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Rally at the Capital
By Bryan Catherman“…or of the Right of the People to Assemble…”
Ten to forty thousand people (depending on who’s doing the counting) massed in downtown Salt Lake City to exercise their First Amendment right of peaceful assembly. Utah citizens, legal immigrants, illegal aliens, the Utah chapter of the Minuteman Project, police, media, and dazed onlookers formed what some are calling the largest political assembly in Utah’s history.
While bullet points (or “talking points” if you’re an elected official) are heated and complicated, the assembly was not. It was people, exercising their political right. Yes, some would argue that those here illegally don’t have the right. But shouldn’t these rights, the ones we hold so dear and are so willing to fight for, be universal, God given rights no matter the citizenship status? Either way, the people are involved in the process.
Statistically, the Hispanic population holds low voter turnout numbers, so it’s fantastic to see them involved. It’s also good to see the Minuteman Project doing getting involved in action that’s more political and less controversially vigilant. Downtown Salt Lake, at least for the day, became the market place of political ideas. This is the very design of the First Amendment. It’s the spirit of a nation Of the People, For the People, By the People.
Click here to read an article by Jennifer W. Sanchez and Julia Lyon appears in the Salt Lake Tribune, and a photo gallery may be viewed by clicking here.
Posted by catherman on April 10, 2006 07:45 AM
