Report by Jill McLaughlin, member of World Can’t Wait national steering committee
On the evening of Thursday, June
21, Chicago
kicked off a nationwide series of impeachment town meetings that will be held
in the next few weeks. Over 90 people
filled a room at the DePaul University Law
School to hear John
Nichols of the Nation, Elaine Brower from the national steering
committee of World Can’t Wait-Drive Out the Bush Regime, Larry Everest, author
of Oil, Power, and Empire and contributor to Revolution
newspaper, and David Swanson, co-founder of Afterdowningstreet.org. It was clear on first glance that this was
going to be an evening full of debate and deep and urgent wrangling over the
situation in which we find ourselves; the quandry posed for many by the
Democrats’ complicity in funding the war; the possibility, urgency and
difficulty of moving out of this impasse; and what all that has to do with the
question of impeachment-is it needed, is it possible, and how can the people
themselves create a situation where it will become a powerful force.
David Swanson started out with an indictment of the Bush
administration. A strong theme that
continued throughout the discussion was the need to impeach before 2008, and
the urgency to act now to make that happen. John Nichols gave an impassioned speech,
asking what more harm can Bush do before 2008? Every ten minutes an Iraqi dies, every 10
hours a US soldier dies, and every ten days the U.S. spends $2 billion on the
war-that’s the time line that really counts, and we can’t wait 10 minutes, ten
hours, or ten days, to stop it. This was
followed by Larry Everest putting particular focus on the threat of an attack on Iran and the fact that no Democrat
with any position of power has opposed it. He said millions hate what Bush is doing but
are not yet ready to change their lives and “their relationship to this
government and empire” to change it. Elaine
Brower, a powerful example of a “regular” person who has changed her life to
drive out this regime, spoke to the need for persistence and action by all of
us to challenge complacency and in particular to reach out to active duty
soldiers who the military attempts to brainwash but need to hear our message
most of all.
Jill McLaughlin introduced the “Declare Yourself: Wear
Orange” campaign, by reading a moving statement from Sunsara Taylor and
Anastasia Gomes. This campaign was
developed by Dennis Loo, author of “Impeach the President” and National
Steering Committee member of WCW. People
were asked to begin wearing orange in various forms as a visual statement to
declare themselves as being against the outrages of the Bush Regime,
particularly tyranny, torture, and war crimes . People were silent and listened
with rapt attention. Orange ribbons were
placed on every seat before the town hall began and none were on seats at the
end of the meeting. Some people pinned
the ribbon to themselves after the statement was read.
People had come to this event from Chicago
and quite a ways away-Joliet, LaGrange, Batavia, and Northwest Indiana,
to name a few. Progressive Democrats, students, veterans of several wars,
professionals, retired people and just regular folks.
The room was full of
questions afterwards, as we passed the baskets for donations and took cards
with questions from the audience. While that was happening, the speakers were
invited to ask each other questions, which they did. David Swanson asked Larry Everest if Larry was
saying that the Democrats and Republicans are basically the same. Larry
responded that no, the Bush administration and its program are still in the
driver’s seat and the Democratic leadership is capitulating and ‘finding common
ground’ with that, and we have to break millions out of passivity and
even despair among people who thought electing a Democratic majority in
Congress would stop the war and reverse the directions the Bush regime is
taking this country.
And that’s what many in the audience wanted to know: “What’s
up with the Democrats?!?” If they won’t
stop funding the war, why do you think they’ll impeach? Are the Democrats and
Republicans really just the same? Another common question was, “What can people
do to actually make impeachment happen?” Other people asked about the potential of an
attack on Iran and the possibility of things
becoming more repressive in this country. How do we bring Republicans into the movement?
Is impeachment actually possible and
what would it look like? What do we say
to the Congress people who say they “don’t have enough votes” to stop funding
the war. All the speakers agreed: There
may not be enough votes to override a presidential veto, but the means and
methods to block action on funding the war are readily at hand.
Some people were especially moved by the international
significance of what we do-or don’t do-right now in this country. One woman
said she came because she felt that, as a patriot, it was her duty to demand
impeachment of this administration. But
she came away with a new appreciation of the world that, as Larry Everest
emphasized, needs to see that there is another way besides Islamic
fundamentalist jihad and the much more deadly imperial onslaught of the Bush
regime. John Nichols said that “the
world can’t wait, but it is waiting to see” if the people in this
country will stand up and reject this program of torture and war. This same woman also left with the Voices of
Impeachment DVD to show her friends. A
student who said he came expecting “another boring lecture” was surprised by
all he learned that evening and inspired by the emphasis on the need for each
and every one of us to commit to changing our lives in order to change the
world, grasping that this is one of those moments in history that requires
nothing less of us all.