By Jim Stanford on August 17, 2007
All photos by Jonathan Selkowitz © 2007 Selko Photo
More than 300 people gathered on Saturday, Aug. 11, to march on Vice President Dick Cheney’s home and call for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
The Jackson Peace Rally was the largest anti-war demonstration ever held in Jackson Hole and likely the largest ever in Wyoming.
Protesters listened to musical performances and a few speeches at the Stilson Ranch park before marching 1.4 miles along the Highway 390 pathway to the gates of Teton Pines, the country club where Cheney owns a $3 million home and was vacationing at the time.
Many of the participants demanded Cheney’s removal from office, accusing him of lying our country into an unnecessary war and ordering soldiers to die for that lie, among a host of other reasons.
The rally was peaceful, and cut across all demographics of Jackson Hole, from young children to great-grandparents. There were doctors, lawyers, writers, publishers and at least one Teton County commissioner, Hank Phibbs, who put off hiking plans in the Tetons to attend.
A half-mile-long procession snaked along the pathway as protesters joined the march on foot and by bike.
With them they toted a 14-foot-tall wheeled statue of Cheney constructed by artists and activists. The effigy had the vice president’s trademark snarl; in one hand he held a fishing rod with a bobber and worm (the ultimate insult for a fly fisherman), and in the other he cradled a gushing oil rig. On the pedestal of the statue was the inscription, “IMPEACH, IMPRISON, IMAGINE!”
State Rep. Pete Jorgensen, D-Jackson, displayed political courage by agreeing to speak at the rally. Jorgensen, a three-term legislator who opposes the war, talked about the importance of voting and the need to press Wyoming’s congressional delegation in person about Iraq. He also discussed fixes to the health care system and urged the protesters to be respectful of the Cheneys while they are in Jackson Hole.
The crowd was peppered with military veterans, and the emotional highlight of the rally came when Nick Rowley, who served in the Army in Bosnia, addressed the crowd and gave a soldier’s perspective. Our troops make a promise when they join the military, Rowley said, but they also get a promise in return from their country — “to be sent into harm’s way only when it’s for the right reasons, when it’s for the truth.”
Moose resident and folk musician Dick Barker drew perhaps the loudest ovation for his performance of a song called “Operation Iraqi Liberation” — the original name for the U.S. invasion, he said. As the audience sang along on the chorus, Barker crooned, “What does that spell? Operation Iraqi Liberation — O.I.L.”
Earlier in the day, Barker had attended the dedication of the new visitor center in Grand Teton National Park, where Cheney spoke. For that event Barker parked his pickup in a visible spot where attendees could read the custom-printed message spelled out across the back of the truck: “IMPEACH CHENEY FIRST.”
Upon reaching the southern gate of Teton Pines, protesters chanted that slogan as they toppled the statue of Cheney, a mock re-enactment of the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue staged by the U.S. military in Baghdad in April 2003.
Some of the crowd, unaware that the procession had stopped, went to the north gate of the Pines. When they realized their mistake and returned to the south gate, they demanded a retoppling of the statue, and organizers happily obliged.
Posted under Iraq war, dick cheney, politics
Here’s something I’d like to share about ex-Army medic Nick Rowley’s talk. This note was written by one of the musicians who performed.
Nick:
I played music to start things off at the rally last Sat. I wanted to tell you how impressive it was for you to get up and say what you said as a combat veteran. Lots of folks like to criticize things like the rally last Sat., saying we’re a bunch of “hippies” looking for a chance to make chaos. Virtually all of us feel strongly that this whole mess is a travesty of mammoth proportions that a disturbingly large number of Americans still don’t understand — or worse, don’t even WANT to understand.
Those of us who take the time to read and look into foreign policy might also say that the current predicament was spelled out way ahead of time by knowledgeable, cool heads. But all of us are “armchair” observers, and are humbled by a guy like you who has the integrity and guts to say what you did.
Thanks for giving us your perspective. It made things very real for a lot of us.