Over the weekend, the self-proclaimed “idiot avenger” himself came to my home state to collect the keys to the city of Mount Vernon, Washington, where he grew up.  As nothing Mr. Beck does is without contention, this too was another instance where the public displayed their disillusionment over how a man who spreads divisive rhetoric would be given the keys to their city?

Glenn, born in 1964, comes from humble beginnings. His parents owned a bakery shop in downtown Mount Vernon, a city just now verging on a population of 32,000.  It is best known for the annual Tulip Festival and being the gateway to the beautiful Skagit Valley.  As a teen, his mother died due to drowning in the Puget Sound. He and his father moved north to Bellingham, a much more urban setting.  This is where he found his love of radio and television, booking jobs in both arenas while still in high school. 

Mayor Bud Norris has been planning this event for a year.  He proclaims the reason for giving the key to Glenn Beck is due to his reaching a national level of recognition within his profession.  My first concern, is…what profession?  He couldn’t possibly be speaking of broadcast journalism?  Nothing on the Fox News Network qualifies as journalism.  Maybe he misspoke…maybe he meant to say, “National level of recognition within his fear-loving, hate-hoarding, lie-loving, conservative audience?”  Now that is a reason I can at least applaud for its honesty.

Second, I can’t overlook the fact Mayor Norris is a Republican. I wonder if he would view Glenn Beck with this same broad stroke, open mindedness if he were a Democrat?  Due to the fact 16,000 votes were gathered by the Young Democrats of Skagit Valley opposing the event, amounting to half the population of the city, it seems fair to say Mayor Norris’ choice seemed to be representing his viewpoint – not the residents he is elected to represent. 

Additionally, the Mayor managed to forgo the city council meeting immediately preceding the key giving event through a technicality; by declaring new business was not submitted in time for the council’s agenda therefore rendering the meeting terminated.  Councilman Dale Ragan and his colleagues were not deterred.  At the current week's council meeting, a resolution not on the agenda was passed by 6 out of 7 members stating, “Mount Vernon City Council is in no way sponsoring the mayor's event on Sept. 26, 2009, and is not connected to the Glenn Beck event in any manner.”   Local news coverage of the council meeting showed a very flustered Mayor Norris.

Of course, the event proceeded.  While initially the Mayor proclaimed it did not cost the taxpayers anything, I beg to differ.  There was the cost of extra police offers to monitor the 800 protesters.  There is the opportunity cost to the business owners who received threatening phone calls prior to the event that business would be lost to them if Glenn Beck was honored in Mount Vernon.  There is the cost of citizens being misrepresented by their Mayor and then having no recourse to shut down the event.  Most of all, as I heard my friend Jeff say, there is the intangible cost of pride being lost in a city so many residents dearly love. 

Glenn Beck came to my home state.  He held an event during the middle of the day for his fans at Safeco Field.  Yet, curiously, at the “ticketed event” (the city attorney’s excuse for why the council could not shut down the event) for the key delivery Glenn Beck and Fox News only allowed for five press passes.  This was generous considering there was initially only going to be one.  Why so shy when your hometown is honoring you I wonder? 

Could it be that Glenn is a little more susceptible to his critics than he would like us to think?  It isn’t as if Glenn Beck gets out with “his people.”  He didn’t get out and bag any tea with his fellow brethren during the marches on Washington, D.C.  No Glenn, like so many of his narrow-minded, pompously over-stuffed hot winded colleagues, enjoys the protection of closed settings.  He likes to remain comfortably aloof in Fox Studios or surrounded by his supporters in private settings, like the Safeco event earlier that day. 

In a moment of climatic, hypocritical irony, Mayor Norris stated it was unfortunate it cost the citizens of Mount Vernon such a high price for free speech these days.

(Matt Wallis/Skagit Valley Herald)

He stomped out his usual rhetoric with nothing much original to say.  However, he did add this enlightening pearl of wisdom, “he didn't remember politics being so divisive when he was growing up. The country could count on a bright future if people would stop tearing each other apart,” it’s biting the irony is lost on him.  He harangued the usual boos by showing pictures of President Obama and Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire.  He summoned up tears when recollecting times past which were quickly upstaged by large doses of sarcasm regarding how he now owned the key to the protesters' homes. 

And what did Glenn Beck have to say about Mount Vernon and my beloved home state?  "I'm afraid of even landing in my own home state. It used to be sane in Seattle. In the outlying areas, it used to be sane. Now, not so much," Beck said on his radio show on Sept. 2. "You don't know some of these people in Seattle ... They don't have a life. They're out hugging salmon and setting them free."

To recap:  Glen arrived amidst a frenzy of media attention and civic protests much to his beloved egotistical lust.  He cajoled his usual nonsensical divisive commentary.  He left spraying a wake of frustration and disillusionment which included (but is not limited to):  the largest protest Mt. Vernon can remember (approximately 800 with a 65/35 split estimated*), Republican Mayor Bud Norris designating a public achievement to a private citizen while usurping the public process, shunning the media in a vain attempt to accept said public honor as a “private citizen” while hypocritically allowing Fox News to be present, and managing to insult Washington’s citizens who are renowned for our diplomacy as well as our conservation stewardship  - especially protecting depleting wild salmon runs. 

I believe Glenn Beck would benefit from a definition of conservatism, however; I won’t bother as it would be lost on him (and his supporters). It is clear he is simply making it up as he goes along. 

Way to go “truth slayer.”

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*Estimate is gathered from approximation from multiple media reports and from my local source.