Democracy for Utah member named 'Best of Utah'

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Submitted by lucidity on Fri, 04/06/2007 - 12:49pm.

Salt Lake City Weekly's 2007 "Best of Utah" issue names D4U member Larry Bergan as Best Lone Demonstrator:

It's one thing to march en masse against George W. Bush during an anti-war rally in downtown Salt Lake City. It's another, several months before the war rally, to get out on the streets carrying a sign demanding Bush's impeachment — by yourself. Bergan has walked 400 miles up and down Salt Lake City streets over the past four years making his lone protest against the U.S. war in Iraq. Now he stands on street corners collecting, he says, as many thumbs up as he does birds. The 54-year-old out-of-work optician has lost three signs to irate citizens but that hasn't stopped his urgent sense of civic duty one iota. He's Utah's last angry man, it seems, and we're all better off for him.

Thanks, Larry, for making a difference.

A little clarification

#533 On Sat, 04/07/2007 10:44pm Larry Bergan said,

Thanks for the notice Carrie. This great blog has been a another place for me to let some steam off, and in this case a chance to correct and elaborate on the City Weekly's piece.

Maybe they didn't believe me, but of the people who honk, wave, give a thumbs up, or the angry bird, the overwhelming majority are positive towards me. In fact, since the Democrats took over and have been looking closer at some of the crimes committed, the response seems to be even better. I was at the intersection where you turn to go to the zoo from foothill Blvd. and the response was unbelievable.

Also, since far and away, the pejorative that is yelled at me most often is "GET A JOB", I kind of wish they had left that out. It's true that I've been out of a job for a while now, but for the first three years I carried the sign, I had not changed jobs for 25 years. In fact one of the reasons I carried it was because I never took work off to attend protests and wanted to participate in some way.

Of course I'm very happy with the last line in the piece. By the way, if anybody is hiring, my phone number is 801-265-9221

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