Anti-war/Cheney protest draws large turnout on Saturday; video clip
Sunday, August 12, 2007
By Sam Petri
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-As many as 250 people gathered Saturday afternoon at the corner of Hwy.
22 and the Village Road to protest the war in Iraq and to decry Vice President Dick Cheney’s role in the
four-and-a-half-year conflict.
Organized by Jackson Hole residents Jim Stanford, Walt Farmer and Karen
Hogan, the event featured speeches by State Rep. Pete Jorgensen
(D-Jackson), author Alexandra Fuller, attorney Kent Spence, and veteran
war medic Nick Rowley, along with protest music by Phil Round, Derrik
Hufsmith, Peter “Chanman” Chandler, Dick Barker and Carolyn Groves.
Afterwards, demonstrators marched 1.4 miles down the Village Road
pathway to the gates of the Teton Pines Country Club, where the Vice
President owns a house and is currently vacationing.
“In this day and age it’s very easy to be jaded about politics,” said
Stanford in his opening speech. “We don’t feel we can really trust the
people that we send to Washington, D.C., to do the people’s business.”
He noted one local exception – State Rep. Pete Jorgensen. In his
speech, Jorgensen told the crowd that, while attending that morning’s
dedication of Grand Teton National Park’s new Craig Thomas Discovery
and Visitor Center, where Cheney was the keynote speaker, he heard the
Vice President used the word “humility.” The name Cheney drew boos from
the crowd. Jorgensen then said, “I truly believe that they’re
constituents of mine in the state legislature, and I think we need to
afford them an opportunity to come back to their home without
personalizing the feelings we may have. They are public servants. They
have been elected twice – maybe it was a mistake – I don’t know what it
was, but we get to get over it next year.” he went on, “Pick a
candidate – I don’t care what party – that generally agrees with you
and vote next November.”
Alexandra Fuller spoke next: “Our leaders have let us down. I think
they genuinely thought they were taking care of us by going over there
and scribbling anyone who didn’t look like us. But that’s middle school
thinking and I don’t want to live in a middle school world for the rest
of my life ... . Creative thinking is to create peace.”
Attorney Kent Spence declared the event an exercise in the fundamental
American rights of association and free speech. “When the leaders of
your country are out of step with you, when they are no longer
representing the people, when they have become tyrannical, when they
have become tyrants, you have the right to remove them under the
Constitution. That’s not radical, that’s American. It’s our duty.”
Finally, Air Force veteran Nick Rowley spoke. Rowley had served as a
medic in Bosnia and his brother recently returned from Iraq. “What you
are doing here, is supporting our troops. We need more of that,” he
said. “If we found out that we went over to Iraq based on a lie, then
why are we still there? We’re there for money. We’re there for oil.
We’re there for Halliburton. We’re there for every single reason that
isn’t American, that isn’t a reason for freedom.”
After the impassioned speeches, the demonstrators took to the pathway
and marched to Teton Pines country club with an effigy of Dick Cheney,
which was mounted on top of a wooden box with wheels. The life-sized,
papier-mâché statue showed the V.P holding a spouting oil derrick in
one arm and a fishing pole in the other. A smaller, horned bust of
George Bush was featured blindfolded at Cheney’s feet. When protesters
reached their final destination a rope was slung around Cheney’s head
and he was then pulled to the ground – echoing the notorious footage of
Iraqis pulling down a statue of Saddam Hussein in 2003 in
Baghdad. For the protesters: mission accomplished.
Video by Ben Cannon
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Anti-war/Cheney protest draws large turnout on Saturday; video clip | Planet JH News Article: General News