One Utah

Reposted from August 31st 2006

On Wednesday August 30th I expected George W. Bush to speak to the American Legion National Convention as his office had announced in earlier in the month. As the day approached for Bush’s visit we learned that the American Legion would also be visited by Secretaries Rice and Rumsfeld. It was not much of a surprise, at least to me, that once the organizers of the “We the People” rally settled on August 30th Bush rearranged his visit to the following day and sent Rice and Rumsfeld a day ahead of the event. Excuse me, I forgot that demonstrations and protests are meaningless and ineffective, or was it the occupation of Iraq.
Photo by Rick Egan, Salt Lake Tribune
The rally organizers also worked with local constitutional scholars, such as Penny Breiman and Ed Firmage, to draft and deliver an indictment of the Bush Administration for its lies and war crimes to the Offices of Senators Hatch and Bennett. Senator Hatch was in his office but refused to see the delegation of 8 Utahns at his Salt Lake City office. Several thousand people stood outside the grounds of the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building in Downtown Salt Lake City as our delegation attempted to deliver the people’s indictment of Bush. We waited and sang, and chanted and waited. Senator Hatch refused to see our delegation at his public office. Instead he sent one of his office aides downstairs to the lobby to receive the people’s indictment. What arrogance from a politician that was elected in 1976 on a platform of term limits in Congress.

Later in the evening I attended the Salt Lake County/Utah GOP organized rally at Washington Square. Senator Hatch was speaking from a podium on the City and County building steps when I arrived. He was speaking about how inspired he was by the recent death of Utah Marine Adam Valdez in Iraq. As a critic and activist against the Iraq invasion and occupation I understood that I would be in a hostile environment if I spoke out. Senator Hatch stood there at the podium in front of 150-200 supporters using the killing of Adam Valdez to support his political agenda. As a member of Military Families Speak Out with a little brother active duty in the Marine Corps I could not help but speak out. Senator Hatch was grandstanding on the death of young Marines and soldiers while lying to them about why they are in Iraq to begin with. On top of all this, Hatch and Bennett both refused to see our delegation on behalf of about 4,000 Utah citizens at his public office. I see this as an outrage.

As I said, I was standing 30 feet away from the stairs, where the grass area begins on the westside of Washington Square. I began to shout, “Mr. Hatch, Mr. Hatch, the people have a grievance and you refused them today. The people have a grievance and you refused them at your public office earlier today. As a member of Congress, you have a responsibility to hear the people’s grievances and you refused us.” As I said, he spoke to about 150 supporters but several thousand came with a delegation of 8 to his office and were dealt with in a couple of minutes by his aide. We don’t know if he simply threw our indictment in the trash can or ever saw it at all.

As I was shouting to get Senator Hatch’s attention, someone forcefully grabbed from me behind. They held my shoulders as I was kicked and a knee was driven hard into the back of my thighs and lower back. Then another individual grabbed me as well. I turned and an elderly man had his fist clenched and raised at me. Some of the other attendees were screaming at me, “shut up, shut your god damn mouth” and “get the hell out of here; we are talking about more important things here.” A gentlemen that was standing next to me at the sound equipment area on the lawn was yelling, “let him go, stop it, let him be.” I don’t know who this friend is out there but, thank you. You may have saved me from being punched in the face. I only saw three Salt Lake City police officers at the event but none of them said anything to me. Nor did they approach my attackers.

Thanks to this ‘good Samaritan’ I was able to get free of the men holding me. I walked towards the stage and to the left where some guys with a large “Don’t Tread on Me” Colonial era flag stood. I kept shouting at Senator Hatch to hear the people’s grievance. I shouted that he should, “read your constitution, read your constitution, Mr. Hatch.” Unfortunately by the time I broke free of my attackers Senator Hatch had already left the stage. Another speaker had taken the stage and was talking within less than 1 minute from when I started to call out to Senator Hatch. In all honesty folks, it appeared to me that Senator Hatch fled from the podium. He appeared to back away from the podium after the men grabbed me.

Holly Mullen claims that Senator Hatch told the men to let me speak and leave me alone in her August 31st column. I honestly never heard Senator Hatch say this, at least not into the microphone. Another man, standing out in the crowd, near the sound board was shouting, “stop it, leave him alone” but I never heard Hatch say any of these things. He just disappeared from the podium and microphone. As of yet, he has not even acknowledged receiving, let alone, responded to the people’s indictment of the Bush Administration. Perhaps Hatch’s consistent reelection since 1976 makes him immune to the petty criticisms of little people. Yet, here we are, veterans, military families, low wage workers, immigrants, Muslims, pacifists, liberals, conservatives and many others saying no more to the doctrine of vengeance and war. No more lies, distortions, spying and subterfuge. Hatch seems perfectly content to pretend we don’t exist. What I learned is that when the little people confront Orrin Hatch, he does the most shameful, unpatriotic and cowardly thing imaginable, he cuts and runs from his enemies while others fight his battles for him.

This entry was posted Saturday, September 2nd, 2006 at 6:00 pm and is filed under 4th Estate (Media), Crimes, Ed Firmage, George W. Bush, Iraq, Media Corrections By The People, Republicans, Salt Lake City, This Blog, Utah Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.