My favorite color is blue

Address by
Mayor Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson

Washington Square
Salt Lake City, Utah
August 30, 2006

...Blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism.

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.

In response to those who believe we should blindly support this disastrous president, his administration, and the complacent, complicit Congress, listen to the words of Theodore Roosevelt, a great president and a Republican, who said:

The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able,
and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely
necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts,
and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as
to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is
both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the
President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only
unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even
more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about
any one else.

We are here today as truth-tellers.

And we are here to demand: "Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the
truth!"

We are here today to insist that those who were elected to be ourleaders must tell us the truth.

We are here today to insist that our news media live up to its sacred responsibility to ascertain and report the truth - rather than acting like nothing more than a bulletin board for the lies and propaganda of a manipulative, dishonest federal government.

We have been getting just about everything but the truth on matters of life and
death . . . on matters upon which our nation's reputation hinges . . . on
matters that directly relate to our nation's fundamental values . . . and on
matters relating to the survival of our planet.

In the process, our nation has engaged in an unnecessary war, based upon false justifications.

More than a hundred thousand people have been killed - and many more have
been seriously maimed, brain damaged, or rendered mentally ill. Our
nation's reputation throughout much of the world has been destroyed. We
have many more enemies bent on our destruction than before our invasion of Iraq. And the hatred toward us has grown to the point that it will take many years, perhaps generations, to overcome the loathing created by our invasion and
occupation of a Muslim country.

What incredible ineptitude and callousness for our President to talk about a Crusade while lying to us to make a case for the invasion and occupation of a Muslim country!

Our children and later generations will pay the price of the lies, the violence, the
cruelty, the incompetence, and the inhumanity of the Bush administration and the
lackey Congress that has so cowardly abrogated its responsibility and authority
under our checks-and-balances system of government.

We are here to say, "We will not stand for it any more. No more lies. No more pre-emptive, illegal war, based on false information. No more God-is-on-our-side religious nonsense to justify this immoral, illegal war. No more inhumanity."

Let's raise our voices, and demand, "Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!"...
(Salt Lake City Rally Protests the Bush Administration and Congress

by Mayor Rocky Anderson, Wed Aug 30, 2006 at 04:44:35 PM EST)