SF Bay Area Supports The Troops (As Individuals) Rally

San Francisco isn’t just about protest these days. People of all political persuasions are united in one thing… a concern for the U.S. troops serving throughout the world, particularly those in combat
in Iraq. To show this concern, San Francisco’s Justin Herman Plaza, with its picturesque view through the palm trees of the recently renovated historic
Ferry Building, will host a San Francisco Bay Area Supports The Troops rally billed as “non-political, non-partisan and non-street-obstructing.”

Says San Francisco Bay Area resident and rally organizer Reed Benet, “With anti-war protests that have spilled over to block streets and buildings, the
city that I love has been made a mess, and I shudder to imagine how this is being received by our all-volunteer troops in danger in Iraq. Not being
someone to sit back, but not wanting to just be another screeching voice with a polarizing opinion, I hoped that expressing support for our troops,
as individuals, was something we could all unite around.”

Benet is certainly not someone to sit back. He’s an ultra-marathon endurance athlete, former United States Marine Corps infantry officer, a Princeton
undergrad, Harvard MBA, enviro-tech entrepreneur by night, and San Francisco commercial real estate broker by day. “But,” says Benet, “this rally isn’t
about me. Pure and simple, it’s about showing unconditional support for our troops, as individuals. It’s about acknowledging that they made a conscious
and adult decision to serve our country, that they are legally obligated to be wherever they are sent and do whatever they are told to do, including risking life and limb. And, it’s up to the rest of us to peaceably exercise
democracy to directly or indirectly effect the who, what, when, where and how’s of these matters. Any other course of action other than the peaceable exercise of democracy is a slippery slope.”

When asked to reveal his politics, Benet will only say that he looks at the controversy around the war as mostly honest differences of opinion regarding
“what is the forest and what is the trees. For example, for some it’s all about oil or ingrained corporate interests. For some, Saddam is a pocket-Hitler who needs to be stopped immediately. For some, sanctions, inspections, and the authority of the U.N. weren’t given time to work. For some, it’s all about Bush’s ego. For some, we wouldn’t be in this war if
Bush hadn’t ‘stolen’ the Presidential election in Florida. Others blame the Supreme Court for that event. Others look at the Supreme Court’s make-up at
the time as the end-result of nearly a half-century of democratic elections. For some, it’s all part of a ‘white male conspiracy.’ For others, it’s just how things are and that the elusive ‘they’ of the conspiracy theorists are just ‘us.’ For me, sometimes democracy is easy, and sometimes it’s like making sausage. That is, you don’t always want to know, or wish you didn’t know, what’s in sausage.”