A Voice in the Wilderness

Hey, Salt Lake City -- it's just not fair! Philly is the home of Rocky, so how did you end up with Mayor Rocky Anderson? He is the kind of Rocky that Philly could really use as Mayor.

The Nation's article describes it best, The Mayor Who Challenged the President:

The night before Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson hosted a crowd of several thousand protestors on the grounds of City Hall, Anderson's friend and advisor, the sculptor Steven Goldsmith, told me that the mayor was about to become "a folk hero of the American West."

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Anderson is surrounded by extremely intelligent, idealistic, and, it has to be said, adoring people. His administration has a sort of Camelot-in-the-Wasatch Mountains feel to it, a glamorous, energetic sense of possibility. In a city more known as the center of Mormonism than as a focal point for progressive politics, Anderson has instituted some of the most creative, thoughtful and radical urban policies anywhere in America. He has pushed to implement the Kyoto Protocols locally; has recreated the way in which city officials interact with their constituents; has restructured the city's criminal justice system; has gone out on a limb to defend gay rights; and has repeatedly taken on big developers, from "sprawl mall" advocates to those in favor of unregulated suburban growth in the large Salt Lake valley region surrounding the 182,000-strong city itself.

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Rocky's speech (everyone calls him just "Rocky"), Rocky's speech, now that was something else. It was orders of magnitude more powerful than any critique of Bush I've seen by an elected political figure, not so much because of his particular denunciations of Bush's Iraq policies, but because he synthesized sentiments about the whole way in which Bush governs and the nature of his relationship with the electorate.

Norm Jenson of One Good Move has a series of excellent posts/videos on Mayor Rocky Anderson's protest during Bush's recent appearance in Salt Lake City. See, e.g., Mayor Rocky Anderson on Bush and Patriotism. In his speech, Rocky said:

A patriot is a person who loves his or her country. Who among you loves your country so much that you have come here today to raise your voice out of deep concern for our nation--and for our world?

And who among you loves your country so much that you insist that our nation's leaders tell us the truth?

Let's hear it: "Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!"

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A patriot does not tell people who are intensely concerned about their country to just sit down and be quiet; to refrain from speaking out in the name of politeness or for the sake of being a good host; to show slavish, blind obedience and deference to a dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating President.

That is not a patriot. Rather, that person is a sycophant. That person is a member of a frightening culture of obedience--a culture where falling in line with authority is more important than choosing what is right, even if it is not easy, safe, or popular. And, I suspect, that person is afraid--afraid we are right, afraid of the truth (even to the point of denying it), afraid he or she has put in with an oppressive, inhumane regime that does not respect the laws and traditions of our country, and that history will rank as the worst presidency our nation has ever had to endure.

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This is a new day. We will not be silent. We will continue to raise our voices. We will bring others with us. We will grow and grow, regardless of political party--unified in our insistence upon the truth, upon peace-making, upon more humane treatment of our brothers and sisters around the world. . . . Let us keep in mind the injunction of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

Anderson's full speech is reprinted at Common Dreams, We Won't Be Quiet.

Jenson also attended the protest and videotaped it, Impeach King George, which he posted with a great background song.*

Finally, there's a segment by Keith Olbermann, who also interviewed the Mayor: Rocky With Keith. All well worth watching.

I must admit that I was surprised that Salt Lake City was the site of this impressive stand against Bush's policies. Utah -- bastion of Bush Country -- actually has a few progressive souls? I've been to Salt Lake City and I would never have thought it (I guess my own biases are coming through). I'm more than happy to be proven wrong.

* Jacob's Ladder ( see Peace Not War: Chumbawamba) written as part of the 'Not In Our Name' project.

Tags: News, Bush, Politics, Video, Mayor Rocky Anderson