insanity that surrounds us. Among the signs on display were :

The content from the stage was essentially a comedy show mixed with musical guests.

The message was communicated mostly in "show don't tell" sketches. In one, Yusuf Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, came out to play the hippie anthem "Peace Train," interrupted by Ozzy Osbourne playing "Crazy Train" -- culminating with the O'Jays "Soul Train," a train we can all get on board.

But the crowd was making a fairly consistent, if irreverent, political statement -- from the couple who drove up from Florida with a sign that quoted from a '70s pop song: "Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, here I am -- stuck in the middle with you," to a sign that read, "What do we want? Moderation! When do we want it? In a reasonable timeframe!"

Another woman held a sign that quoted legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow: "We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason."

The Stewart/Colbert dueling rallies actually had their very own iPhone/iPad application. So what did this politically motivated piece of mobile software do?

The official iTunes site says "The official Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert-approved app of the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.

Download it before you board the sanity bus and/or fear wagon to D.C. Features include a map of the Rally site, links to Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, a portal to upload photos to the official Rally photostream and an exclusive welcome message from Jon and Stephen themselves!"

MUST HAVE BEEN DISAPPOINTING TO THOSE WHO ' CREATED ' THE BOMB SCARES DURING THE WEEK ......... " WHAT ! ..... TENS OF THOUSANDS STILL TURNED UP IN WASHINGTON ???? , DON'T THESE PEOPLE KNOW HOW HARD WE WORKED TO ARRANGE THIS SCARE TO COINCIDE WITH THE MID-TERM ELECTIONS ? "