Sat July 26, 2008. LOS ANGELES, CA. About 200 people sat under a tent in hosts Stanley and Betty Sheinbaum’s lovely yard, eager to hear Kucinich address the topic of Restoring Our Constitution. One couple had driven six hours from the Sacramento area to bask in the passionate Congressman’s fiery rhetoric.
Stanley Sheinbaum welcomes guests. Photo: www.susanweingartner.com (detail)
There was a visceral feeling of celebration: the afterglow of the House Judiciary Committee hearing the day before had permeated the gathering, like a welcome oasis of victory in a barren land. While Nancy Pelosi did agree to the congressional hearings, she still maintains that impeachment is off the table. Nevertheless, it is clearly out of the oven and still bubbling, ready to be served. And the LA Times, often reluctant to cover Dennis at all, ran a story about the hearings, referring to the Congressman as a rock star.
And then Kucinich was at the mike, opening his presentation with his familiar words of gratitude and appreciation, as he has done without exception every time I have heard him speak.
Photo by: lisarosephoto.com (detail)
Kucinich began by saying that he offered his words in the spirit of transformation. He said, “Bush turned the Federal Government into an engine to accelerate wealth upward … but if you don’t have an economic democracy, then you can’t have a political democracy … “
He said, “You have to understand that the Bush Administration is a criminal enterprise masquerading as a government,” and called the Judiciary hearing a transformational “moment of kindling … even though there wasn’t legislation in front of us, we broke the silence, WE BROKE THE SILENCE! To break the silence is to reconnect with our passion for freedom and peace!”
He encouraged Americans to suspend linear thinking, to know that “this country WILL evolve out of the condition it is in.”
Photo: www.susanweingartner.com (detail)
He referenced the 737 military bases that America has in 130 countries (isn’t that overkill?), and said “we must reconnect with the world community in the spirit of felicity in a way that does not include aggressive war!”
“It is a time for the end of unilateralism, and first strikes, the end of peace through strength, and the beginning of a new doctrine of strength through peace … (we must) work to create affirming structures of international law, to get rid of all nuclear weapons, to uphold the Geneva convention. If America is to come to a place of reconciliation with the world community, we must make Bush Administration accountable for its violations … this isn’t about retributive justice, I don’t believe in that, it is about restorative justice. It is true that ‘the truth can set you free’ and we need to become a nation of truthtellers.”
Dennis and Warren Beatty. Photo: lisarosephoto.com
“This is part of a riddle that we must unlock during the next Congress. We must talk about how we can create structure that can birth truth and reconciliation, to have a re-United States.”
He said that 9-11 had been appropriated by the Bush Administration to create a war on terror—and that we need a program of appreciative inquiry to help people reconnect with their hearts, to reflect on the sense of freedom and personal joys they felt prior to 9-11, to focus on the innate power that each person has, that is not derived from government. And to that end of re-empowering ourselves, he proposes a “9-10 Forum.”
“We have a tendency to kvetch about the way things are, but we should never give up and never give in—we have enormous power for transformation.”
Meryl Ann Butler is an artist, author and educator who counts First Lady Dolley Payne Todd Madison as well as two signers of the Articles of Confederation among her ancestors. Mary Ball, mother of George Washington is in the ancestral lineage of Butler's great grandmother, Blanche Ball. Grateful to know that the blood of America's founding mothers and fathers runs in her veins, Butler has been newly filled with matriotism as a direct result of the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. Lest she appear too uppity, it should be revealed that she also has family ties to James Butler Hickok, better known as Wild Bill.
Butler has been actively engaged in utilizing the arts as stepping-stones toward joy-filled enlightenment for the past two decades. A native of NYC, her response to 9-11 was to pen an invitation to healing through creativity, entitled, "90-Minute Quilts: 15+ Projects You Can Stitch in an Afternoon" (Krause 2006). They don't call quilts "comforters" for nothing! www.90minutequilts.com
Butler was faculty advisor for "The Love for All Mankind/Anti-Apartheid Quilt" project at ENMU (1993), now in the collection of the Hon. Nelson Mandela. As Arts Advisor for the Center for Improving U.S.- Soviet Relations (CIUSSR) Baltimore, MD; her activities included the "First U.S.-Soviet Childrens' Peace Quilt Exchange" (1987-88), an historic project chronicled in the media of both countries. Citizen diplomacy trips to the U.S.S.R. in 1987 and 1988 included lectures and presentations to fashion designers, craftspeople and artists in Odessa, Moscow, Kiev and St.Petersburg, in which she focused on the topic of creating global peace through international art exchanges.
Butler is the proud mother of a daughter and seven stepchildren (all grown), and a passel o' grand younguns. It is to these new generations that she dedicates her political activism. Archived articles www.opednews.com/author/author1820.html
Older archived articles, from before May 2005 are here.,
Thank you so much, Meryl Ann. This is a wonderful antidote to corporate media's blackout and distortion of the hearing.
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Kucinich: “You have to understand that the Bush Administration is a criminal enterprise masquerading as a government,” and called the Judiciary hearing a transformational “moment of kindling … even though there wasn’t legislation in front of us, we broke the silence, WE BROKE THE SILENCE! To break the silence is to reconnect with our passion for freedom and peace!”
The "beginning of a new doctrine of strength through peace"
This "isn’t about retributive justice... it is about restorative justice."
Bugliosi: “I present evidence that beyond all reasonable doubt the Bush Administration officials took this nation to war in Iraq on a lie, under false pretenses, and therefore, under the law, they are guilty of murder for the deaths of over 4,000 young American solders,” making a strong and provocative case for “the-process-otherwise-known-as-impeachment.”
by
Aurora (0 articles, 57 quicklinks, 22 diaries, 508 comments)
on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 9:05:37 AM
The hearing was a good start, but did you notice how it was portrayed by the controlled media, if they covered it at all? As a sideshow joke. They were laughing at our attempt to hold the Bush admin responsible for their many crimes.
However, this is only the tip of the iceberg. The biggest lie they are covering up is the hoax of 9/11. The mother of all false-flags.
How can the media and government EVER be trusted again after this. They can't and NEVER will be until the 9/11 charade is exposed for EVERYONE... even those too brainwashed or lazy to fiqure it out for themselves.
Dennis Kucinich is obviously a smart guy, but by not coming forward about 9/11, he is part of the problem.
by
Roger Thomas (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 81 comments)
on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 10:04:25 AM
I have heard Dennis say on many occasions that he believes that 9-11 needs to be re-investigated, and the events of 9-11 figure prominently in his 35 articles of impeachment. He is certainly behind that, and has met with several 9-11 groups. And he also knows that you have to craft the environment in which that can be successful. The many pieces of the 9-11 mystery cannot help but come to light, and I have no doubt that a further official investigation will occur.
btw, I don't watch the controlled media, it depresses me, and I am too busy trying writing articles to balance that out, LOL. ;-)
by
Meryl Ann Butler (53 articles, 61 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 531 comments)
on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 3:34:56 PM
As usual, you've somehow managed to make me feel simultaneously like I wish I was there, and I actually was there!
This is priceless: "While Nancy Pelosi did agree to the congressional hearings, she still maintains that impeachment is off the table. Nevertheless, it is clearly out of the oven and still bubbling, ready to be served."
I'm hungry now. Bring it on.
by
Gail Davis (4 articles, 1 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 70 comments)
on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 11:43:09 AM
thanks, Nathan, it is gratifying to see the progress we have made. I'm excited, I think this is the most thrilling time in American Democracy in over 200 years!
by
Meryl Ann Butler (53 articles, 61 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 531 comments)
on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 3:22:08 PM
It is a start. I suspect the real culprit, the real reason no impeachment progress has been made is due to the erosion of standards, values, principles and ethics within government and society. I would be willing to bet money that if anyone were to repeat the research of Stanley Milgram today they would find a substantial increase in those who are obedient to authority. The deterioration in what people feel innately is right or wrong.This is the very basis upon which authority is challenged, and it has become weaker within society and government. People are far more willing to accept whatever people in authority tell them. They fear doing otherwise because their own value system is not strong enough to have confidence they are right. They make excuses for doing otherwise. Remember the 5 reasons/excuses for not having impeachment hearings? They abdicate their duty and replace it with acquiescence. Charles Osgood had it right, we are a pretty good society and pretty good will never be good enough.However, that is the road this country has decided to take, the best traveled and easiest road instead of the more challenging one we should have embraced.
by
Peter Wedlund (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 189 comments)
on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 12:32:27 PM
Thanks Peter! Yes, I believe it is a start. Because it isn't as much or as fast as some of us would like, it can feel frustrating ... but I love to quote Gibran's, "even he who limps, goes not backward." It's all about the direction, then we can pick up speed. And the inquiry on Friday was certainly a step in the right direction.
by
Meryl Ann Butler (53 articles, 61 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 531 comments)
on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 3:20:26 PM
It makes perfect sense too. He cares for the vast majjority of people. When they listen to him, they respond very well. They can't hold us down much longer. Kucinich will rise tremendously in popularity as things progress. Thanks!
by
Michael Collins (112 articles, 17 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 401 comments)
on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 12:52:03 AM
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