Utahns rally in quest to improve the planet

A coalition of the indignant braved a cold wind and came together Saturday for a Healthy Planet March and Rally, demanding cleaner air, an end to the Iraq war and universal health care.

"We have to have a stronger voice, and we believe these three are common ground issues," said Victor Crews, community activist and spokesman for the event, which started at the Salt Lake City-County Building.

Each of three issues affects the other two, and a solution to one would facilitate solutions to the others, said Hans Ehrbar, an economics professor at the University of Utah and a member of the event committee.

All three issues have been difficult to address due to misinformation spread by politicians and irresponsible media, former Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson told rally attendees.

The event began at noon and featured a few dozen cyclists wearing face masks to protest air pollution as part of what they called a 350 Campaign. Environmentalists believe a sustainable atmosphere must not have more than 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide. The atmosphere currently has 383 parts per million. The organizers hoped to have 350 riders but said the important thing was raising awareness of that figure and organizing grass-roots commitment for change.

A repeated theme at the rally was that political candidates cannot be relied on to bring about change. Grass-roots action is needed, Crews said. Voting will not be enough, especially since all three major candidates have shied away from single-payer health-care plans or immediate withdrawal from Iraq, said Anderson. Only when the public demands change will politicians respond, the activists said.

Vietnam Veterans Against the War led a march around surrounding blocks with about 100 people from the Salt Lake Quakers, the Ralph Nader campaign, the Utah Green Party, members of the Disabled Rights Action Committee and supporters of related organizations.

Former Green Party Senate candidate Julian Hatch drove to Salt Lake for the rally from Boulder, Garfield County, because he's still angry that the United States entered the war. "I was here five years ago before the war, and now we're here saying, 'I told you so,"' he said.

Barbara Toomer, from the Disabled Rights Action Committee, said that her group isn't always active about environmental and anti-war issues but was present to advocate for single-payer health care and support the other causes. Society of Friends (Quaker) members Charlene Weir and Melodee Lambert said the war was their main concern but agreed with Toomer that support for all three was important, especially because the cost of the war makes it difficult to fund change in the other two.

The rally featured speeches from Toomer about health care, Iraq war veteran Chris Conway, Brian Moench from Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment about the need for policymakers to rely more on good science, and Green Party activist Peter Camejo. Anderson concluded the rally with familiar segments of his stump speeches on the failures of national and local newspapers, what he said were the failures of Rep. Jim Matheson, who he called a "Bush Republican," and the failures of citizens to buck the "culture of obedience" and demand better health-care and environmental policies.

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