The Legacy He Deserves

[Just Wondering]

There is a scene in the movie Amazing Grace in which William Wilberforce tries to put forth his bill for the abolition of the slave trade in the House of Commons (yet again) and dramatically rolls out a petition signed by English subjects - over 300,000 of them. In the heat of debate, however, Wilberforce makes the mistake of referring to "the will of the people." Post American Revolution, and during a time when just across the channel a bloody French Revolution was stirring - aided by a violent rabble-rouser who was known as The Friend of the People - it was the wrong thing to say. It smacked of sedition in the context of a monarchy, even one with a Parliament.

How far we have come ... that was sarcasm. Would I be too far off to say we've actually come full circle? To a place where "prattling on" about the rights of the people can get you in trouble, especially if one of the rights you prattle on about has to do with expecting accountability of our highest office-holders. Who can forget poor Steve Howards or Father John Dear and the Santa Fe Nine or the unconstitutional "free speech zones?" Yet, as a public, we have watched quietly as our First Amendment rights have been ignored, and as other rights are being pissed away by the worst administration in history. Now our brothers and sisters in England are being told their rights of assembly are suddenly different, at least for next Sunday. Why? Well, guess who's coming to dinner. I have a feeling, unlike the more recent American attitude of "Oh. Okay. We'll just leave then, shall we?" the Brits are going to say "Bullocks." (sp?) and show up in full force. As is their right.

The people. The people have rights. Ours was described as a government of the people, by the people, for the people by a president who had seen the ravages of civil war on this continent and who had struggled to keep the union together, that union which had been born when colonists revolted against the tyranny and oppression of a king.

And now we have George W. Bush.

We have heard ad nauseum that this president thinks about his legacy constantly. He must hope against hope that history buys his lies and propaganda the way many American people did during his first term. History is funny, though. She is not as easily fooled. Ironically, history is not fooled because ultimately it is "the people" who write legacies, once they find their voices, once they seek truth and justice. They cause change; they react to what they see as right or wrong. They write legacies by leaving a record of their dissent, their protests, their experiences, their hopes, their fears ... people like Steve Howards and Father John Dear and you and me.

It is my opinion that it cannot be enough that this president's legacy will include a mocking and irreverent cartoon show or a scathing parody of a children's book in which he features. This presidency hasn't been just a bad joke. It has resulted in war, in the deaths of innocents, in the erosion of Constitutional rights and democratic principles, in the destruction of the justice department through politicization, and more. Last night, Dennis Kucinich introduced Articles of Impeachment agai... (CBS gave us a little blurb there). Thirty-five of them. Read them (to read them, click here, but be warned: the document is taking forever to load due to high traffic ... more on that below). You won't find anything about a blue dress or perjury in them because, like big oil executives, this president has never been forced to testify under oath to anybody about anything. This fact is, of course, why Dick Cheney can blithely say, "So what?" when confronted with the opinion of THE PEOPLE on the Iraq War.

Impeachment must be a part of this president's legacy if we are to remain true to our history as a government of the people, by the people and for the people. It must. However, the people's will is not matched by that of our vaunted 4th Estate (not to be confused with our hybrid 4th branch of government, though one does wonder at the similarities). According to Raw Story, Mainstream Media Yawns as Kucinich Offers Impeachment. From the article:

By noon on Tuesday, RAW STORY's article on the subject was the top political story of the day at digg.com and the 10th most popular for the last year. A separate article at afterdowningstreet.org was also high in the ratings. Both sites, as well as Kucinich's own webpage, were experiencing slowdowns due to the volume of traffic. However, the mainstream media were far more reticent in their coverage of Kucinich's resolution -- much as they were following the release last week of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the administration's misuse of prewar intelligence. For example, the Washington Post and USA Today had short items in their blog sections, while other major outlets merely ran wire service coverage from AP or Reuters. Kucinich supporter John Kusumi responded angrily at OpEdNews, writing, "The most important thing going happened on Monday night. An event that matters greatly to the course of history and to all Americans. Did you hear about it? Did ABC, CBS, and NBC break into normal programming with special coverage? Are there special alerts and bulletins on the cable news networks, where people can see them? No, no, and no!"

[links provided in the original]
I repeat: impeachment must be a part of this president's legacy. Otherwise, this will be known as the time in which torture came into fashion as an American value, habeas corpus fell out of fashion as an American value, and demands for one's Constitutional rights, including demands for the accountability of the president, astonishingly, began to smack of sedition.

[Just Wondering]

Amen. I think that we suffered from a collective numbness after 9/11 - certainly understandable. But had we had people in leadership who respected rather than resented the Constitution, things could have been so different. I am grateful to people like you, Pamela Lyn, who not only pay attention to the issues that will affect all of us long term, but who add their voices to that of those who want to remind America who she is.

[Pamela Lyn]

Just Wondering, Don't ever stop speaking up for truth because the American people need to be reminded that this is supposed to be "a government for the people". Even though I don't think impeachment will happen I've surely signed enough petitions and written letters in support of the efforts of Rep. Kucinich, Rep. Robert Wexler and Russ Feingold. There are still good men and women in Washington who are trying to do the right thing. However, so many of the rest of the politicos ( Democrat and Republican) are so indebted to the same corporate interests that have benefited from the Bush/Cheney policies that openly supporting impeachment proceedings would cost them re-election campaign dollars.

When corporations like Big Oil, and the coal, banking, pharmaceutical and insurance industries finance the political campaigns and influence the media you end up with administrations like Bush/Cheney. it has been a hard lesson.

But what's worse it realizing that so much if this could have been avoided if instead of being obsessed with beating the other side, the American public (Democrat & Republican) had refused to accept a stolen (2000) election. After that the horse was out of the barn.

[Just Wondering]

Pamela Lyn, thanks for commenting. You're probably right that impeachment will not happen, but if it doesn't, I hope it will be because the politicians ignored "the people," rather than because "the people" ignored the problem. We can always find other politicians, but reviving citizenship after it's too late is a different ballgame. That's why I am supporting Rep. Kucinich in his effort. Again, impeachment probably won't happen, but it for sure won't happen if I don't speak up. If anyone would like to add her voice to those who are demanding that Congress do what is Constitutional, as opposed to what is 'political' or expedient, click here.

At any rate, Pamela Lyn, you certainly have this administration and its cronies pegged. It is sometimes hard to believe that this could happen here. What hard lessons we have learned.

[Pamela Lyn]

Just Wondering - You are right, "history is not easily fooled" I too believe that impeachment should be a part of the Bush legacy but it will not happen. I suspect that George Bush's legacy will be very similar to Herbert Hoover's. A man who "may" have meant well but who simply had no idea how government worked and who surrounded himself by people who used every opportunity to press their own agendas and line the pockets of their friends and themselves.