The personal, the political and the urgently possible

[EFerrari]

As I move into a higher gear in organizing San Francisco for impeachment, my personal life is in disarray. My marriage didn’t survive our train wreck of a mental health system and for the last six months, I’ve been trying to accept that. My best efforts weren’t enough to counter the wear and tear that our families try to cope with 24/7. Not a mile away from this desk, an elderly mother got tired one night. She first ended her schizophrenic son’s life and then, she ended her own. That is our reality – a harsh world of endlessly exhausting bad choices. I don’t know what to do about that except to keep raising the issue. Tonight, my ex husband is in an SRO and there is nothing I can do to change that.

We take ourselves and our personal situation with us into any community project. As Frost said, “Home is where we start from.” And I have to mind myself as I go out into our city, reaching out to anyone who might listen, who might agree with me that the criminals who have hijacked our government must be held to account. If I have myself in hand as I start out, maybe I will be better able to speak clearly and directly and honestly to my neighbors.

So this week, I am reaching out to anyone I can think of to get this show on the road. Global Exchange, PDA, the San Francisco Greens, CODE PINK, my show business contacts, Today, I called Rocky Anderson’s office to see if he could speak at an event that is still only in my imagination. But, that’s where all actions begin, isn’t it?

I just watched via CSPAN Barbara Lee’s town hall meeting –twice—because last week was a hard week for those of us who have always been Nancy Pelosi’s supporters and who work to end the occupation of Iraq and all that the occupation means. The deaths, the destruction, the draining of resources we so need here at home. I needed to listen to Barbara, Sean Penn, Dan Ellsberg and the rest of that wonderful panel twice to retrieve my balance and to keep moving.

Peace, Nancy, you needed that victory. You deserved it and part of me is so proud of your ability, of your acumen. But you know and I know that your bill will not bring our troops home, does not call for a closing of Bush’s bases in Iraq and will not prevent another war of choice in Iran.

Barbara Lee’s bill, HR 508, does call for those things. I don’t think it has a chance in hell of getting out of committee because we have lived so long with an authoritarian government, that the mentality has infected us all. So, you say impeachment is off the table and your constituents tend to just fall in line because that is what we have learned to do. The word comes down.

And that is backwards. The word needs to go up. Nancy, set the table.

I want Democrats to win. I want to see sanity back in office. I want this delusional group of thugs to shake hands with the criminal justice system. And the only way that will happen is if real people with real, chaotic lives (like me) move. If we push, if we take too much time out of already too busy days and think outside of our mortgages, outside of the last family drama or car repair and get busy.

I don’t know what is possible. I don’t know if we can impeach George W. Bush or Dick Cheney but I know we must try. Not holding our government accountable in the past allowed seasoned and skilled felons to continue in our government today. Men to whom our values are at best abstractions they can mentally wave away like so many flies -- habeas corpus, due process, international law. The Salvador Option has migrated to Iraq. These career scofflaws are nothing if not catastrophically efficient.

But I know one thing. If you don’t try, you foreclose possibility. And I am not willing to foreclose the possibility that these men, men who let us die on September 11, who let us die when the levees breached, who let us die every day from IEDs or preventable disease, will be held to account for those irrevocable losses of precious human life. Our lives, life itself, must be more important than political calculation.

Or maybe, respect for human life should drive political calculation, not simply endure it or try to survive that calculus. Because there is no really sweet political victory when our people are being killed every day by bad policy.


Nancy, this week here in your district, we begin to ask you to set the table. We will not shout, our request will contain all of our enduring, long held regard for you. But it’s long past time for these hijackers of the common good, these wasters of our peoples’ lives to be brought to justice. Nancy, set the table – lest your grandchildren and mine be forced to dine on the scraps of a once great democracy.

[mmonk]

1. Godspeed

[wicket]

4. Amen

K & R

:kick:

[EFerrari]

23. Let's see how we do. In some ways, this feels like one of the

most important projects. Not so much for the outcome, but for the effort, the act of asserting our truth in a mostly truthy world.

[ClayZ]

2. K and R

:applause:

[EFerrari]

3. It's good to see we have Mr. Madison on our side.

:)

[H2O Man]

5. We should do

our best, and recognize that we can't take responsibility for others' actions. When we tell an elected official the truth, we've done our job. The ball is in their court.




The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

[EFerrari]

6. A reminder that is always timely. Thank you.

[Swamp Rat]

7. Nancy, set the table.

:hi: :hug:

[EFerrari]

8. That's AWESOME.

LOL

:hi:

[DemReadingDU]

9. that is awesome!

You are inspiring, I am checking to see if there are meetings in my area like yours...
http://sfimpeachnow.com/

[EFerrari]

14. If not, start one. I bet in OH you could find one or two people

who think Bush is a scofflaw.

:hi:

[Solly Mack]

10. I enjoyed reading this

Thank you

[bread_and_roses]

11. You are so right, Sister

We are citizens, it is our job to demand that our government do the right thing. It is not our job to accept political power broking as progress. Not our job to applaud our Representatives for show"man"ship. Not our job to accept mirage for substance. If we want change, it is our job to demand change, to accept nothing less, to push and push and push.

To see a woman wielding that gavel has been a source of great pride to me. I understand what Pelosi was doing, didnt' need the laborious, tedious, repetitive explanations offered here by those who would have us cheer this "vicory." They miss the point. The point is not Pelosi's skills, it is exercising our power - the only power we have - to use our voice to demand real change. Were we all to celebrate this "victory" what motivation, what political cover do we give our Reps for real change? If the pundits can say "this satisfies the people" how will they ever advance to the more difficult challenge of really ending this war and bringing these criminals to justice?

Our job is to demand what we want, what we believe to be right. To demand peace and justice - for all those dead in Iraq, for all those dead and destroyed in Katrina, for all those destroyed by racist exploitation and oppression, for the very earth.

Blessings on you for keeping the fire alive, through weariness and personal loss and adversity.

K&R

[babylonsister]

12. sfexpat2000, that was great and so heartfelt! Thank you!

People, funds, ideals being sapped for this endless, unjust war when there is so much need at home. 'Their' priorities are skewed, and I don't mean the Dems. I agree that Pelosi did what she could; now she has to do more, starting with really listening to Barbara Lee.
:hug:

[EFerrari]

15. I'm thinking that our lives are probably more of a piece than we know

(or have time to notice) most of the time. And that, that kind of integration is a good thing

Barbara is a strong person, a clear person. It was good to get to watch and listen to her.

[Horse with no Name]

13. Beautiful.

K&R.:hug:

[EFerrari]

16. Thank you, HWNN.

:hug:

[blondeatlast]

17. "The word needs to go up." Exactly; WE are the bosses.

Excellent read.

[EFerrari]

18. Howard Zinn says it more clearly:

"When a social movement adopts the compromises of legislators, it has forgotten its role, which is to push and challenge the politicians, not to fall in meekly behind them."

/oops

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

19. Bravo! Well said! K&R with pleasure.

[Morgana LaFey]

20. Awesome post

Thanks.

[Senator]

21. And When You're Finished Being Polite

Here's a potential primary candidate to look into.

Nancy's Impeachophobia may only be curable by an electoral cluestick to the head.

Yes, this is harsh. But it may be the only way to wake her/them. And sadly, it's looking more and more like it might come to this.

If you know of a better potential candidate, please let me know.

---

[EFerrari]

22. I know a great candidate that ran as a Green in a local race

who at one point was thinking about a congressional run. He might be persuaded to run as a Democrat. I don't know. :evilgrin:

[Senator]

45. I don't know the district

But since the intent would be to "Lamont" Pelosi, I wouldn't think that a current/former Green would be a first choice.

The core of our objection to the Pelosi/Lieberman types is not really "issues based." And it is certainly not merely "about the war" (as the propaganda memes would have us believe). It is more about their cynical/craven business-as-usual politics, that has them in a constant state of fear-based near paralysis -- and renders them maleable to the DC Euphemedia cult(ure).

But, oddly enough, the way to fight cynicism is with a bit of cynicism of your own. The only real qualification for a candidate to dump Pelosi is one that can win the primary. Like with Lamont's "deep pockets" or Jim Webb's "former Republican/military" appeal, what is required is someone that brings something formidable of their own to the table. Someone with some level of celebrity or public visibility would also be a good choice.

This is why my admittedly cursory and uninformed search for possibles landed me on Ms. Yee. She has a "built in" appeal to the asian and (I think) LGBT communities. She seems to be well (or even self) funded. And she has been quite successful thus far in politics without seeming like a regular party stooge. She seems like somebody who the netroots/outsider community could just put over the top and make our point that we're tired of top-down manipulation.

---

[EFerrari]

50. Has she indicated an interest in a run?

I think Matt Gonzalez could register as a Democrat and do extremely well. He likely won the mayoral race but we have a problem with ballots winding up in the bay. He isn't in office but has remained active and visible here. He's attractive to youth, the left and to Latinos and he's not a screaming liberal like me, lol, as his record on our Board of Supervisors demonstrates. The last time I saw him, we were both out supporting (now) State Senator Leland Yee. (D) during his successful run.

Not familiar with Ms. Yee. I'll have to get to know her.

[Senator]

52. No, but drafting a candidate is a given

Anyone who may be already talking about challenging Pelosi is likely not doing so for "winning" reasons. As I said, Yee was just someone I saw during a "quick look" that might scare Pelosi a bit.

I took a "quick look" at Gonzalez and he seems to me to have the potential to be fabulous or awful (or both). Sorry, but his "quirkiness" factor is just a wildcard that one never knows how to guage. Still, he seem far less "establishment" than Yee which is exactly what is needed.

I guess what I'd need to know is if he'd be willing to get agressive about "taking back the Dem party," or has he resigned himself to Green/full-outsider status? Seems to me that in SF "going Green" is not quite the marginalizing, Anti-Dem option that it usually is in other places. Would he run on (lack of) Impeachment? Would he talk about Stolen Elections? The failures of the DC Dems.

These are the things that cut to the core of the insider/outsider divide, and also energize the Dem rank and file.

Certainly his near-miss in the mayor's race, with the addition of the recent "buyer's remorse" about Newsom, would be sufficient to terrify Pelosi's DC strategerizers. I'm just not sure (either way) about his ability to project the kind of "winning potential" that would captivate the netroots nationwide.

That said, he does seem well worth pursuing about a challenge.

--

[EFerrari]

53. It's interesting because the Newsom campaign ran with

the "quirkiness" factor and if you compare the subsequent behavior of both men, Matt turns out not to be the "quirky" one. When you meet him, he seems very grounded and thoughtful.

I think he's mulling over the very questions you raise about affiliation and so on. He and I have discussed election reform -- in fact, I gave him a copy of Mark's book and GuvWorld's pamphlet.

Matt seems (to me anyway) to be something of a populist but I can't speculate what his platform would be.

His campaign got a brazillion young people out and that by itself was very impressive. :shrug:

[mzmolly]

24. A hug and a recommendation sfexpat2000

:hug:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

25. The burden placed on us by this mal-administration

is indeed heavy. Your courage and tenacity to continue to fight for justice in the face of such adversity and difficult personal events, is to be commended. I wish for brighter days, both for you and your family, and for all of us in emerging from the dark shadow imparted by this regime. :hug:

[EFerrari]

26. This is the inverse of the Clinton years: uncomplacency.

lol

We'll be fine, we will. :hi:

[omega minimo]

27. You had me at "disarray"

:evilgrin: :hug: This piece is perfect. It balances those elements that we all are dealing with, that we are questioning, every day..............

Beautiful writing and our hearts go out to you as you touch our lives and continue your work. Best thoughts to your ex as well. :thumbsup:

"And the only way that will happen is if real people with real, chaotic lives (like me) move. If we push, if we take too much time out of already too busy days and think outside of our mortgages, outside of the last family drama or car repair and get busy."

As it ever has been.

"Not holding our government accountable in the past allowed seasoned and skilled felons to continue in our government today....These career scofflaws are nothing if not catastrophically efficient."

Yup.

You done hit that ole nail right on the head.

"Or maybe, respect for human life should drive political calculation, not simply endure it or try to survive that calculus."

I think you are right on point, sfexpat2000. Time for the word to go up.

:yourock:

http://www.alternativetentacles.com

[EFerrari]

31. LOL! Okay!

:yourock:

[MaggieSwanson]

28. Bravo

"If you don’t try, you foreclose possibility. And I am not willing to foreclose the possibility that these men, men who let us die on September 11, who let us die when the levees breached, who let us die every day from IEDs or preventable disease, will be held to account for those irrevocable losses of precious human life. Our lives, life itself, must be more important than political calculation."

I hope you don't mind if I pass this along to a few friends (with a link, of course).

Well done, and thank you.

[EFerrari]

32. Thank you, Maggie.

[lonestarnot]

29. Inspiration for more motivational anger for me!

:applause: :patriot: Thanks! Anger is what makes me budget the time no matter the personal circumstances!

[EFerrari]

33. "motivational anger"

:rofl:

[lonestarnot]

34. For 6 fucking years I've been angry!

:rofl:

[Jcrowley]

30. K&R n/t

[Cabcere]

35. Excellent post

K&R, my friend. :hug: :thumbsup: Peace.

[kineneb]

36. good luck

hang in there, I know about family traumas; I am watching Hubby slowly die from the effects of kidney failure, even though he is on dialysis. Our goddaughter moved in after being kicked out by her grandparents. And I keep hoping the meds and therapy hold me together through all of this.

I would love to be more politically active, but I just can't muster the energy right now.

Again, good luck in your efforts, from friends to the north of you.

[EFerrari]

37. kineneb

:hug: to you and to your family.

[mod mom]

38. MLK: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

sfexpat, you are an inspiration. We in the know, must continue to fight for truth and justice. Sometimes I think my head will explode, but I refuse to back down. We are the ones that will force change, not those who poll test decisions.

In solidarity!

:patriot:

[EFerrari]

42. Maybe we can fashion a hat that will keep our heads in one general area.

Solidarity.

:hug:

[WillyT]

39. BRAVO sfexpat2000, BRAVO !!! - K & R !!!

I'm cryin here now.

:grouphug:

[EFerrari]

44. We need more hearts like yours, WillyT.

:toast:

[Forkboy]

40. Your post is both sad and uplifting at the same time.

Sad because your heartfelt words remind me of the gap between what we are as a country and what we could be.

Uplifting because they help give me the strength to keep trying to close that gap.

:hug:

[EFerrari]

43. We'll be okay, Forkboy.

:hug:

[bonito]

41. Well said!

honored to recommend

[nicknameless]

46. Rep. Pelosi has not been hesitant to mention her grandchildren.

She needs to seriously consider the impact that her not "setting the table" could have on their futures.
What kind of a country does she plan to leave for them?

I am fed up with the hand wringing and political posturing.
It is time to do the right thing, Ms. Pelosi -- BECAUSE it is the right thing!

[nicknameless]

47. BTW ... Great OP! ;o)

K&R

[EFerrari]

51. I always wonder what powerful people are thinking when

their behavior seems to bode ill for the next generation. Do they believe they can so insulate their own family? Dick Cheney is a better example than Nancy because she hasn't really closed any doors yet. But Cheney has tried to set the planet on fire. Is he planning to beam his grandkids to a space station or ? :shrug:

[Time for change]

48. I do hope that Nancy reads this

very closely.

"Not holding our government accountable in the past allowed seasoned and skilled felons to continue in our government today."

How true. :(

I wish you the best of luck in trying to get through to these people -- and in getting your personal life back on track.

[EFerrari]

49. Thanks, TFC. I'm mailing hard copies to both offices.

[countryjake]

54. Heartfelt & well said!

I almost missed this!
Can no longer recommend, but a good kick might give more an opportunity to see your reasoned plea!

Love your sincerity, sfpat! Hugs to you & yours!

[EFerrari]

57. Hey, countryjake.

So much trouble to get into, so little time.

:)

[warren pease]

55. Brilliant, and beautifully written

Thanks so much for writing this. I thought I had written the ultimate "back on the table" letter to Pelosi, but I failed to include -- probably couldn't if I tried -- the humanity, compassion and determination that shines from your piece.

I feel extremely vengeful toward Bushie. I want him tried and convicted of treason during warfare (since he never fails to mention that "we're at war"). And if he stays out of prison here, then a few people at The Hague might want a shot at him, figuratively speaking.

Same for Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld (retroactively), Rove and the entire leadership of the PNAC and the Carlisle Group -- and that's just for starters. I am absolutely outraged that the Dems haven't gone directly at him yet, and I've written Pelosi, my own congresswoman, Waxman, Conyers and quite a few others expressing that outrage.

However, while my own letters sometimes make me shake with anger while I write them, and again when I read them back, yours is probably far more effective. It makes all the right points, and does so with courage, resolve and grace.

So thanks again. I hope Pelosi can be persuaded that her best interests lie in leadership, not accommodation. If not, it's time to find a replacement.

Very best,

wp

[EFerrari]

56. I hope you're right because I mailed a copy to both of her offices

today. lol

And, have posted it to my site: www.sfimpeachnow.com

I want this threat over Junior's head. I want this reserve of menace to haunt BushCo.

Let's see how we do. :hi: