SLC mayor speaks up

[Dan Scanlan <coolhanduke@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From Downhold:

     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 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."