"Silence is complicity" - Salt Lake City mayor speech condemning MSM, Bush Administratio

(got this in my morning email and thought i'd post it for discussion. we at DU sometimes think of ourselves (or castigate ourselves) as the bleeding edge of lefty ideas. here's a mayor of a (not-so) conservative city in a conservative state speaking truth to power in a way that reminds me of the best of the best i see here. take note of the language he uses -- he takes no prisoners. this is a fearless speech. heartening. -- brook)

edited to amend my perception of SLC as "conservative." -- brook




"Silence is complicity" - A Courageous Mayor Speaks

Address by Mayor Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson
Salt Lake City, Utah, October 27, 2007



Today, as we come together once again in this great city, we raise our voices
in unison to say to President Bush, to Vice President Cheney, to other members
of the Bush Administration (past and present), to a majority of Congress,
including Utah's entire congressional delegation, and to much of the
mainstream media: "You have failed us miserably and we won't take it any
more."

While we had every reason to expect far more of you, you have been pompous,
greedy, cruel, and incompetent as you have led this great nation to a moral,
military, and national security abyss. You have breached trust with the
American people in the most egregious ways. You have utterly failed in the
performance of your jobs. You have undermined our Constitution, permitted the
violation of the most fundamental treaty obligations, and betrayed the rule of
law.

You have engaged in, or permitted, heinous human rights abuses of the sort
never before countenanced in our nation's history as a matter of official
policy. You have sent American men and women to kill and be killed on the
basis of lies, on the basis of shifting justifications, without competent
leadership, and without even a coherent plan for this monumental blunder. You
have engaged in, or permitted, heinous human rights abuses of the sort never
before countenanced in our nation's history as a matter of official policy.
You have sent American men and women to kill and be killed on the basis of
lies, on the basis of shifting justifications, without competent leadership,
and without even a coherent plan for this monumental blunder.

We are here to tell you: "We won't take it any more!"

You have acted in direct contravention of values that we, as Americans who
love our country, hold dear. You have deceived us in the most cynical,
outrageous ways. You have undermined, or allowed the undermining of, our
constitutional system of checks and balances among the three presumed co-equal
branches of government. You have helped lead our nation to the brink of
fascism, of a dictatorship contemptuous of our nation's treaty obligations,
federal statutory law, our Constitution, and the rule of law.

Because of you, and because of your jingoistic false "patriotism," our world
is far more dangerous, our nation is far more despised, and the threat of
terrorism is far greater than ever before. It has been absolutely astounding
how you have committed the most horrendous acts, causing such needless tragedy
in the lives of millions of people, yet you wear your so-called religion on
your sleeves, asserting your God-is-on-my-side nonsense - when what you have
done flies in the face of any religious or humanitarian tradition. Your
hypocrisy is mind-boggling - and disgraceful.

What part of "Thou shalt not kill" do you not understand? What part of the
"Golden rule" do you not understand? What part of "be honest," "be
responsible," and "be accountable" don't you understand? What part of "Blessed
are the peacekeepers" do you not understand?

Because of you, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, many
thousands of people have suffered horrendous lifetime injuries, and millions
have been run off from their homes. For the sake of our nation, for the sake
of our children, and for the sake of our brothers and sisters around the
world, we are morally compelled to say, as loudly as we can, "We won't take it
any more!"

As United States agents kidnap, disappear, and torture human beings around
the world, you justify, you deceive, and you cover up. We find what you have
done to men, women and children, and to the good name and reputation of the
United States, so appalling, so unconscionable, and so outrageous as to compel
us to call upon you to step aside and allow other men and women who are
competent, true to our nation's values, and with high moral principles to
stand in your places - for the good of our nation, for the good of our
children, and for the good of our world.

In the case of the President and Vice President, this means impeachment and
removal from office, without any further delay from a complacent, complicit
Congress, the Democratic majority of which cares more about political gain in
2008 than it does about the vindication of our Constitution, the rule of law,
and democratic accountability.It means the election of people as President and
Vice President who, unlike most of the presidential candidates from both major
parties, have not aided and abetted in the perpetration of the illegal,
tragic, devastating invasion and occupation of Iraq. And it means the election
of people as President and Vice President who will commit to return our nation
to the moral and strategic imperative of refraining from torturing human
beings.

In the case of the majority of Congress, it means electing people who are
diligent enough to learn the facts, including reading available National
Intelligence Estimates, before voting to go to war. It means electing to
Congress men and women who will jealously guard Congress's sole prerogative to
declare war. It means electing to Congress men and women who will not submit
like vapid lap dogs to presidential requests for blank checks to engage in
so-called preemptive wars, for legislation permitting warrantless wiretapping
of communications involving US citizens, and for dangerous, irresponsible,
saber-rattling legislation like the recent Kyl-Lieberman amendment.

We must avoid the trap of focusing the blame solely upon President Bush and
Vice-President Cheney. This is not just about a few people who have wronged
our country - and the world. They were enabled by members of both parties in
Congress, they were enabled by the pathetic mainstream news media, and,
ultimately, they have been enabled by the American people - 40% of whom are so
ill-informed they still think Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks - a people who
know and care more about baseball statistics and which drunken starlets are
wearing underwear than they know and care about the atrocities being committed
every single day in our name by a government for which we need to take
responsibility.

As loyal Americans, without regard to political partisanship -- as veterans,
as teachers, as religious leaders, as working men and women, as students, as
professionals, as businesspeople, as public servants, as retirees, as people
of all ages, races, ethnic origins, sexual orientations, and faiths -- we are
here to say to the Bush administration, to the majority of Congress, and to
the mainstream media: "You have violated your solemn responsibilities. You
have undermined our democracy, spat upon our Constitution, and engaged in
outrageous, despicable acts. You have brought our nation to a point of
immorality, inhumanity, and illegality of immense, tragic, unprecedented
proportions."

But we will live up to our responsibilities as citizens, as brothers and
sisters of those who have suffered as a result of the imperial bullying of the
United States government, and as moral actors who must take a stand: And we
will, and must, mean it when we say "We won't take it any more."

If we want principled, courageous elected officials, we need to be principled,
courageous, and tenacious ourselves. History has demonstrated that our elected
officials are not the leaders - the leadership has to come from us. If we
don't insist, if we don't persist, then we are not living up to our
responsibilities as citizens in a democracy - and our responsibilities as
moral human beings. If we remain silent, we signal to Congress and the Bush
administration - and to candidates running for office - and to the world -
that we support the status quo.

Silence is complicity. Only by standing up for what's right and never letting
down can we say we are doing our part. Our government, on the basis of a
campaign we now know was entirely fraudulent, attacked and militarily occupied
a nation that posed no danger to the United States. Our government, acting in
our name, has caused immense, unjustified death and destruction.

It all started five years ago, yet where have we, the American people, been?
At this point, we are responsible. We get together once in a while at
demonstrations and complain about Bush and Cheney, about Congress, and about
the pathetic news media. We point fingers and yell a lot. Then most people
politely go away until another demonstration a few months later.

How many people can honestly say they have spent as much time learning about
and opposing the outrages of the Bush administration as they have spent
watching sports or mindless television programs during the past five years?
Escapist, time-sapping sports and insipid entertainment have indeed become the
opiate of the masses. Why is this country so sound asleep? Why do we abide
what is happening to our nation, to our Constitution, to the cause of peace
and international law and order? Why are we not doing all in our power to put
an end to this madness?

We should be in the streets regularly and students should be raising hell on
our campuses. We should be making it clear in every way possible that
apologies or convoluted, disingenuous explanations just don't cut it when
presidential candidates and so many others voted to authorize George Bush and
his neo-con buddies to send American men and women to attack and occupy
Iraq.

Let's awaken, and wake up the country by committing here and now to do all
each of us can to take our nation back. Let them hear us across the country,
as we ask others to join us: "We won't take it any more!"

I implore you: Draw a line. Figure out exactly where your own moral breaking
point is. How much will you put up with before you say "No more" and mean
it?

I have drawn my line as a matter of simple personal morality: I cannot, and
will not, support any candidate who has voted to fund the atrocities in Iraq.
I cannot, and will not, support any candidate who will not commit to remove
all US troops, as soon as possible, from Iraq. I cannot, and will not, support
any candidate who has supported legislation that takes us one step closer to
attacking Iran. I cannot, and will not, support any candidate who has not
fought to stop the kidnapping, disappearances, and torture being carried on in
our name.

If we expect our nation's elected officials to take us seriously, let us send
a powerful message they cannot misunderstand. Let them know we really do have
our moral breaking point. Let them know we have drawn a bright line. Let them
know they cannot take our support for granted - that, regardless of their
party and regardless of other political considerations, they will not have our
support if they cannot provide, and have not provided,principled leadership.

The people of this nation may have been far too quiet for five years, but let
us pledge that we won't let it go on one more day - that we will do all we can
to put an end to the illegalities, the moral degradation, and the
disintegration of our nation's reputation in the world.

Let us be unified in drawing the line - in declaring that we do have a moral
breaking point. Let us insist, together, in supporting our troops and in
gratitude for the freedoms for which our veterans gave so much, that we bring
our troops home from Iraq, that we return our government to a constitutional
democracy, and that we commit to honoring the fundamental principles of human
rights.

In defense of our country, in defense of our Constitution, in defense of our
shared values as Americans - and as moral human beings - we declare today that
we will fight in every way possible to stop the insanity, stop the continued
military occupation of Iraq, and stop the moral depravity reflected by the
kidnapping, disappearing, and torture of people around the world.

But I grew up with Mormons as best family friends and they were very free-thinking, mostly Democratic (registered as such), and the most contented family I have ever known.

on the local level (where the rubber meets the road -- or the pot hole) we're much more impressed by a mayoral candidate who is willing to spend money on the public. we want people with vision for "our" city. left candidates win b/c they can make things WORK. on the local level it's much more obvious when a righty takes the money and nothing gets better.

have Rs by their name. I've lived here all of my voting life and we've had mostly Dem mayors and even the Rs have tended left.

As an ex-municipal employee, I think you've made a good point about the rubber meeting the road.

Anderson is no bleeding heart liberal. He is not a "lefty nutjob" or a "conspiracy theorist" or an "out of touch activist pushing a narrow agenda." What he is is a person saying what a great many Americans have been saying for years.

NOW will you pay attention?

if we speak these words, we are supposed to do so carefully -- so as not to upset the apple cart or the peanut gallery. critique -- but do so in moderate tones and don't ask for the impossible, such as impeachment. it's not as bad now as it was a few months ago, thank gawd, but we're still pretty cowed.

He managed to be elected in SLC which is more liberal than one might expect, but hardly a Dem stronghold by any means.

He's got the chops--and the experience. And he speaks his mind regardless of the political expediency. Watch him, he may be one of our best and brightest.

If you get one fraction of an inch closer to Rocky than listening to his anti-war speeches, you know what a mean, selfish, bully he can be.

And while I'm delighted he was such a vocal war critic, he was so abrasive he simply could not get along with the city council and some issues suffered as a result, IMO.

The new mayor, elected just this last Tuesday, is not bat shit crazy in his personal dealings like Rocky is. And we elected 2 more progressive/liberal city council members so watch for Salt Lake to take off as a very progressive place. (My son was campaign manager for one of the new council members. He beat a incumbent, Nancy Saxton, who was a liberal democrat but just not liberal enough for Salt Lake.)

For those of you who think Salt Lake is just barely blue? The new mayor, Becker, is an outspoken, long time environmentalist. A hippie really. And he won by 64% to 36%. We are true blue.

sometimes do not go hand in hand. glad to hear you've continued with progressive leadership!

a tendency to be that way. Some were more people-savvy than others, certainly.

But as NB mentions upthread, the city is where political rubber meets the road. People want what they want and they always want it yesterday. Mayors generally don't have extensive staffs to shield them from the public so I wonder if being a little arrogant might be necessary.

Phoenix's incumbent mayor is and asshole and a half, IMHO and not one of our shiuning mayoral lights, but what're ya gonna do? Actually, our former Republican mayor was more left than our current D one, IMHO. :shrug:

especially when trying to push progressive measures. but, it all boils down to social intelligence, and sometimes policy wonks make bad social butterflies.

last August. What a difference. I hated it in 1994 but after last visit, can't wait to get back. I think right now it's one of the bluer cities I've visited. Its population is also very young and from my experiences with the locals, quite progressive. Oh yeah, that farmer's market you hold on Saturdays in the big park not far from the Salt Palace is the best I've ever attended. It reminded me of a parking lot at a Grateful Dead show, only with more fresh fruits and vegetables and a little less recreational chemistry.

"the creative class." ugh -- sorry to use that term of art.

the most progressive cities in the nation. Utah is extremely conservative but not Salt Lake City. They just elected another very progressive mayor, Mayor Ralph Becker.

http://www.ralphbecker.com/

A forward-looking vision for Salt Lake City

city in a conservative state.

astonished if they ever visited SLC. I've encountered more free thinkers there than here in Phoenix.

SLC has the cleanest air I've ever encountered in a true city.

god, i wish orlando (my new home) could step to the plate and throw the old-machine bums out!

:hi:

be elected to governor or senate/representative?

Or, dare I say it... Well, I guess that part goes beyond Utah borders, so :shrug:

Anderson shows so much promise.

Gore/Anderson would be a DREAAAAAAAAAM ticket!

a statesman in the sense of someone with the big vision, and a problem-solver in the sense of someone with the passion for creating better places to live.

How does one explain cities like Salt Lake City, Austin in Texas, Santa Fe in New Mexico, Boulder in Colorado (any others to add to the list?). Someone needs to study this phenomena. Is it a reaction to the redness of the rural areas, sort of a safe haven for the state's lefties?

ROCKY'S THE MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:yourock::yourock::yourock::yourock::yourock::yourock::yourock::yourock:
:yourock::yourock::yourock::yourock::yourock::yourock::yourock::yourock:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EADM_Ak3GTg

I think I'm in love ...

:loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: