George Bush was my neighbor for two days. I’m not joking. U.S. President George Bush had paid a two-day visit to Salt Lake City, Utah to meet with veterans of the Vietnam war and speak to them. Bush was staying with high-ranking guests and that was just a block away from where I was staying.
I knew that Bush had arrived from the minute he arrived in Utah. The city was divided in two-those for and against the Iraq war. There were two scheduled meetings-some Americans were going to greet the president with flags, while others were going to hold a meeting against the Iraq war and talk about how to stop it.
I postponed all that I had to do for that day, got my camera and went with the hope of witnessing some conflict or scandal. I spent the whole day going from one meeting to the next. At the end of the day, I was very exhausted and disappointed. Nothing happened, better yet, some things did happen, but everything was calm and inoffensive.
Bush arrived with his cars and 200-300 people greeted him with flags. Afterwards, the long-awaited meeting with the veterans took place. The U.S. President didn’t really mention anything new. The veterans were content with the meeting and happy that the president had come to Utah, they had received gifts and thrown a party.
The mayor of Salt Lake City headed the anti-war meeting where there were 5,000 gatherers. Democrat Rocky Anderson had to head the meeting-elections are coming up and based on the results of the last survey, more than half of the pro-Republican citizens of Utah are against the war. The mothers of the soldiers that have died in the Iraq war were also in Salt Lake City. They have been trying to meet with Bush for the past couple of years and they hoped that this would be their chance. They didn’t meet.
The next major intriguing meeting was at the White House. Who will they invite? It turned out that the mayor was at the top of the list. Despite his radical pacific political views, the White House wanted the mayor of Salt Lake City to be a VIP guest.
The third intrigue was the news about Bush’s visit. At six in the evening, my American friends and I were drinking beer and debating on what news programs will show. There was only a 40 second report-half of it was the greeting, while the rest was the anti-war meeting. There was one short section about Bush’s speech. The most important thing was all this was broadcasted on local channels: CNN, FOX NEWS, ABC and even PBS didn’t broadcast Bush’s visit.
Now you’re probably wondering why I’m writing about this “inoffensive” visit. I’m simply amazed. Amazed to see that the police hadn’t blocked the streets, which were near the place where Bush was staying at, nobody went through any stress, the police were making sure everyone was fine and that the pacific mayor was welcomed by the president. What also amazed me was why Bush chose Salt Lake City and doesn’t welcome the mothers of the dead soldiers and why veterans aren’t raising that issue.
Perhaps there is one truth: it’s very important to lack aggression and hatred no matter which side you are on. No matter how much the political struggle heats up, the national anthem will always be heard in the beginning of the meetings and gatherings, discussions with feminists and veterans. Besides that, as an American professor said, aggression is a big thing for a consumer country, especially if you’re going against the political figure on the account of the people.
P.S. After the gatherers left, the place was cleaned up. The Greek festival will kick off in Salt Lake City in a couple of days and the organizers hope that there will be that many people there. We’ll see…