High Road in the News
Sept 2008 - Rocky Anderson in The City
Weekly 5 Spot Feature
Former
Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson now heads up the High
Road for Human Rights (HighRoadforHumanRights.org). He spoke
Sunday, Sept. 14 at the Forum for Questioning Minds, on human-rights
atrocities.
What can
be done locally about human-rights atrocities?
History shows
that most elected officials never act on their own to stop
major human-rights atrocities. It takes citizen activism to
bring about change. Things we can do locally to find solutions
and reduce harm include 1. Join High Road for Human Rights,
which organizes people in local communities across the country
to push together for change; 2. Join with other local citizens
to meet with editorial boards of TV and radio stations and
newspapers to achieve better coverage of human rights issues;
3. Join other local residents in attending every meeting where
members of our congressional delegation are present and push
for change in U.S. policy.
Which
presidential candidate will bring attention and solutions to
the atrocities?
Barack
Obama. Ralph Nader.
Which candidate
will likely prolong the suffering by not focus attention?
John McCain.
What’s
the High Road for Human Rights do?
President
Clinton’s national security adviser told a human-rights
advocate that people would have to “make more noise” if
the U.S. government were to provide international leadership
to stop the genocide in Rwanda. No one organized at the grass
roots level, there was no public call for anything to be done,
and, as a result, 800,000 men, women, and children were butchered
in 100 days. High Road for Human Rights is organizing people
in local communities throughout the U.S. so they will be working
in unison, with a proven strategy for bringing about changes
in U.S. policies relating to human rights.
For the
time being, are you sitting out a run for office?
Not
just for “the time being.” I will not run for elected
office again. I will devote the rest of my life to organizing
people throughout the nation to change U.S. policies as they
relate to human rights.
On the local
level, which upcoming races matter most and what’s at
stake?
In
order to move toward greater protections for human rights,
we need real leaders at every level of government who will
speak up and help inspire action by others. Those who, out
of timidity and fear of rocking the boat, remain quiet about
major human-rights issues—such as wars of aggression,
torture, “extraordinary rendition”—and catastrophic
environmental degradation, are not the leaders we need for
change to occur. They are part of the problem.
Are you
likely to endorse a presidential candidate this year?
I
haven’t endorsed anyone at this point. Because of the
anachronistic, anti-democratic Electoral College, my vote (which
would otherwise be for Obama) doesn’t really count, I
may vote for Nader to help send the message that the Democrats
cannot take us for granted as they move farther to the right
(like Obama did when he capitulated on FISA and immunity for
the telecoms).
What issues
should voters carefully evaluate their candidates’ stands
on?
Climate
change and urgent, aggressive implementation of alternative
energy sources; nuclear non-proliferation and eventual elimination
of nuclear weapons; and a consistent policy, consonant with
the pledge of “Never Again” after the Holocaust,
relating to the protection of human rights in the U.S. and
throughout the world.
As a former
mayor, any thoughts on a former mayor, Sarah Palin, pole vaulting
into national politics?
Sarah
Palin was the big-spending, federal-earmarks-dependent mayor
of Wasilla, population 7,025. She proved herself to be a fundamentalist
book-censoring kook then, and has since become a caricature
of the current anti-intellectual trend in the U.S. to ignore
science (and neglect reading) in denying climate change and
evolution. She opposes sex education and birth control, even
after her 17 year old daughter became pregnant from her self-described “fucking
redneck” boyfriend who has written on MySpace that he
doesn’t want any kids. That a person like Palin can be
nominated to run as vice president by a major political party
is a frightening reflection of the pervasive culture of ignorance
and intolerance in our country. Imagine Sarah Palin in charge
during a Cuban missile crisis. Several Republican consultants
(including Peggy Noonan) recently were caught on a live microphone
saying about Palin’s nomination and its impact on McCain’s
candidacy: “It’s over.” It should be.
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