Protests can be fine, but Rocky's rude

The President's appearancewill be a week from today in the Salt Palace.

The mayor's protest is scheduled to take place two blocks east.

So where exactly does a person go to protest the protester?

It's not that I disagree with what Rocky Anderson, the mayor of Salt Lake City, is saying — I'm no huge fan of the Iraqi occupation myself. I think we should have left yesterday. I'll just go to the death disagreeing with where and when he's saying it.

The president of the United States is coming to our town — again — and our mayor chooses to go all Abbie Hoffman on us — again.

Just like at the VFW Convention a year ago, people at this year's American Legion Convention will look up the street at the protesters, see the guy in the Dockers, and say, "Hey, isn't that your mayor?"

It's a whole new tack in diplomacy. Instead of having a ceremony to give the visiting dignitary the key to the city, you give him the metaphorical finger.

What happened to civility, to class, to acting like a gentleman?

Who does Rocky think he is, a journalist?

This is like having the neighbors over for dinner and your Greenpeace-loving teenage son protests because they drive an SUV.

Nothing wrong with that, other than it's bad manners and it's embarrassing.

Rocky has a right to protest, but that right is trumped by his responsibility to represent the city that elected him mayor with dignity.

That includes showing proper respect to the leader of the best nation in the world when he pays a visit.

Instead, not only has Rocky announced his intentions for Protest II, but he's personally invited Cindy Sheehan, the professional protester from Berkeley, Calif., to come and lock arms with him. They will be the two tie-dyed shirts leading the march on the Federal Building, like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan four decades ago.

Cindy's great. She champions such luminaries as oppressive Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez while calling Bush "worse than Osama bin Laden" and "the biggest terrorist in the world."

And now she's Rocky's newest best friend.