More than 125 Vermonters from 56 communities congregated at the Statehouse Tuesday and sought to pressure legislators from both chambers and of all political persuasions to act on a resolution calling for President Bush's impeachment this session.
"It's disingenuous for them to say they don't have time to vote on the resolution when just today the House listened to a member read two poems and then honor a school sports team," said Boots Wardinski, a landscaper from Newbury.[...] You are breaking down a cornerstone of democracy," one woman accused Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, and House Speaker Gaye Symington, D-Jericho, during a meeting in the Cedar Creek Room at the State House.
"If the Democratic Party won't listen to us, maybe we should just leave the party," yelled one man during the meeting.
I was there. Talk about a waste of time. Symington and Shumlin, saying they disagree on the issue of impeachment, apparently agreed not to hear the concerns of the 130 citizens who gathered yesterday urging our legislators to take action to initiate impeachment investigations. Shumlin, once a supporter of the effort, did a switcheroo and out and out lied. Go figure. We have come to expect that from the people who we elect. It's so easy to become cynical.
By not calling for impeachment, Symington and Shumlin are enabling the continuation of the Bush lies, torture and the descecration of our constitution. For shame!
Not unusual that in today's Free Press print article, the reporter called the citizen group a crowd and leftist, as if we were some anarchic rabble rousers threatening the biz-as-usual at the State House. We were citizens wanting our voice heard: Greens [two from the Green Party of Burlington], Progs, Dems and I'm sure even Repubs. Several of us had also been involved in the recent sit-ins at Welch's, Sanders' and Leahy's offices in Burlington, but then, as yesterday, we were peaceful and respectful. But only when it was evident that our pleas to Symington and Shumlin were unheard, did the group boo them. Shumlin walked out.
SnarkyBoy hits the nail -
I would have rather we rushed the podium and declared ourselves the true and only captains of the ship for a moment or two. At least we would have made the nasty spirited cops hanging around the place actually do something other than look surly. And all those lingering media types would have had something to do other than camping out at the doors of power.
Do we need any further evidence of
ReplyDeletethe betrayal of the US by the
Democratic Party, even in Vt,
then this?!? Activists can not be
faulted for abandoning electoralism
when the result is Democratic
collaboration with the Republican
National Committee (which IS what
happened at the State House!).
Bush commands both Parties, in
a sense, in their joint pursuit
of the status quo. What response
should we have, but to violate
that business-as-usual as in
the recent Leahy Action...
Patrick
If it can't happen in Vermont, that leaves me with little hope for Ohio.
ReplyDelete