The “I” Word

Once, when my children were young, one of them rushed into me and said: “Mama, so-and-so, said the ‘K’ word.” I don’t remember which one of my children was the tattler, or which one was the tattlee, but I remember the ‘k” word. I could never figure out what the “k” word was, because neither of the children would say that very naughty word.

If all one did was listen or watch the corporate media, one would think that “Impeachment” was a naughty word. I did appear on some cable shows over the summer (before my activism transformed into a Congressional campaign) and was able to outline the rationale for impeachment, but since then, there has been a virtual black-out on the word, or concept.

On January 1st, about 400 Impeachment Activists hit the Rose Parade with impeachment posters and huge banners. There was some local coverage, but the coverage seemed to surround the issue of “politics is ruining the parade” than the issue of accountability. When we marched at the end of the parade with our large copy of the Preamble of the Constitution and our signs and banners, we were the victims of a lot of violence and rage—name calling up to and including projectiles being thrown at us.

A couple of months of go, I called for America to send handwritten letters to Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, via my campaign office. Today was the day that we delivered them to her office. We took over 8,000 letters and over 3,000 signatures on petitions to her office. We had a coalition of Americans represented in the 11,000 total and we had there present: Greens, Progressive Democrats, Peace and Freedom party members, community leaders and activists, and Independents joining hands and hearts to demand what we all think is one of the overriding issues of our time: holding George Bush and Dick Cheney accountable for their crimes against the peace; crimes against humanity; and crimes against the very fabric of what makes America a nation of laws: our Constitution.

Although we had some activists there with cameras and we will be able to put the event up on YouTube, there was not a single representative from the corporate media there to hear from Green Party Presidential hopeful, Cynthia McKinney who was the first Congress rep to introduce articles of impeachment against George Bush before her term expired in 2006.

Not one person from the media came out to hear Minister Christopher Mohammed (from San Francisco’s Bayview Hunter’s Point community) outline the local connection between Speaker Pelosi and her refusal to do her Constitutional duty to impeach George and Dick: she is complicit in the crimes and foxes don’t police the hen house.

That’s okay if the media didn’t show up: it says more about them, then us and we had dozens of patriotic Americans who did show up to help us deliver thousands of letters and we know those people (and more) were there with us in spirit.

Like Cynthia said: we must never give up! When I am elected to Congress and start serving my term, George and Dick will have 17 days to go and I will introduce Articles of Impeachment every day and will not allow them to go riding off into the sunset to enjoy their retirement when they have ruined the lives of millions of people here and all over the world.

The founders of our Representative Republic thought that the “I” word was so important, they included the word six times in the Constitution and the “G” (God) word or “PP” (political parties) word zero times.

Either we have the rule of law or we don’t.

There is still time to support Congressman Bob Wexler (D-Fl) in his efforts to get H Res 799 (Impeachment Articles against Dick) out of committee and off the table and onto the House Floor where they truly belong.

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Sheehan who was killed in Bush's war of terror on 04/04/04. Sheehan is a congressional candidate running against Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco. You can visit her campaign website at CindyforCongress.org. She is the co-founder and president of Gold Star Families for Peace and The Camp Casey Peace Institute. Read other articles by Cindy, or visit Cindy's website.

7 comments on this article so far ...

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  1. HR said on January 15th, 2008 at 11:40am #

    With a majority in both houses of “congress”, from “both” parties, guilty of criminal complicity through their support of wars, torture, invasion of privacy, and their desecration of the Constitution — and the flag which the traitors desecrate daily by wearing it in their fascist lapels — I really doubt impeachment is going to happen. However, if the elections produce a Congress that actually represents the people (again a forlorn hope, as it would be the first “congress” to do so), we can sure as hell pressure them to transfer the criminals, starting with Henry Kissinger and Robert McNamara, and ending with every sold-out member, or former member of “congress” who supported funding for wars, to an international war crimes tribunal to answer for their actions … far from the reach of presidential pardon. Well, a guy can dream, can’t he?

  2. Lloyd Rowsey said on January 15th, 2008 at 5:34pm #

    Booga, Booga, Cindy. Are you there? Or is your campaign, even?

  3. Robert B. Livingston said on January 15th, 2008 at 5:41pm #

    I am angry that the mainstream media has been ignoring Cindy Sheehan’s campaign.

    I find it very odd that Google News hasn’t yet picked up this little story of mine since I posted it last night– often, this type of thing would be sitting at the top of the Google News page for a search “cindy sheehan” (within hours).

    Google can be very strange like that– and I keep trying to figure it out. It is my understanding that the search is completely robotic– but who devises the algorithms– can words like “impeachment” make a low score? I wonder.

    Meanwhile the Google News page is normally inundated with (satire) news– that gunks up the real news results. A search for “cindy sheehan” turns up a slew of satires.

    I almost have a mind to write a satire for a government job description for satirists to skew news results in the information war for full-spectrum dominance.

    News story:
    http://tinyurl.com/2nt643

    Google News page for cindy sheehan:
    http://tinyurl.com/2qw6ul

    I am hoping by mentioning this, the spell will be broken and the news will tumble out– sort of like smoking a cigarette at the stop to make the bus arrive a little quicker.

    Earlier this year, I made a short study of the San Francisco’s poor coverage of Cindy’s campaign, to be found here (as a comment):
    http://tinyurl.com/2esupw

  4. Seven said on January 15th, 2008 at 7:13pm #

    I much prefer the “A” word – no not that one! The much longer one, the one that would actually give a just revenge to the millions killed and miamed.

  5. Seven said on January 15th, 2008 at 7:14pm #

    and by “miamed” – I of course mean “maimed”

  6. dan elliott said on January 16th, 2008 at 1:33pm #

    Lloyd, I do appreciate your encouraging comments on my previous comment on Ms. Sheehan’s “Stain” piece, so please accept my apology for asking you what “booga” means in this context? And also for asking if you live in San Francisco, in the congressional district currently represented by Ms. Peloser? Which where I would expect the Sheehan campaign to be most visible; if it isn’t making a splash there, that would be a problem. It’s not v. visible here in Sactomato, but she’s not running against Mrs Matsui.

    My take on Cindy S. is that she’s done & continues to do a lot of things right, some superbly, for which she deserves a lot of props. However she and I have one thing in common: neither of us is perfect.
    So if you spot a weakness in my political stance, do let me know; that’s how I learn.
    That said, herewith some constructively-meant criticism for Candidate Sheehan, prefaced by a disclaimer: no friend of Cynthia McKinney can be all bad;)

    Okay, here’s an excerpt from Ms S’ article above, somewhat paraphrased etc for brevity; you may want to go back & read the original paragraph, fourth from the top, beginning “A couple of months ago,”:

    Today …we delivered… (8,000 letters and over 3,000 signatures on petitions)to (Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi’s) office.

    We had a coalition of Americans represented in the 11,000 total and we had there present: Greens, Progressive Democrats, Peace and Freedom party members, community leaders and activists, and Independents joining hands and hearts…”

    Here’s the part I have a problem with: “…Greens, Progressive Democrats, Peace and Freedom party members, community leaders and activists, and Independents joining hands and hearts…”

    Well, I also have a bit of a problem with insertion of the “America” rhetoric, as in “America without the three k’s”? Sounds like a Chevvy commercial: “America America, God Bless Our Fanta-See…” I guess though it’s that kind of stuff that makes it possible for Ms S. to “connect” with so many conventional avg. USians. “Pt. noted, consider pros/cons later”, on to the main point:

    Which is this “progressive coalition”. Behold: a strange melange combining Democratic Party operatives, Demogreens left over from the Cobb/ABB era, Naderite GP regulars unable/unwilling to detach themselves from said Demogreens, and the good old P&F congregation of 3rd Pty hobbyists.

    Here we have Sheehan strongly supporting McKinney For President (applause) but over there we have Sheehan all buddy-buddy with these “progressive” Demos. Who when they aren’t promoting this “Impeachment is a High Priority Issue” fantasy, are promoting A) Obama, B) Edwards, and down about P) or Q), a few actually dare to support Kucinich, who of course can be expected to do what he did last time: the minute the Nominee is chose, Dennis will be up on stage holding her/his hand & announcing that he’ll again Support The Ticket.

    How people live with these contradictions in their mental processes is beyond me. I may be wrong about everything, but I don’t go around trying to hold two contradictory ideas in my head at the same time.

  7. hp said on January 16th, 2008 at 5:47pm #

    I can think of another “I” word even more off limits..