Community Corner
Long Lines Don't Deter Fans at Glenn Beck Appearance
Some wait for hours to meet the conservative talk show host and author and ask him to sign a copy of his latest book.
A long line wrapped inside and outside the Costco in Cranberry Friday as hundreds of people stood waiting for the chance to meet Glenn Beck.
“It was worth it,” said Cranberry resident Lynn Brubaker, who said she spent about two hours in line.
The conservative talk show host and author was in the area Friday to sign copies of his new book, Agenda 21, which is on sale now.
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“We’re big fans,” added Mars resident Courtney Steel, whose 3-year-old twins, Lexi and Braylin, and 1-year-old daughter, Kinsley, posed for a quick photo with Beck.
Although the appearance only was supposed to last from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Beck was still signing books and posing for photos after the allotted hour ran out. Harriet Parke, who wrote Agenda 21 with Beck, also was on hand to sign copies of the book.
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As for the crowds packing the Costco, Joseph Kerry, chief of staff for Mercury Radio Arts, said there have been similar turnouts for Beck’s others appearances on the Agenda 21 book tour.
On Thursday, Beck made three stops in Pennsylvania, including King of Prussia, Allentown and Harrisburg. Following his book-signing event Friday in Cranberry, he will head to Ohio to visit Akron, Cleveland and Columbus.
“I think it’s the message,” Kerry said of what attracts people to the signings.
Set in the future, Agenda 21 is the tale of a United Nations program that leads to an authoritarian state. The nation is no longer known as America but as “the Republic.”
There is “No president. No Congress. No Supreme Court. No freedom,” according to a description on Beck’s website. “There are only the Authorities.”
Although fictional, the novel is based on an actual program—also called Agenda 21—created by the United Nations that deals with sustainable development and human impacts on the environment.
Accompanied by his wife and daughter, Bruce Kennedy said he learned of Beck’s appearance in Cranberry through the 9-12 project, a group founded by Beck with the mission of uniting Americans as they pulled together after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 2001.
Kennedy, who began waiting in line at about 10 a.m. Friday, said he couldn’t resist a chance to meet Beck.
“We enjoyed seeing him in person,” the Valencia resident said. “We listen to him all the time.”
Did you attend Friday’s book signing? What did you think of those long lines?
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