Valley rallies for values

WASILLA — There wasn’t a whole lot of apple pie to be seen, but there were plenty of hot dogs, American flags and patriotic songs at Saturday’s Celebrating America rally.

There also was plenty of political rhetoric. Jennie Bettine, Valley resident and president of Conservative Patriots Group, which put on the rally, told the crowd of about 200 that America is a great nation and that she is working to keep it that way.

“Sometimes I go to bed in tears at night saying, ‘Does it really do any good?’” she said.

But there have been successes, she said. CPG worked in Anchorage’s recent election on the eventually victorious side opposing the gay rights ordinance and supporting Mayor Dan Sullivan.

“It is time to get involved,” she said, pointing out that nearly every House and Senate seat in the state is up for election this year and describing the election as a chance to rid the Legislature of some of its liberals.

Decorations for the event, big-band music and swing dancing demonstrations were designed to evoke America of the 1940s. Bettine described World War II as a time when America was threatened.

“Today, guys, we are no less threatened but the enemy is within,” she said.

Palmer City Councilwoman Edna DeVries took her turn on stage to talk about Rep. Carl Gatto, who died Tuesday after a decade-long fight with cancer.

“As far as I’m concerned, he died with his boots on,” DeVries said. “He fought for us right to the end.”

She singled out two pieces of legislation Gatto left unfinished that she encouraged people in the crowd to pick up and fight for — a bill banning foreign laws from being applied in America, often referred to as a move to ban Islamic or Sharia Law — and a bill to require drug testing for welfare recipients.

“If drug testing is going to be required for those of us who work, it ought to be required for those that don’t work,” DeVries said.

Glenn Biegel, a radio talk show host and familiar speaker at CPG rallies, won applause for a line delivered after describing coming home to a tired wife and the chaos of his large family.

“I think President Obama’s advisers got it wrong. It’s me that’s never worked a day in my life,” he said.

The line referenced recent controversy over CNN commentator Hilary Rosen’s quip that former Massachusetts governor and all-but-official GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s wife, Ann Romney, a stay-at-home mother, “never worked a day in her life.”

Biegel urged the crowd to fight in a “new civil rights movement” that’s not about race or creed, but about future generations’ ability “to live free.”

“They will be told where to live, how to live, what to drive, how many kids to have. That’s what they will live in if we don’t do something,” Biegel said.

Wasilla City Councilwoman Taffina Katkus revved up the crowd, urging them to “destroy evil so good may flourish.”

She said CPG meetings helped her through the state’s long, hard winter this year. She found the meetings therapeutic. She told the crowd to work together.

“We can have victory over this stupid, wicked agenda that’s coming from Washington, D.C.,” Katkus said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.