To answer the question of who will take Cindy Sheehan's place as spokesperson, first we must ask who CAN take her place. What one person can do all the work of making policy change happen in America? The short answer is that NO one person flying solo can do that. Even Cindy herself could not do that, and notwithstanding her own personal valor she never even had a chance of doing that. Because democracy can only happen when each of us speaks for OURSELVES.
Where did the people ever get the idea that they NEEDED a spokesperson? It's really the same thing with our members of Congress. We can't just depend on them to automatically represent our interests just because we voted for them, unless we are constantly telling them what we want them to do. And when they dramatically fail to represent the will of the people, as last week in the latest appropriation for the occupation without accountability or end, who is to blame if the people are not continuously pressing their petitions for grievances?
Last week is profound evidence that STILL not enough of us are speaking out yet.
Of course the pathological failure of Congress to press for impeachment, and of Cheney in particular, is diagnostic of all other ills. Until Congress actually confronts a criminally out of control White House there is fundamentally nothing to constrain them from smirking and sneering their way to even greater disasters for America in the next 18 months. Impeachment is the one thing that Congress can do which cannot be vetoed or stalled in the courts they now predominantly control with crony appointments.
Do you want a peace movement to succeed? Understand that until the day they are constitutionally removed from office there can NEVER be even a glimmer of peace. And the best place to start is by removing the least popular, and most guilty, of them all.
So have you, or have you not, voted in the National Cheney Impeachment Poll?
And even if you have, still read on for there is so much more you need to do. We sometimes get emails from people demanding to know from us why this has not happened yet. And when we read such an email the first thing we do is look at the bottom to see if they have added the following THREE LINES to their email signatures, as we have asked everyone to do.
If not, there's your answer, folks. Stop asking why OTHER people aren't doing more to make this happen, and ask yourself why YOU are not doing more to make this happen. True democracy is not driven by charismatic celebrity personalities. Democracy only works when each of us does whatever we personally can do, whatever thing, however small, however UN-celebrated, to make it work. At the moment when each of us does that, policy change will happen instantaneously.
When you go to submit the action page above, to cast your vote in the National Cheney Impeachment Poll, you will find a link where you can read the last 25 personal messages added by your fellow constituents. EVERY one of those comments has just as much validity as every other one. Many are astounding in their articulateness, more so than any smug, self-aggrandizing pundit you've ever read. Even those messages with typos and grammatical errors are astounding in their authenticity. The people don't need a spokesperson. The people need to PERSONALLY speak out.
The people's movement does not need a "face". What it needs is a BODY. What it needs is MASSES of us engaged in caring about making policy change happen, each of us doing what we can do to make that a reality. And if you have already voted in the poll yourself (as more than 50,000 already have) there are a million other things you can do to build the momentum of the people's impeachment movement.
Can you write an alert? Draft your own in your own words and send it to everybody you know, and send them to the Action Page above.
Do you have a web site of your own? Add an action button for the impeachment poll as dozens of sites have done already, and you can display a dynamic tally as the votes add up. Here's where you get the code.
Two thousand years ago, a Roman Senator suggested that all slaves wear white armbands to better identify them. "No," said a wiser Senator. "If they see how many of them there are, they may revolt."
Each individual needs to take a piece of what Cindy started, each of us needs to make an active stand in whatever way we can - and most importantly, we need to stop finding the divisions between us and get on with what we all want - a change of leadership and an end to the fighting it has brought us.
I am in the UK and cannot do much to alter your administration - I am working hard trying to change ours. But I do have hope and I do have a way we can be together in our purpose. We need to be VISIBLY united, VISIBLY protesting the actions of our governments at all times and in all places....impossible idea? But if we take one simple symbol that expresses one simple wish that we all share, then we can.
A plain, home-made, white fabric armband is what is worn to show agreement with the statement "I want an end to the war in Iraq". It costs nothing, it is instantly available and it can be worn by everybody everywhere to ensure our governments know we disagree with their decisions. Impeachment is important as is justice and a strategy for sorting the mess our governments have created - but I do firmly believe that these things will only happen if we have the power of our masses and that that power is VISIBLE.
Please show your unity so that the governments can see it and know we are acting TOGETHER, without division and with unity of purpose to end first the killing and ensure the government is accountable.
ALL of us are capable of great good and great evil and ALL things must pass.
Cindy gave all she had and she no doubt burned out. We should learn by her example, that one can DO SOMETHING!
On Jan. 27, 2007, hundreds of thousands of we the people for justice, peace and an end to the occupation of Iraq surrounded The Capitol to demand they do something and end the war.
We have been ignored by 'leaders' who care more for power and hegemony, than for what is in the best interests for we the people.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. -July 14, 1776. The Declaration of Independence
Over 100 BILLION USA tax dollars have now gone to Israel since 1948 and 1.5 million tax dollars per mile go to construct The Wall which has been deemed ILLEGAL under International Law.
We the People for JUSTICE, PEACE and an END to the 40th year of OCCUPATION of Palestine, will be in the streets of DC again this June 10, 2005.
In Tel Aviv on June 5th, the Anarchists Against the Wall will be painting the town and throughout the world, we the people for JUSTICE, PEACE and an END to OCCUPATION are doing something:
I nominate Mario of March of the People who is marching (along with a ton of other supporters) from Chicago to Washington DC starting next month demaning Impeachment to end the war.
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