Documents of Courage and Cowardice

"If history teaches one lesson, it's that the spirit animating documents enshrining justice like the Magna Carta and US Constitution is empty sentiment without action"

Linn Washington Jr. is a columnist for The Philadelphia Tribune, the oldest black owned newspaper in America. He is currently directing a study abroad program in London.

Hear, Hear!

"Conyers supporters correctly cite slights like America's silence regarding mass disenfranchisement of blacks in Florida during the 2000 presidential election…"

Well, I sure wasn't silent about Florida in 2000 OR Ohio in 2004, I saw plenty of obvious electral fraud and dirty tricks with my own two eyes her in Pittsburgh.

But, even on this issue, Conyers seems to have caved in to the DNC. He held hearings and gathered data in 05' issued a report then...nothing.

Sorry, but congressmen who make $160,000 per year tend to dance with the people who brung 'em.
It will all come crashing down in 2012, when the social security trust fund runs empty. The government will of course claim they never saw it coming. But they did. Don't believe them.

None of our representatives are doing their jobs! We actually "hired" all of them to "protect and defend the United States Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and DOMESTIC." They all took an oath swearing to do so. Of course Bush and Cheney did as well.

I guess, as Bush proclaimed in a meeting a while back when an attendee mentioned the Constitution, "Stop bringing up the Constitution! It's just a Goddamned piece of PAPER!", our Representatives and Senators agree.

Right now, the American People are sitting out here away from the Beltway, as so many sitting ducks. Unprotected by those who swore to protect our civil liberties, our lives, our liberties and the pursuit of happiness. How many of you reading this feel "happiness" right now considering the current state of affairs?

No representation. Internment camps at the ready for dissidents. A military strike being prepared for Iran. Depleted uranium munitions being spread throughout the Middle East by our own troops. Blackwater mercenaries training in the U.S. and fighting in Iraq with our tax dollars. The same goons who threatened the people of New Orleans after Katrina. These goons are not our friends. Almost daily Presidential Directives sneaking under the radar that mention martial law and unitary powers. And on and on.

This is like a bad American nightmare. Will somebody please wake me up?

I find it very disturbing that the Conyers-Pelosi Impeachment imbroglio has been framed by anyone in racial terms.

It's Conyers' job to impeach the president. He isn't doing that job, instead citing "we don't have the votes" as an excuse. Before the 2006 elections, when it was virtually impossible to impeach the president or vice-president, he thought impeachment was pretty interesting. Now that the power to start the process is in his hands, and half the American people support the idea, he says "we don't have the votes".

His race is absolutely irrelevant to this issue. He is a powerful man, the head of the House Judiciary Committee. He isn't doing his job.

Squabbling about lack of white support for black issues or whatever seems suspiciously like changing the subject to me. There are some real restraining factors to this movement for change. Some do not feel the president's offenses are sufficiently egregious or in violation of the law; some do not feel there is sufficient public support for impeachment.

I cannot help but feel that it belongs to those of us who have strong convictions about this to get the word out. I started out feeling like the cry for impeachment was little more than a way to say emphatically, "I really hate these guys!" And while hating them or what they do is a strong feeling it does not by itself justify impeachment.

What has tipped the scales for me is the sheer number and size of the Bush/Cheney infractions: war on fraudulent grounds; blowing the cover on a CIA staffer because it was politically expedient; cessation of habeus corpus; using Orwellian language and tactics to justify treating prisoners with the rules we have prided ourselves on using (meaning calling someone and "Military detainee" instead of prisoner and changing the rules and opening Guantanamo); derision of the Geneva Conventions; creating a different set of rules and consequences for the ?ruling class (Scooter Libby commutation); overall rules that have favored corporate rights over the rights of individuals. These are the things that incense me most. Again the Bill Moyers piece frames this as grounds for impeachment with a consensus from the right and the left.

Whatever has moved us on this decision pathway, we must share it with our neighbors. We must write Letters to the Editor. We must talk to our neighbors.

Not until our legislators feel the pressure to impeach, much as they did during Watergate, will things change. Sure, write your congress people. But find ways to activate the grass roots. That is what we must do.

I believe that if we do, we can create the momentun to give our timid congress people the power and energy to make the right choice here.

CD'ers:
Civility, please?

Let's understand that the current administration, and their Rovian/Machiavellian tactics are just waiting for us to implode. Sheep do not threaten, and the trouble with this CD group is we are not sheep. But even wolves hunt in packs, so we must be more like wolves; maintain our individuality, but work for a common good.

As to Conyers, you know, up until I saw a picture of him, I didn't know he was black? See? Color is nothing but a tool used by the powers in charge to divide us. If we don't play into it, they can't win.

Stay strong, keep your eyes on the prize, and don't let "them" dictate the rules of our actions. Malcolm X said that he who makes the rules wins the game. Keep it civil, keep it real, disagree or agree with each other as equals in a common cause.

BTW, I'm also old enough the remember the introduction of Paul McCartney's original group on TV. We have been here too many times before, and are still continuing and contributing. If nothing else, we have staying power.

"Who will step forward and seize the moment? Is there not one stout-hearted man who will step forward and by his strength gather ten million more?"

Cindy Sheehan is doing something about it, let's support her, with our votes and funds, she is putting everything on the line while we just whine.

i'm a STRONG supporter of IMPEACHMENT, and i also agree with the unnamed black supporters of Congressman Conyers as they are cited in this article.

White activists in the United States MUST stand up on the deepest issues of race that permeate our country's history and present.

When we do NOT do so, then from the LIVED EXPERIENCE of black people (also others, especially native americans), why should they listen to, trust, or in any way support us?

No matter how deeply important our causes - and i could not agree more that impeachment is deeply important - if we are not dealing with the deep history of genocide, slavery, disfranchisement (as in FLA 2000), and all the plentitude of institutionalized economic and political blocks that are still the living legacy of our RACIST USA, then black people are correct to distrust us and call us out.

White activists like me have a long history in the USA of righteously demanding that everyone (including black people) must support our important causes, and claiming it is a distraction when we are asked to address RACISM. Where is the steadfast, lifelong commitment BY WHITE PEOPLE to address this nation's poisonous legacy of racism? This is what it will take to BEGIN to build trust.

i hope it is clear that i am not individually addressing any person reading this, or any person who was arrested at Conyers' office. i am not personally accusing you of insufficient commitment to any particular cause. But i also hope it is clear that white people, as white people, have not effectively addressed the issues that come from the deeply rooted RACISM of the United States.

i'm also NOT claiming to have figured out "the right way" to address the deep RACISM of the United States. i'm pretty sure though that it will take more than just having an un-racist attitude - it will require activism, hard work, and struggle to actually undo the deep-rooted institutionalized legacies of US racism in our society, and in our minds.

That all said, i must also acknowledge that i have asked Congressman Conyers to IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY! i don't think any particular cause "must" wait until some superior cause is dealt with first. We can undo racism AND save the constitution AND stop burning fossil fuels AND etc. In fact, we MUST do all these things.

Love!

I know that this is probably nit-picking, but, the phrase even many atheists appreciate the cathedral rankles me. Atheists can't appreciate great architecture? Please!

Busterkikki, I am also about finished as you, and hate to see our country descend into a dictatorship due to a minority of the population and a few cruel, greedy men. I believe most of our people have had such protected lives they cannot bring themselves to risk losing that even to save the nation for their own children and grandchildren. After it is no longer the country we loved for what it stood for, then we might get ready to take action too late, as in Germany. It is ironic that our young people are ready to risk death to remove a foreign tyrant that was no threat to us but we are unable to get rid of the decider, commander, and his cohorts. As to Bush saying the Constitution is just a dammed piece of paper, what shall we call his thousand signing statements that supposedly relieve him of following the law? Incidently, remember how the Repugs hammered away incessantly at lying under oath and the rule of law? Time for them to get going on that again but we don`t hear a peep out of them.

I for one am not concerned about the race of the congress person. I just want them to do the job- no matter who is in the office. The criticism for not moving to impeach has nothing to do with race. Anyone who makes race an issue for accusations or defense misses the point.

Mistakes like using the word 'work' for the word 'word'? Come on! It's the thoughts that count; and, the continued brandishing of the truth.

There's a wider, social, cowardice that's been preyed on for decades. Lots of reasons for people to give up the fight even before it starts:

* Fear of losing professional face, losing one's standing, etc. Even the big media figures (Jim Hightower, Bill Moyers, Cindy Sheehan, etc.) and Hollywood people only present their content through controlled venues. They don't join the unwashed masses in discussion forums, informal chatter like this, etc. Or, if they do, perhaps they lurk and/or use an alias that we're not aware of. They're not "accessible". I remember Hesse's Siddhartha in which we goes into the village to see how real people felt...Or the concept of the Bodhisattva who remains with the masses. We don't have enough people like this today. We get an occasional Hollywood star or known personality who wants to do some harmless protesting, but very few who'll run for office as a candidate of leadership, charisma, a can-win attitude, not another goddamned head-banging one.
* Fear of losing one's job. With real estate and foreclosure rates this high, what's the purpose in challenging the status quo? It would seem to be self-destructive, limiting one's options. This is a wider dynamic, shared by all primates and perhaps alpha-male/herd mammals. To balance the dynamic of groupthink/interest vs. self-interest vs. taking a calculated risk at thinking outside the box to promote one (or the other).
* Fear of concentration campus, mining programs, the thought police, etc. This becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. The Bill of Rights are like muscles. Use them or lose them.
etc...

It definitely speaks of cowardice.

And yes I also know it said "work" and not "word. For some reason I wasn't allowed to change it. ???

The signing of the Magna Carta was overseen by free men wearing swords. The king surely didn't overlook the fact that English patriots were looking over his shoulder.

i drive around with various signs on my truck: before the war, i had NO WAR, before the 'surge' i had NO MORE TROOPS!
on july 4, i had a picture of a young crying grimacing boy from afganistan whose uncles had just been killed and father had been detained by american soldiers and these words 'YOU'RE PROUD OF THIS?" i have attended candle light vigils, written many letters, marched on washington, voted, attended local discussions, introduced an article for impeachment in my town, supported cindy sheehan...i will never be silent, but DAMN, who the hell is listening? the average american is ignorant and apathetic...they buy into the mainstream media and watch reality tv....fear is a great motivator but people are listen to the wrong people...we will be saying 'i told you so' as we are taking out dying breath.....

as an atheist, i can appreciate all kinds of architecture, including churches, synagogues, meetinghouses, mosques, temples, etc...MR D, I JUST NOTICED YOUR COMMENT--I DON'T THINK YOU ARE BEING NIT-PICKY!

Bobbi: Your America doesn't bomb civilians? Please travel to Hiroshima and Nagasaki and let them know America doesn't bomb civilians. The country that you want back is no more and perhaps never was. By the way, to say you don't hate someone but you do hate what they have done is just wordplay. Love the criminal, hate the crime. Bullshit. It's possible to transcend love and hate and to hold no opinions, but you can't have it both ways by playing with words.

Busterkikki, what the hell do you mean by "organize"? March on Congress? Petition? Barricade House Reps' offices? Because, man, it has all been done, and these suckers are still pretending it's no use trying to impeach the most criminal Administration in history.

MollyJ, thanks for joining the right side. Sorry it took you so long. I have been in favor of impeaching GWB & Cheney since November 2000, and it was never about hating them. Fearing them, yes, and the destruction they could (and have since managed to) wreak on our Constitution, our rule of law, our social safety net, our standing in the world, and the environment we all depend on to live. I don't hate these men, but I hate what they have done. I hate knowing that anytime I pick up the phone or write an e-mail, the FBI can monitor my conversations without getting a warrant. I hate knowing that my library records can be monitored (probably are), that I can be arrested and thrown in jail for years without ever being allowed to see a lawyer or even being told what I'm being held for. I hate knowing that any group whose meetings I attend, including my church, can be infiltrated and files created on every person present. It's not quite Stasi Berlin, but it's damn close. This is not America, land of the free. My America doesn't torture people, doesn't invade sovereign countries on the pretext of lies, doesn't bomb civilians, doesn't look the other way when disaster strikes the poor and brown. I want my country back. That's why Bush and Cheney (and Gonzales and Rumsfeld) MUST be impeached.

I am 78 and just about finished. But I am tired, sick and tired of you people who talk, talk, talk and do nothing. Why can't we organize? Would you rather just talk? If you don't organize soon it will be too late to organize and shortly thereafter it will be too late to talk.

Activism is more than talk. It is joining together to get something done -- in this case to rid the country of two hardened criminals legally.

Who will step forward and seize the moment? Is there not one stout-hearted man who will step forward and by his strength gather ten million more?

If not, forget about it. But explain it to your children why you lost your country and their heritage.

Many will point out the importance of the Magna Carta here, as they should. (I've been bugging people about it for several years now, ever since its principles were first threatened by the Bush administration.) But to talk about a nearly 800 year tradition of legal, political and artistic expression while using words badly is a hypocritical act.
It may seem like an insignificant detail but care and accuracy are important in establishing credibility in learned discourse. Mistakes like using the work "flaunt" when you mean "flout" are important. Please, people, if you hope to convince the people who matter, proofread! Have a dictionary handy. And an encyclopedia. Maybe even a history book. And yes I know those are sentence fragments and start with "and".