demnan's quest

The Power of the People

I was braced for failure, but we had success.  I thought few people would come out for an impeachment event, we didn't have a massive event but the ones who did come were treasures.  My friend Dave who I vigil with nearly every week, knowing I was uncertain about the letters being formed on the Mall, came up with his own idea, partially I think to cheer me up, flying a kite marked "IMPEACH", so he came up with an entirely new idea to help us through the Summer of Impeachment, "Tell Bush to go fly a kite!"  And what a wonderful place the Washington Monument is to fly a kite.  See this being an event for June perhaps.

My other friend David is a source of inspiration to me.  He always sees the good in everyone and that's why he is patient and works for impeachment tirelessly.  He considers every opinion and every friend.  He is a soft-spoken intellectual and thoughtful person.

My friends Keith, Larry, Alan, Brian, Greg,  Ric, who would have driven the bus if we had enough people, our new friend Ron, who just joined our group, and some of the others, Meeting and knowing each and every one of them has been a blessing for me.

Pam, Rachel and Illana who couldn't make it today are very important people to me.   But for all the friends that I have who couldn't make the event (we had a Virginia Tech mother in our group and we also had one of our most devoted members who is studying for a Masters Degree and just couldn't make this trip today).  It's a very demanding time of year but we made additional friends to add to our group and that really is our strength.  We need to press on and if I falter one of my friends will help me along the way.

My letter to Tom Davis

DC Voting Rights and the "I" Word

Dear Mr. Davis,

Congratulations on finally getting the voting rights for DC bill
passed.  This is a major triumph for you and a demonstration of your
skills of working with others in Congress in a bipartisan manner to
right a horrible wrong that our neighbors to the north have been
living through.  The good Ms. Holmes-Norton will make a fine full-time
Congresswoman.  "Good on you", as the kids say.

I did want to make note of a deficiency regarding your previous
correspondence to me.  Your highly efficient and courteous staff sent
me a letter explaining your views on Iraq, which grow increasingly
more like mine every day, however, I wrote to you on Impeachment.

I know that the Democratic leadership in Congress have taken
"Impeachment off the table" but that doesn't mean you should.  I am
very disappointed in the Democrats at the moment, they are reluctant
to "rock the boat" because they are waiting to clean up in 2008.  And
they shall clean up because your political party will be known as the
"Needless and Disastrous War Party", and the "Illegal Torture Party",
and the Illegal Wiretaps Party".  Mr. Davis, if you were to introduce
articles of Impeachment, not only would you be our next Senator, you
could run for President and win.  You could have the stature of
Senator Baker during the Watergate Investigations if you were to go
forth now for truth, peace and justice.  Mr. Davis, I remember those
hearings and the faithful bipartisanship that helped to right the
wrongs done by the Nixon administration.  No one hated Republicans
then, nor should they blame all Republicans now.

When I was young I got involved with an abusive man and it only took
me a couple of months to figure this out and end the relationship.
You have been in an abusive relationship with George Bush for six
years now (and he WILL VETO the bill you have worked so hard to get
passed!).  You know this.  So end the relationship now.  What have you
got to lose when all those ignorant yokels from your party won't stand
up and support this voting rights bill.  Stand up, Mr. Davis and
please do what is right.  Also, I'd like a written response on
impeachment and to hear your views on it, please.

I hope you still have the little green IMPEACH HIM button I gave you.
Keep it in your pocket for the moment, but when the time is right, I
hope to see you proudly wear yours, when Kucinich puts his on and
maybe together you can right the wrongs that have taken place in this
country.

Sincerely,

Nancy Maynard

The Elephant in the Room

Yesterday the biggest killing spree ever that has ever taken place on an American school or University happened.  And while everyone is sorry, no one is sorry enough to look at the giant elephant in the room, certainly not George Bush, but not the good Governor Tim Kaine either.  Senator Jim Webb was silent about this elephant yesterday as well.  Senator Warner?  Not a word.  Mark Warner?  Forget about it.  Only the BBC’s Justin Webb nailed it.

The elephant in the room is easy gun access.  Virginia has the distinction of having some of the most lax gun laws in the South, where gun laws are all lax. In Virginia, guns are easy to obtain and readily available anywhere in the state without much of a background check required.  Don’t believe me?  Take this quiz regarding Virginiagun laws:  http://crime.about.com/library/blgunquiz_va.htm 

When you buy a home in Virginia a lawyer is required to look over the legal paperwork with a fine tooth comb.  In fact, Virginia has one of the toughest real estate titling processes in the United States, but obtaining a gun, a device for killing, requires hardly any scrutiny.  Any crazy can do it.  And this is unlikely to change, for the NRA (as Justin Webb so rightly pointed out), resides in Virginia and the NRA’s propaganda resides in the minds of Virginia’s residents.

I have no hope that any tightening of gun laws will come from this tragedy.  But I can see the elephant in the room, and I will be surprised to see any politician owning up to this fact.  If they did, they would earn new respect from me.  As for my fellow Virginians, I suggest you write a letter to the governor and state legislature about gun control, and remove your children from Virginia schools until sanity reigns regarding Virginia’s gun laws.

And so it goes

A great man died yesterday, a man who was the most courageous novelist of his generation.   And he was a great American who was perhaps the last German-American humanist left in this country.

Before anyone else suspected, Kurt Vonngut knew our country was on the wrong road just before the end , during and just after World War II.  He thought the bombing of Dresden was immoral but the attacks in Japan, using a new atomic bomb were beyond comprehension.

I have a strange connection with Kurt Vonnegut.  His father dated my grandmother.  My father's family is from Indianapolis, my grandmother's family the Undversaws, were a very old German family in that city.  When I read Vonnegut, his accent and his way thinking are immediately familar to me.  The Germans who came over in the 1850's or so were escaping a war culture that the Kaiser in Germany had planted.  These immigrants wanted to farm and live in a free society.  My grandmother told me once that her grandfather thought that the best thing was for blacks and whites to intermarry in this country and then we would have a fair society.  Their family had been part of the Undeground Railroad.  They were socialist-thinking people who loved their families and their animals.   They spoke English in public and privately admonished their children in German at home (I was a witness to this a few times).

German culture has a humanist side that is more intense than English culture has - this is obvious in music, literature and political writing.  Goethe, Beethoven and  Marx come from the same thought process.  Vonnegut melded this German intensity so beautifully with a Scots-Irish accent like Mark Twain did for his hero, like Huck Finn.  So we have lost our Mark Twain, the one who reminded us of the failure of our national morals  in a humorous way, and who was so darkly right.

And so it goes.

We have the fight of our lives before us

Our President is denying the will of the people.  Will the people respond?

Today we were told that Army registrants would be sentenced to an additional 3 months in hell because no one else is signing up.

We are in a war which is causing pain and suffering and will have no good outcome, even the Generals say that.  The people in Iraq who initially supported our effort want us out because we have so dismally failed them.

This President is so resolved not to follow the will of the people that he taunts Congress to only come meet with him when they will agree with him.

The only response is to impeach this President and his administration!

Letter to Bartcop

Hey Bart! Just a note to let you know about the Patriots for Peace and Accountability and our latest activities. Our Congressman, Tom Davis (R (for Rich beyond our understanding) VA 11th, decided to have a Town Hall meeting in our area. The strength of our passion is that we had people in every area he had the meeting to ask about impeachment throughout our Congressional District. Also I decided it would be great to welcome him at the Prince William County Government Building with Peace and Impeach signs. My buddies the Prince William Peacemakers came out in force, and Dave my friend, farmer and teacher of Manassas, VA made me a very fine Impeach sign with vivid red barn paint. Also we had Impeach and anti-war people inside to ask questions there as elsewhere.

I wore for this event my Kevin Cunningham original "IRAQ - because 50,000 body bags from Vietnam just aren't enough - tee shirt. Do you ever hear from Kevin anymore? He just stopped his cartoons. But if you know how to contact him please let him know that Tom Davis the Republican kept looking at my shirt! I left my sign outside. I just was curious about what was going on and had to "bear witness", after all I am of a WWI, WWII and Vietnam veteran family. I walked into the county building very proudly wearing the shirt and I had an IMPEACH HIM button on my shirt, these buttons are produced by the Washington Area Impeachment Fund, an organization I also support. When Davis wasn't looking, I placed a button under his soft drink can.

After I left (to get in position to hold the Impeach sign to escort his hybrid Explorer further west) he thanked whoever gave him the button, probably in a glib arrogant way. When they drove out, Davis was driving, the aide on the phone nodded at me.

When Davis entered his next spot, he announced that he had been greeted by "Professional Protesters". I'm his constituent, goddamit - I live less than 2 miles from that building but a Republican lies to perserve their sense of self importance! Well, Bart! I wonder where my goddamned check is anyhow! If I was that good for Hugo and Castro, then I can expect my check every day and I don't have to count my pennies to pay the mortgage until the next paycheck from my job, will I?

Your friend,

Nancy