Promoting democracy in Utah one pint at a time.
Promoting democracy in Utah one pint at a time.
I’m no fan of guns, but as a liberal I support the constitution - even the second amendment. Obviously there has been debate about the meaning of the second amendment, just like everything else in the great document.
The second amendment was put in place so that a citizenry enraged by a tyrannical government would be equipped to overthrow said government. I haven’t yet read “The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot”, but after hearing Naomi Wolf on KRCL’s RadioActive (unfortunately I don’t see the particular interview on their site), I’m thinking we’re dangerously close to needing to use those guns. It’s just too bad that the Republican media machine has most of the nation’s gun owners believing everything they say, and they’d likely stay quiet if our government deteriorated to tyranny.
Enter “Shooting Liberally”. Our neighbors to the east in Denver have a Shooting Liberally chapter, and there’s also a Charleston and Manhattan chapter.
As Justin Krebs, founder and Executive Director of Living Liberally said, “It’s time for those of us famous for our fierce loyalty to the First Amendment get to try our hand at the Second.”
I don’t know of anyone in our group that would be interested in a Shooting Liberally, but I’m sure there are some liberals out there who would be. We live in one of the most conservative, gun-loving states in the nation. Hell, Utah has one of the most liberal concealed-carry permit courses that people come here just to get armed.
So, would a Shooting Liberally fly here?
From Columbia News Service:
Laurence Witherington
2008/05/13
The right to own guns has traditionally been a cause dear to the political right. Now a bunch of liberals have begun to challenge that view, meeting to shoot guns and celebrate the Second Amendment.
Embarrassing Utah
Obama as a monkey in a suit…
click the link and scroll down.
We can expect at least four years of worse.
We’ve been calling the event we held last Friday a fundraiser and party because while the point was to raise funds to help grow Living Liberally, we also wanted it to be mostly about having fun. I think we accomplished both.
We planned and planned, and still had some organizational problems, but if we do it again we’ll try to learn from those mistakes. Overall though, I’d say the night was no less than awesome. We saw a lot of people we haven’t seen in a while and met a lot of new people.
Scott McCoy did a great job of emceeing the whole thing, with the help of Bill Frost. I read Bill Frost’s pieces in City Weekly each week and know how funny he is in writing, but I had forgotten just how funny he is in conversation too.
Syqnys wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, so to speak, but I think a lot of people liked the message of his hip-hop lyrics. I know Sen. McCoy enjoyed the song “Sexy Time”, which was pro-gay rights in a not so obvious way.
The “Bush in Six Words” contest went really well too, better than we thought it would. We had a lot of entries, and I think Representative Christine Johnson had a lot of fun judging the entries. We lost some of the entries, but the ones we found are at the bottom of this post.
I unfortunately missed the 3.2 improv because I got a stupid work call, but I did see them gathering some of the politicians and audience members together and then I heard strange noises coming from inside the warehouse. It sounded like a lot of fun. Oh, and the two improv performers were named Heather and Jeremiah. We didn’t plan that.
The theme of our event on June 6th is Bush in Six Words. We’ve given an example from the book “Not quite what I was planning - Six word memoirs by famous and obscure writers”, but we haven’t given you any examples of Bush in Six Words. Well, Drinking Liberally founder Justin Krebs blogged about our party on OpenLeft today, and a bunch of people chimed in with their own 6 word memoir about the Bush administration.
So here’s some examples from the comments:
Well, it’s official. Drinking Liberally now has a chapter in all 50 states, just in time for the 5th birthday festivities.
Five years is a big milestone, and Drinking Liberally (and Living Liberally) have gotten a fair amount of media attention for it.
Our very own chapter here in Salt Lake has even been mentioned in two national publications!
On Politico
And in the New York Times Sunday edition. I didn’t talk to the reporter, Courtney, but Heather did and said they had a wonderful conversation. Even though it was a brief mention in both, it’s still very cool. We hope that you’ll join us on June 6th at our party/fundraiser for a toast to our media mentions!
Here’s the text of the NY Times article:
On Thursday night in Hell’s Kitchen, an impassioned discussion of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s remarks about the Bobby Kennedy assassination as a reason for her staying in the presidential race took place in the backyard of Rudy’s Bar and Grill. Across the yard, Rachel Maddow, a host on Air America Radio, poured glasses of beer for a table of friends and debated Senator John McCain’s war record.
Among the regular patrons at the bar on Ninth Avenue were a few unsuspecting tourists. Dozens of people were squeezed together talking politics, drinking beer and eating free hot dogs. The conversation was cut short for an anniversary toast.
“To many more years, and many more chapters,” said Justin Krebs, 30. Mr. Krebs was one of the founders of the progressive social networking group called Drinking Liberally that has been meeting at Rudy’s every Thursday night for the past five years.
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Welcome to Drinking Liberally Salt Lake City. We meet at 6:30 p.m. every Friday in the back room of Piper Down [Map] and go to 9:30. All are welcome.
click here to learn more
E-mail saltlakecity [at] drinkingliberally.org if you want your event added to the calendar, or send your Gmail address to get editing abilities.
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