Rocky invited Sheehan to Salt Lake

WASHINGTON — Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson invited anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan to join speakers at a rally when President Bush speaks to the American Legion Convention.

Anderson invited Sheehan via e-mail a few days ago, her spokeswoman Tiffany Burns said, and "she jumped at the chance to be there."

Bush, along with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, is expected to be at the American Legion convention on Aug. 30, which may draw about 14,500 attendees.

Sheehan, who has become a high-profile spokeswoman for the anti-war movement since her son, Army Spc. Casey, was killed in Iraq in 2004, was unable to attend a similar rally in Utah last summer, when President Bush addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention. She was in the midst of her famous "Camp Casey" vigil outside Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch.

Anderson encouraged attendance and spoke at last year's rally, which irritated many veterans and some local political leaders.

But Sheehan praised Salt Lake's mayor in an interview Wednesday on KSL Radio's Doug Wright show.

"He is an amazingly progressive and outspoken critic of the war and the president's policies," she said.

She said some of her supporters attended last year's VWF protest.

"We couldn't make it, so this year we're coming and we're going to do a big march and a rally," Sheehan said.

Greg Felice, one of the rally organizers, said the group Utah Voices is made up of people of all political ideologies who want to get the message out that the war in Iraq is leading the country in the wrong direction and not making the nation any safer.

He said Sheehan and Anderson are just two of the speakers who will represent the group's ideas. The group objects to the administration's environmental, energy, financial and other polices.

"It's a broad set of concerns," Felice said. "People can show respect and exercise their First Amendment rights."

He added that he and other attendees are choosing to wear "Sunday best" attire to the rally "out of respect for our message."

Anderson would not comment on the rally or Sheehan's participation. The mayor and his spokesman, Patrick Thronson, have declined the newspaper's requests for comment for the past 55 days.

Terry Schow, vice president of the Utah American Legion Convention Corporation, said he was "disappointed" that the mayor would encourage participation by Sheehan or anyone else at the rally.

"I wish our good mayor would use another forum," Schow said. "He is capitalizing on the efforts of many, many people. I wish he would be a statesman."

Schow said that when Bush visits Chicago, Mayor Richard Daley, a Democrat, does not hold or participate in protests.