I may be wrong but it's likely that the impeachment demonstration we held in San Francisco on September 15 was the largest one outside of D.C. My friend, an entrepreneur with a laptop, a cell phone and a credit card, got us all together again to spell out “Impeach” with our bodies and filmed it against the backdrop of the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. This is our third outing. About a thousand of my neighbors are now the June Taylor Dancers of protest here in Nancy Pelosi’s district. There was no ugliness, no rants from an amplified stage. The cops drank coffee at the edge of Crissy Field and we all enjoyed a rare moment of no tension between the First Amendment and law enforcement in a post Patriot Act world.
The organizer hired a helicopter to film us. You haven’t done San Francisco until you’ve lain down in a field between two strangers and are buzzed by a black helicopter. On my left was a dad with two kids under three. To my right, a woman who works for the city and just happened to be walking by. Both of us are too old to be flash mobbing but desperate times really do call for desperate measures.
And, the “liberal” media went silent. Hundreds of people, beautiful images, tourists gathering on the walkways to watch. But, shhh! Please do not spill the secret that the progressive community in Nancy Pelosi’s district is being shunned. And that’s not hyperbole. Code Pink was there, PDA was there, the Greens were there, Iraq Veterans Against the War, present. The World Can’t Wait, Impeach Bush Cheney, civilians who’ve never protested anything were there. Who am I leaving out? We were all there. And we will continue to be there until these criminals exploiting the structures of our government are sad history. But, it must be a real chore for our “liberal” media to ignore us all at the same time just as it must be difficult for Nancy Pelosi to ignore the expressed needs of her district.
I understand that the Democrats see an opportunity to enlarge their majority in 2008. But I don’t see how anyone in the statesmanship business can discount the lives that will be lost in the next year. It only took Bush nine months to ignore every bit of intelligence that could have prevented September 11. It’s taken about five years to get about a million Iraqis killed and about five million displaced – we could divide that number by five and do the math. We still don’t know how many people perished when the levees breached in NOLA, and it’s been two years. We know that the White House knew the levees failed and warned no one.
And now, despite the IAEA’s report that Iran has no nuke program, both Republicans and Democrats are calling out that country. I want to go back to Crissy Field and lie down because waiting to be buzzed by a black helicopter is materially more sane than listening to the unhinged Beltway chatter.
Where is Barry Goldwater when you need him?
Here in Nancy’s district, we’ve had it with needless death and destruction. With slogans that try to paper over atrocities. We’re done with that. It doesn’t matter if our local paper covers our actions or not. It doesn’t matter if the teevee stations send out a camera or not. It just doesn’t matter. Our revulsion is so profound that it may just be impossible for these outlets to report our activities to a weary public ahead of an election. The coming election comes pre-tainted because the dirt of the last two federal elections has yet to be shed. San Franciscans remember the riot of disenfranchised voters at the Ohio statehouse on election night even if the New York Times doesn’t, let alone our local papers.
Last July, a group of us sat down with Pelosi’s senior staffer in the district office. He patiently explained to us that we were to wait for the Petreaus report – the thinking was, Mr. Bush would hang himself by his own petard when his own benchmarks went unmet.
The only thing that has changed between last July and now is that the Hunt Oil Company clinched a deal in Kurdistan – unless you count all the people that have died or have been wounded or displaced since then. How completely unsurprising.
Petraeus has come and gone and that squalid episode has only deepened our revulsion. Petraeus is a serial liar. He lied about mobile weapons labs in the run up to the sacking of Iraq, aka, this “war.” He lied to Congress about arming militias and last week, he was linked in the New York Times to kickbacks on weapons deals. Someone give this man a fig leaf. A really big one.
For Congress, we may need an entire treeful of foliage and a rapid distribution system. Both houses have now condemned MoveOn for making public a nickname that the good general’s own troops coined. We are now in the run up to a new war of choice, the road ahead being smoothed by the same Democratic leadership who promised us in 2006 that they would end the war if we voted them in.
Our spelling here in San Francisco will persist. No matter how difficult is has been to go from being Pelosi’s campaign volunteers to being her critics, we have had to make that change. The last year and a half that she’s refused to meet with her constituency has been a long mistake. October 7th, we’ll be out there again and this time joined by Cindy Sheehan and Cynthia McKinney.
Our helicopter will provide the aerial view for our shortsighted representative.
Earth to Nancy: we are not okay with wars for profit. We are not okay with torture. We are not okay with NOLA dying nor with the sacking of Iraq. We are not okay with a Justice Department used to disenfranchise voters. We are not okay with allowing White House scofflaws to attack Iran for a fictional nuke program. Nancy, we are not okay. Enough. Impeach
Elizabeth Ferrari is a San Francisco author and activist.
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Excellent article, Elizabeth. There are almost TOO MANY crimes that this administration has committed by now. Who can count that high? It's quicker to think up a list of what NOT to IMPEACH Bush/Cheney for, at this point.
I am embarrassed for our hapless, idiot media that races after Britney Spears when the voice of the people is being so ignored.
Why Nancy Pelosi continues to rule this out simply boggles the mind. I had been proud to see her elevated to Speaker of the House. Now, I'm ashamed - and disgusted.
Thank you for your ongoing efforts. Your spellings are things of beauty!
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Mary Lyon (46 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4 comments) on Wednesday, Oct 3, 2007 at 10:42:12 PM
shared by other compassionate and thoughtful people.
There are no excuses for Pelosi and other leaders who were given a true mandate to end the occupation of Iraq, strop the killing and torture and restore habeas corpus. None.
Every issue appears to be managed by cold political calculation, not what is the right thing to do,.
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Kathlyn Stone (46 articles, 227 quicklinks, 27 diaries, 690 comments [1 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Oct 4, 2007 at 12:25:40 AM
That's the ticket - no impeachment, no contributions
It appears a lot of people are more worried about what Congresspersons are doing than what they should be doing. If we want impeachment we can simply be as repetitive as a TV ad. It's simple: Don't lie, don't steal, and don't kill! Whether it be considered a sin or a crime, it's still unconstitutional and the people are obligated to use the one power left directly to them.
If we say we're not supporting any Democratic candidate for president who doesn't believe impeachment is justified. we will be also saying we control the power of the purse. And the fat cats are quick to read their polls and will back off.
This helps No. 44, folks! He/she will be free to start over and truly work for change.
WHAT SAY YOU?
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Margaret Bassett (45 articles, 2909 quicklinks, 42 diaries, 1851 comments [99 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Oct 5, 2007 at 1:33:34 AM
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