The mayor of Salt Lake City mounted his high horse last Thursday to rail against a handful of laws and rules he finds backward and unhelpful. Most of them are promulgated, traditionally and properly, by state government.

In a rant that criticized laws on firearms, liquor, gay families, wages, smoking, sex education and dancing, Anderson took firm and, in some minds, radical positions on issues that, for the most part, are not officially the domain of any city official.

Critics immediately charged that the mayor was not only way off the reservation in addressing such issues, but that he was also being needlessly and perhaps counter-productively aggressive. And aggressive Anderson was.

But, gosh dang it all, Rocky's got a point.

He is right to question laws that he believes are pointlessly, if not cruelly, unfriendly to gays and non-traditional families, responsible drinkers, working stiffs, churches, schools, the truth about sex, people who breathe and people who dance to the beat of any drummer. And there is nothing wrong with his use of the bully pulpit to do it.

Anderson's Seven Freedoms speech, though perhaps sharper, is not really different from the constant hum of business leaders agitating for better circumstances.

It is the mayor's job to do what he can to promote his city as not only a place to live, but to live well, do business, raise a family, put down roots. And, in Anderson's quite reasonable view, there are too many state laws that make that inevitably difficult job even harder than it needs to be.

That makes it more difficult for the city to pay for everything from street repairs to cultural centers, which further discourages economic activity, which further depletes tax revenue.

Anderson knows that the economic lifeblood of any community, including its tax base, depends on attracting bright and creative people. Those folks - the ones who invent things, promote things, buy things and pay taxes - are more likely to bring their talents and their money to a community that welcomes them, in all their diverse forms, from traditional families to not-so-traditional families to the young, single and free.

Much of what Anderson says is offensive to many well-meaning, public-spirited people. But the shock value in what the mayor says largely flows from the fact that, in a state thoroughly dominated by one party and one religious culture, such views are seldom heard.

As the duly twice-elected mayor of the state's largest city, Anderson understandably sees his role as the voice of people and ideas that are otherwise voiceless.

Anderson can feel like a real grain of sand. But that's how pearls are born.