Rocky's call to protest Bush makes vets see red

Salt Lake Tribune ^ | 8/20/2005 | Glen Warchol

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson called for "the biggest demonstration this state has ever seen" to protest President Bush's appearance Monday before a national veterans convention.

"This administration has been disastrous to the country," Anderson said Friday. "If people could organize and speak out in an effective manner from the reddest state in the country, that would garner a lot of attention."

In an e-mail Wednesday to about 10 activist leaders, the maverick mayor of Utah's capital called for a diverse demonstration to greet Bush when he speaks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars at the Salt Palace Convention Center. The mayor plans to join the protesters.

"There should be a collaboration of health-care-provision advocates, seniors, the [gay, lesbian and bisexual and transsexual] community, anti-Patriot Act advocates and other civil libertarians, anti-war folks, pro-Social Security advocates, environmental advocates, anti-nuclear-testing advocates, and anti-nuclear-waste-shipment-and-storage advocates," the mayor wrote in the e-mail.

The mayor's message drew a howl of outrage from Mike Parkin, senior vice commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Atomic Post 4355 in Salt Lake City.

"Excuse my French, but - that son of a bitch!" he said. "It makes the mayor look very, very unpatriotic. It makes him look despicable."

Parkin said such demonstrations, particularly against the Iraq war, give comfort to America's enemies and will be particularly offensive to the 13,000 to 14,000 veterans gathering at the convention.

"I voted for the son of a bitch and I'll never vote for him again," said the Vietnam War veteran.

Anderson disagrees with that measure of patriotism.

"Patriotism," the mayor said, "demands that people speak out when we see our government officials acting in such anti-democratic and deceitful ways to the people of our country."

He also said: "I don't understand people simply blindly going along with the sort of deceit and utter cruelty of this administration. It's not just we have the right to speak out, but we have the obligation to speak out when we see misconduct on the part of the government. The most patriotic thing we can do is stand up against the misuse of governmental power."

Craig Axford, co-chairman of the Utah Democratic Progressive Caucus, said Anderson's encouragement of demonstrations is appropriate.

"I don't think there's anything untoward or radical about that," said Axford, an organizer of a peace rally planned for Pioneer Park, three blocks from the convention center. "For people who appreciate the mayor and appreciate his politics, obviously it will boost our event."

But Joe Cannon, chairman of the Utah Republican Party, said Anderson's encouragement of protests against the president was improper, though typical of the mayor.

"What do you expect? It's Rocky. Clearly it's intended to smack the president. As the mayor of the host city, it's at best untoward."

Cannon thinks the e-mail will only help the Utah Republican Party.

"It's not the worst thing that can happen to remind the people of Utah the kind of things Democrats nationally stand for."

Salt Lake City Councilman Dave Buhler, a Republican, also said the mayor's action was in poor taste.

"I'm disappointed he would do this and use his office to promote his political views, which do not involve the city directly."

Other city officials can do little, Buhler said, except "apologize for him again, as we are getting pretty good at doing."

Anderson, who is scheduled to make welcoming remarks to the conventioneers, says veterans will understand. "The veterans of foreign wars are heroes in my view. To stand up against government misconduct is in no way expressing a lack of support for those who defend our country."

Even though Utah gave Bush his largest margin of victory of any state in the 2000 and 2004 elections, Anderson, a Democrat, wrote in this e-mail: "Don't let him come to Utah and not see huge opposition, even in the reddest state! This would send such an important message."

"A tepid response will just send a message of apathy and resignation. Let the Bush administration - and the world - hear from Salt Lake City!"

Meanwhile, peace activists already were gearing up for the president's visit. Erin Davis, a veteran who opposes the war in Iraq, predicted at least 1,000 anti-war activists would begin gathering in Pioneer Park early Monday. The demonstration will be joined by a national group of military families who oppose the war.

Anderson plans to participate at Pioneer Park demonstration against the war and is scheduled to speak.

Axford described the rally at Pioneer Park, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., as a "pro-peace rally." It isn't being held near the Salt Palace, where the president will speak, because organizers didn't want to make the convention attendees feel unwelcome, the mayor said.

"We didn't want to invite any kind of confrontation. We wanted to focus on our positive message."

That message, Axford says, is: "We'd just like [the president] to explain and justify this war in light of the fact so much of what we were told we were fighting for clearly we weren't fighting for."

---

Reporter Heather May contributed to this story.

[big'ol_freeper]

Wow! Did not see that coming. D@mn libs are everywhere....well at least in every urban area.

[Sweetjustusnow]

DUH. Read about Momon Theology.

No suprise's here to those in the 'know'.

[bigsigh]

Since the mayor is pissing on the convention the VFW should cancel and go to a city where the mayor supports what they stand for.

[Enchante]

People don't realize that the way SLC grew, most of what appears to be the 'city' (and I'm not talking about distant suburbs) is actually not part of SLC's political boundaries, so a liberal bozo like Rocky only needs support from a very limited urban core. SLC itself is only the small urban core of a far larger metropolitan area - population of SLC in the 2000 census was only 181,743 (whereas the larger metro area is pegged at more than 1.3 million). Much of the urban valley consists of separate political jurisdictions: Murray, Midvale, Sandy, West Valley, Jordan and South Jordan, etc. Thus, Rocky manages to preen and pose as 'Mayor' of a rather extensive metro area when he is only elected by a few tens of thousands of like-minded liberals in the urban core.

"Salt Lake City is the state capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Utah. Its population as of the 2000 Census was 181,743. The Salt Lake City-Ogden metropolitan area, defined as Salt Lake, Davis, and Weber counties by the federal government, had a population of 1,333,914 as of 2000.

[billnaz]

Since the crackheads and others have taken over Pioneer Park, perhaps it should be closed down and rebuilt in another place that respects the heritage of Utah.

Or, better yet, rather than surrender Pioneer Park, send in enough law enforcement to clean it out, then move on to City Hall and clean that out.

[billnaz]

I saw on another thread that Salt Lake is fast becoming one of the favorite vacation spots for homosexuals. Is Rocky "that way" or is this just coincidence?

The reason I ask is that when I lived in another city our mayor was light in the loafers. The word obviously went over the lavender telegraph, because we soon had a lot of people like him visiting our city.

[frankenMonkey]

You're right. The political boundaries of SLC proper include the University district and plenty of "affordable housing" areas...I'd love to see the LDS church become active in repairing the damage these 'progressives' have done. Us old-timers remember when SLC was a beautiful, safe, friendly city.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

I'm not sure if he's actually a bone-smuggler or just likes to cater to them a lot for soem other reason.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Okay, that definitely clears up a few things for me.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

No doubt, why should 14,000 people come to spend money and have the President come to town? They should tell Rocky to get bent and that they'll be taking their business elsewhere.