Our Moment in Court

December 5, 2007 By M. Colby 23 Comments

Another day. Another court appearance.

Yesterday we made the snowy trek to Burlington’s District Court to stand before a judge and T.J. Donovan, the state’s attorney, and very proudly plead “not guilty” to the charges of trespassing at the offices of our congressman, Peter Welch. Basically, it was a three-hour trip for a mere 30-seconds of the court’s time. And I got to utter these words to the judge who seemed like she wasn’t going to have much patience for any more: “I am not guilty, your honor. And I will be seeking a jury trial and invoking the necessity defense.” Next.

T.J. Donovan – sorry, but that’s just one cool name for a prosecutor – wants to cut a deal of some type. He told us before the court hearing that he’d be willing to drop the charges if we agreed to do some community service. Well, T.J., our actions WERE a community service. So our response to him was: Declare our attempts to meet with our congressman and ask him to stop funding the war a court-recognized “community service” and we’ll sign on the dotted line for a dismissal. Otherwise, let’s go to trial.

Personally, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to pick a jury and put on a trial that will seek to prove that our minor legal transgressions were necessary to prevent the larger legal evils of the Bush war and Congressman Welch’s continued double-speak on whether or not he’s going to continue funding it. And how much fun will it be to serve Welch and his staff subpoenas to be witnesses at the trial? I guess we might get another chance to ask him some “yes or no” questions, huh? Priceless.

People spend thousands of dollars to get Welch’s attention by way of campaign contributions – he’s now collected nearly $700,000 for his next campaign. This trial – with all the free legal help we’re being offered – will be, in comparison, a very cheap way to have a little one-on-one with the Congressman.

Welch has handled this all with the kind of fumble-fingers that one would expect from a rookie. Remember, when we went to his office in October we we’re simply asking for a meeting with him. He refused. And then his staff instructed the Burlington Police to have us arrested.

But Welch quickly realized that having constituents arrested for trying to meet with him looked kind of old-school Soviet Union and all. And so he agreed to meet with us in public, mostly to stem the tide of his political capital oozing like a sieve from a perplexed left. But, just to show that the vengeance will be his, Welch has never requested that the trespassing charges be dropped.

Whatever, Congressman. We’ll just keep picking the scab that is your very confused and confusing record on Bush’s war with Iraq. And, who knows, someone might even use the trial as an opportunity to announce a challenge to your re-election bid. This should be fun.

–

While awaiting our 30-seconds of court time yesterday, the very affable T.J. Donovan took the time to introduce us to Ian Carlton, the chairman of the Vermont Democratic Party. No, Carlton wasn’t there to discuss Donovan’s promising future as a statewide politician someday in the near future. Instead, Carlton was there to go head-to-head with his fellow Dem on a legal matter before the court. Carlton, you see, is a practicing attorney and – thus – had some non-partisan work to do involving a client who got caught stealing. Let’s just hope for the Dem Party’s sake that Carlton is a smoother party chair than he is a lawyer. In the three minutes of court time we witnessed, Carlton seemed to be doing his best Jerry Lewis imitation. Carlton, for example, got softly reprimanded for filling out the wrong paperwork for a plea deal and then almost fell into the lap of Donovan while tripping before the court. And why, oh why, did his clumsiness remind me of a certain political party and its relation to important issues of the day? Just wondering.

Filed Under: activism, blog, vt politics, war & peace

Quick Thoughts On Williston Anti-War Action

December 3, 2007 By M. Colby 3 Comments

Wow. And that about sums it up – the anti-war event last Friday, that is. Well, let me add this: It was moving. It was inspiring. It was energizing. It was empowering. And it was nothing short of an honor to be a part of it. To each and every one of you who helped make it happen: Thanks. I needed that.

If you haven’t read about the event here, here or here, go there, there and there to read about it. They’ve got all the facts and figures – and photos, too! — to give you a sense of what happened. The movers and shakers behind this event, the Peace Club at Mount Mansfield Union High School, deserve one, long moment of recognition and honor for putting this action on the agenda and then working with the “old timers” to make it happen.

These students were tired of seeing the U.S. military recruiters coming to their school week in and week out to hand out recruiting propaganda in the pursuit of more young war fodder. And they didn’t just bitch and moan about it, they took action. They decided that they wanted to return the “favor” and visit the recruiting offices of the military to give them a message of their own: “Out of our schools, out of Iraq.” And so they did.

These students also had a goal of shutting down the recruiting offices while delivering their message. They wanted to participate in a peaceful act of civil disobedience to add a little punch to their message. Specifically, they wanted to hold a sit-in at the offices while also doing “counter-recruitment” by handing out anti-war materials and forming a coalition with Iraq Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out. And so they did.

But before embarking on their act of civil disobedience, they realized they needed a plan and they needed training. And so off they went for an all-day session at Wheelock Farm on a snowy Saturday in November, where they got advice, made a plan, and were trained in the fine arts of civil disobedience.

And then they made a media plan. They made signs. They rehearsed the various scenarios. They met and met again. They checked and checked again. They changed their plans when the military folks let them know that they knew they were coming. But they kept coming. And meeting. And planning. And checking. And just making sure it all worked. And so it did.

On Friday, November 30, 2007, all five military recruitment offices in Williston, Vermont were shut down for the afternoon and evening because of the dream of these students. No, make that, because of the dream and the willingness to act on that dream of these brave students. Better yet, the event was peaceful – even joyful – as 70 or more people made their march with the students to spread the original “Out of our schools, out of Iraq message.”

In the end, thirteen of us – myself included — were arrested for trespassing in the offices of the Vermont National Guard. Standing before a judge and – eventually — a jury to answer these charges will be a small price to pay for having the opportunity to be a part of such an uplifting and hopeful event. Getting to spend those hours with the students, the veterans, the family members of soldiers and the other activists was pure nourishment for the activist soul. I was moved. And I remain moved. Thank you, MMU students.

Onward.

Filed Under: activism, blog, war & peace

Anti-War Blogging

November 29, 2007 By M. Colby 1 Comment

Vermont Anti-War Action: The next action by the ad hoc anti-war group that has been upping the ante of late will be tomorrow (Friday) at 3:00 p.m. at the military recruiting center in Williston (166 Sycamore Street – near the box store hell zone). This action has been in the works for weeks and was the brainchild of about a dozen Mt. Mansfield High School (MMHS) students who are both opposed to the war and fed up with the continued presence of military recruiters at their school. Interestingly, the last Vermonter killed in the Iraq war was a MMHS graduate. The message of the rally is “out of our schools, out of Iraq.” The group had been planning to make the action a bit of a surprise but military recruiters somehow got wind of it and – yesterday — let the MMHS students know that they knew about it. So the surprise is over but the action will go on as planned. Join us. Support these budding activists. And, better yet, help stop this war and the military’s preying on the youth of this nation to be war fodder.

Speaking of Iraq: There’s been a lot of talk lately about how “the surge is working.” File it under “p” for propaganda, please. The problem, though, is that many of the lily-livered Dems – especially those at the top – are falling for it. On Sunday, for example, the New York Times ran this article on its front page with this headline: “As Democrats See Iraq Gains, A Shift in Tone.” Good grief. And this means that the latest round of so-called tough talk from the Dems in Congress about blocking future war funding is just plain nonsense. The writing’s on the wall. The Dems will be – once again – whipped into submission after failing to stand up to what is obviously nothing more than war propaganda.

The truth about Iraq is that it is still a mess and any of the so-called “gains” there of late are more about the strategies of the moment for the warring factions than any U.S. military strategies. In the November 19, 2007 edition of The New Yorker, Jon Lee Anderson details the current situation in Iraq in a fine piece titled “Inside the Surge.” Read it. And then you’ll see that – like most of the Iraq debacle – the U.S. military is fumbling and stumbling like they always have been over there. Anderson details, for example, how the current slow-down in deaths and attacks is more a result of a temporary changing of alliances in the religious/civil war the U.S. is now trying to referee. The entrenched Sunnis and Shiites are basically re-tooling and re-adjusting for the skirmishes on the horizon. And the U.S. war machine is so damn hungry for any semblance of positive news that they’re jumping on this and running with it straight to the front pages of the New York Times and the evening news. Worse, the ninny Dems are bowing to it instead of challenging it and exposing it for what it truly is: bullshit.

Iraq is mired in a vicious civil war and, worse, the U.S. presence there is fueling it. On some days the Shiite leaders will use the U.S. military to put the screws to the Sunnis. And on other days the Sunnis will return the favor. But the clumsy U.S. military will take these strategic overtures as “evidence” that things are getting better. Until, that is, the next strap-on bomb goes off on the body of a so-called friend.

There is no rationality in this struggle. It is filled with religious hatred and vengeance. Take, for example, the story Anderson tells in his New Yorker piece about two brothers and their mother seeking revenge for the death of their brother/son. The brothers declare that “ten people per finger” must be killed as revenge for their brother’s death. Yes, they decide that “justice’ will be served only after they’ve personally killed 100 people. And so they set out to kill and kill and kill, notching each new death as another step toward “justice.”

But the pathology gets worse. The mother tells her vengeful sons that she wants body parts of the new victims brought to her. “Yes, I want revenge,” she told Anderson. Don’t believe her? Here’s an excerpt from Anderson’s article:

Um Jafaar [the brother] went on to tell me that she took the body parts of Amar’s victims, wrapped in cloth, to his grave, in the holy city of Najaf, and buried them there. “I talk to my son, I tell him, ‘Here, this is from those who killed you, I take revenge.’” Moving one hand in a horizontal circle, she said, “I put them around the grave. So far, I have taken one hand, one eye, an Adam’s apple, toes, fingers, ears, and noses.” (Karim told me that the hand had made the house stink for days.) I asked her how many Mahdi men Amar had killed.  “I don’t know: eighteen, twenty? But still my heart hurts. Even if we kill all of them, I won’t have comfort,” she said.

And that, my friends, is what the U.S. military is in the center of. Good luck with that. Here’s what one U.S. officer told Anderson:

Balancing the Shia and the Sunni – the politics of it – that’s the hardest part of my job. ‘Hunt bad guy, kill bad guy’ – O.K., that’s what I’m trained to do. But they don’t train you for this.

If you need a little more proof that the “surge is working” nonsense is, well, nonsense, check out this piece from Editors & Publishers. It’s an article on a recent report from the Project for Excellence in Journalism that chronicles Iraq war reporting. And the conclusion: It’s worse than what’s being reported. Far worse. Here’s a brief excerpt from the article:

Above all, the journalists — most of them veteran war correspondents — describe conditions in Iraq as the most perilous they have ever encountered, and this above everything else is influencing the reporting,” the report from the Project for Excellence in Journalism stated. “A majority of journalists surveyed say most of the country is too dangerous to visit. Nine out of ten say that about at least half of Baghdad itself. Wherever they go, traveling with armed guards and chase vehicles is the norm for more than seven out of ten surveyed.

Hmm, it seems like a pretty good time to protest. I hope I’ll see you all in Williston tomorrow.

Filed Under: activism, blog, war & peace

It’s Democracy Day in Barre — Come Meet Welch and Speak Out Against War

November 11, 2007 By M. Colby 1 Comment

fists.jpgHere we go again, launching into yet another dance with democracy. This time, however, we’re actually going to have the opportunity to converse with our congressman, Peter Welch. Yep, today’s the day we throw open the barn doors of discourse, invite the public and our elected official to sit down for a long chat, and – hopefully – come together with a plan to jumpstart the anti-war movement and end the Iraq war NOW. Mmm, nothing like the smell of hope on a chilly November morning.

For those who’ve been donning their orange, scouting for their big buck or otherwise placing themselves in a self-imposed media blackout, let me repeat the specifics of the day: Peter Welch will be meeting with anti-war activists today (November 11th) at Barre’s Aldrich Public Library at 1:30 pm to answer our questions and talk about what we hope are our mutual plans to end the Iraq war.

We worked hard for this meeting. Many of us were arrested (twice) in our efforts to speak with Welch. And four of us are still facing a court appearance on December 4th to answer to the charge of trespassing in our congress member’s office while trying to have the conversation we’re going to have today. To Welch’s credit, he did reverse course and he has agreed to meet with us. And for that, we thank him.

Hopefully, today’s meeting will be about turning the page and breathing new life and energy into the task of stopping the war. It has been an unspeakable tragedy for countless people – the Iraqi people, especially, who have seen their homeland wrecked and ravaged. But thousands of U.S. soldiers have also given their lives for this ill-fated and illegal mission. Sadly, they followed the orders handed down by a Bush administration that has so obviously lost its moral compass and sense of justice.

There is no disputing the facts when it comes to how devastating and unjust this war has been. That’s why poll after poll shows that more than 70% of the public want it to end now. And it’s our duty – as citizens and, in the case of our meeting partner today, congressmen – to do whatever we can right here and right now to come together, to be creative, to be strong in our numbers, and to be relentless in the single-minded pursuit of ending this war. That, my friends, is what we owe our soldiers, the Iraqis, and the world on this Veteran’s Day.

People also need to understand that this meeting with Peter Welch is only a small part of what the newly formed ad hoc anti-war group has been working on. Yeah, it’s nameless and leaderless, but it’s been filling rooms with its energy and ideas for taking anti-war activism to the streets and halls of power. Because we’re not just working to get better votes from our congressional delegation, we’re working to create a peace culture that will reject future war endeavors (with Iran, for example). And if you want to be a part of it, send me an email (mcolby@broadsides.org) and I’ll get you on the list.

I hope you can get to Barre today to be a part of the meeting. It’s certainly got its fair share of media coverage (click here for the Burlington Free Press article). And, speaking of media coverage, I’ll be on WDEV’s Mark Johnson Show on Monday morning at 9:30 to discuss the meeting and whatever else Mr. Mark wants to discuss.

Let’s roll.

Filed Under: activism, blog, vt media, vt politics, war & peace

News Flash! Welch Agrees to Public Antiwar Meeting On Sunday (updated again)

November 8, 2007 By M. Colby 4 Comments

publicmeeting.jpgAn ad hoc group of antiwar activists has learned this morning that Congressman Peter Welch has agreed to meet with us in public. The meeting will take place this Sunday (November 11th) at 1:30 at the Aldrich Public Library in Barre, Vermont (6 Washington Street). [Update: Please note the new meeting place.] This is a public meeting and everyone with concerns about the Iraq War are encouraged to come to voice those concerns and learn what Congressman Welch is planning with his future war votes.

The specifics of the meeting are currently being discussed and updates will be posted here as they become available. But, in the meantime, spread the word and help us get people to the meeting.

We look forward to speaking with you, Mr. Welch, and we appreciate your willingness to participate in this public meeting.

Filed Under: activism, blog, vt politics, war & peace

Calling All Dreamers – Antiwar Meeting Tonight

November 7, 2007 By M. Colby Leave a Comment

water.jpgHey. It’s democracy time again. And the grand dreamers will be meeting again this evening at the Kellogg Hubbard Library in Montpelier from 6-8 pm to discuss antiwar activism. If, like me, you enjoy the art and spirit of politics, this meeting’s for you. It’ll feed the soul and inspire the action that you know you’re yearning for. Come on, don’t deny it. It’s okay. In fact, it’s quite normal to wonder about the nefarious policies of our nation. And, better yet, it’s quite reasonable to actually risk something – say, public ridicule (yawn) – to do as Thoreau asked all the lovers of democracy to do when our government is engaged in policies that run counter to our social, civic, political and moral compass: “Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.” Indeed.

What’s truly remarkable about this meeting is that the group has no name. And no leaders. And no dusty bylaws. Or officers. It’s just an organic collection of people who have simply realized that there is not enough being done to stop this war. Worse, we’ve come to realize that the lethargy of the population when it comes to this war is being reflected in the lethargy of our elected officials who refuse to be bold in their efforts to stop it. And so we meet to plan an end to the slumber and do as Mother Jones once begged the dreamers to do: Wake the sleepers!

Somewhere along our nation’s democracy voyage the responsibilities that come with citizenship have been watered down to the point where voting is considered by most to be the highest act of participation. The results, of course, are longer and longer campaigns (read: distractions) from a shorter and shorter list of political elites saying basically the same things: Go to sleep, I will handle everything. Ha! And we wonder why a Bush and/or a Clinton have been in the White House for 27 straight years – and counting. Yes, indeed, go to sleep. Or not.

But until we take the duties between elections seriously, we get what we deserve: More empty campaign rhetoric and less electoral action. And on and on it goes.

What to do? Consider the words of Tolstoy in his famous “Letter to the Liberals:”

Merely the simple, quiet, truthful carrying on of what you consider good and needful, quite independently of government, and whether it likes it or not. In other words: standing up for your rights, not as a member of a committee, not as a deputy, not as a landowner, not as a merchant, not even as a member of Parliament; but standing up for your rights as a rational and free man, and defending them, not as the rights of local boards or committees are defended, with concessions and compromises, but without any concessions and compromises, is the only way in which moral and human dignity can be defended.

I hope to see you at the library tonight.

Filed Under: activism, blog, vt politics, war & peace

Trouble in Welchville

November 1, 2007 By M. Colby 1 Comment

stopthewar.jpgWow. As an activist for more years than I want to think about – I once went door-to-door for Jimmy Carter in Iowa (I know, I know) – I’m always in search of those rare political moments when I leave a meeting or event and feel energized and empowered beyond my expectations. Last night’s gathering at Langdon Street Café was one of those rare moments. Thanks, folks, I needed that.

The gathering, of course, was called as a follow-up to our recent actions – and arrests – in Congressman Peter Welch’s office to protest his continued support of war funding, his admonishment of antiwar activism (the MoveOn ad and the continued arrest of those seeking to speak with him) and his failure to use all the tools at his disposal in the House of Representatives to lead an antiwar movement in Congress.

As the WCAX polls confirm this week, the people of Vermont are frustrated by the relative inaction of all of our members of Congress when it comes to stopping this war. But Peter Welch seems to be getting the brunt of the activists’ focus because his campaign two years ago was almost exclusively about “stopping the war,” especially since he was running against General Martha Rainville, a proud supporter and participant in the Bush war machine.

But now, not even half way through his first term, Welch has voted in favor of bills that have provided nearly $200 billion in Iraq war money to the Bush team that he promised he was going to “stand up” to. Sorry, but if that’s standing up I’d hate to see him roll over. And Vermonters have clearly had enough.

There were about forty people who showed up last night at Montpelier’s Langdon Street Café to heed the short-noticed call to gather and plan the next steps for Vermont’s antiwar movement. There were high school students, college students, regular old joes and janes and some old cranky bastards, too (hear that, Will & Boots?). And we all had a couple of things in common: We’re fed up with the congressional inaction and we’re ready to step up the activism.

While this is certainly not the time or place to divulge the specifics of last night’s strategy session (send me a private email seeking to be included in the discussions and/or watch this site for the announcement of our next meeting), I would like to address the news of Welch’s recent actions that came out during the meeting.

As we all know by now, Peter Welch has been refusing to meet with many of his antiwar constituents. He has had us arrested (twice) and, most recently, he had his chief of staff send me a bizarre letter in which it was made clear they will not meet with me about the war.

But over the last several days, as media reports have been favorable to our actions, the mood of the public has been extremely supportive, and news of the WCAX poll has sunk into the Welch team, Peter Welch has been doing some scrambling. Here, for example, is what one Dem insider told me yesterday:

It doesn’t look good for Democrats when we’re castigating [Governor] Douglas for his “listening tour” while Welch is having what should be his core constituents arrested for trying to talk to him. At least Douglas is pretending to listen.

Exactly. And that message is being delivered to Welch in large enough doses that the rookie congressman is trying to do damage control now. Consider, for example, that Welch spent much of the last few days trying to contact many of the people he had arrested last week. That’s right. Last week, Congressman Welch wouldn’t pick up the phone to speak with us or, worse, even provide a date and time to meet with us. Instead, his office instructed the Burlington Police Department to handcuff us and arrest us for trespassing. But this week Welch has been frantically trying to call at least four of those same people. In some instances, Welch has left three and four messages seeking to have a conversation since the people haven’t been home or available.

And what’s changed? Welch has tasted the public discord with his recent votes and seen that he’s on the losing end with his silly little “I won’t talk to them” struggle with the antiwar activists. Moreover, he’s watching the polls and feeling the heat from an increasingly nervous and moribund Vermont Democratic Party.

But when Welch does talk with the antiwar activists, he’s only been making the situation worse. He hasn’t, for example, assured any of them that he’s going to vote against any and all future war funding or that he’s going to use other parliamentary tools at his disposal like a filibuster or lobbying to agree not to bring war funding votes up for a vote.

Instead, Welch has been employing a rather clumsy “divide and conquer” strategy where he’s been calling some activists, continuing to ignore others and, worse, trying to make some of the activists the issue (hmm, who could that be?) rather than his votes and actions being the issue. Nice try, Congressman.

But perhaps the most bizarre thing to come out of the personal phone calls Welch has been making to the activists is his declaration that he “made a mistake” with his late-September vote in favor of $12 billion more for the Iraq war. That’s right, Welch told two of the people he spoke with that he didn’t know that the Iraq war money was included in the bill he voted in favor of. Sorry, but that’s not too far off from the old “the dog ate my homework” excuse in terms of believability, especially when Welch has already been on record defending the vote because it was only “short-term funding for the war.” So which is it, Mr. Welch? But it can’t be both.

And now you’re beginning to see why Vermonters like those who gathered last night with so much energy are ready to take action. We’ve seen enough. We’ve heard enough. And we’re fed up with the tough-talk rhetoric that is never – ever! – followed up with tough action or a corresponding vote.

One of the students who came to the meeting last night took issue with someone calling this “Bush’s war.” “This is Welch’s war, too, because he keeps voting to fund it,” the student declared. Indeed. You fund it, you own it. No more excuses.

We’re ready to move forward with a number of great ideas that came out of last night’s discussion. I hope you will all stay tuned for the updates and/or contact me to “get on the list.” But Peter Welch – and Senators Sanders and Leahy – can help us scratch a few of our goals off the list by pledging once and for all that they will oppose any more war funding and will lead in every congressional effort possible to stop “their war.”

Imagine.

Filed Under: activism, blog, vt media, vt politics, war & peace

Vermont Antiwar Meeting on Wednesday

October 29, 2007 By M. Colby 3 Comments

stopthewar.jpgOkay folks, you keep stopping us on the streets and sending us emails declaring that you’re sorry you missed the little adventure at Congressman Peter Welch’s office last week. Well, it’s time to get in on the ground floor of the new round of discussions about what this rag-tag bunch of peace loving, democracy infatuated folks are going to do next. Funny, huh, that it takes this much work to get a meeting and a pledge from our congressman to stop funding the illegal, immoral and otherwise obscene war on Iraq? Peter Welch just doesn’t get it. And guess what? We’re not going away. So join us for crying out loud.

This Wednesday, October 31st – yes, Halloween night – at 6:00 pm we’re having a very informal meeting at Montpelier’s Langdon Street Café to discuss what our next actions will be. Come on down for the discussion and planning. We hope to see you there.

Oh, and by the way, Welch’s office has still not returned our phone calls seeking a meeting with our congressman – calls that were placed before last week’s action.

Filed Under: activism, blog, vt politics, war & peace

Forget the Partisans, Organize the People

October 24, 2007 By M. Colby 10 Comments

There’s something sickening happening with politics these days. And, unfortunately, we’re all to blame. While it’s easy to get up on our hind legs and wax poetic or even rage at our elected officials for this transgression or that, the sad truth is that those politicians and their more than lethargic leadership skills are merely mirroring the lethargy of the population. Sadly, we’ve become a nation of political sleepwalkers.

Consider the war, for example. Yes, we are a nation at war. And tens of thousands of people are dying because the nation we call our own is waging that war in a place thousands of miles away. Yet the American public largely yawns with indifference over the actions of our government that are not only resulting in unfathomable death and suffering but are also undermining future hopes for peace and prosperity.

Worse, the discussion on the war has been hijacked by a kindergarten-like partisanship that only serves to fuel the hopelessness, inaction and, worse, disconnection between the people of this democracy and our leaders. You know the discussion I’m talking about, the one splashed across the front pages, yelled by the radio talkers and oh-so-well articulated by the hierarchies of the two parties. Yep, the one where the Republicans tell us to wave the flag, “support the troops” and otherwise shop ourselves to sleep, while the Democrats respond by telling us to wave the flag, support the troops and go to sleep until the next election. And then they all wonder why the public isn’t engaged.

The wet blanket of partisan bickering masquerading as “democracy” has trickled down to the street level, where the grassroots partisans try to clumsily get into the game. You know the type, they start blogs and scream about the “other guys” and refuse to see that “their guy” is neck-deep in the game of nothingness as well. Ah, the bliss of well-fitting blinders – especially when you still get your phone calls returned!

But where did the dreamers go? Where did the risk-takers go? And when the hell did we decide that the “art” in politics had to be replaced by this drab and wholly uncreative blob of bickering nonsense? Oh dreamers and risk-takers and – dare I say it – revolutionaries, we need you. Please come home and shock the system again. Because, as Mother Jones said, “we must wake the sleepers.” Because people are dying for crying out loud and I’m tired of everyone in power blaming someone else in power while those of us with no power just become dizzy from the nonsense of it all.

As readers know, earlier this week I was part of a group of dreamers who decided to pay a visit to Congressman Peter Welch’s office to express our displeasure with his recent votes to provide more money for the Iraq war and his condemnation of antiwar activism. As activism goes, it was about as low-key and civil as it comes – the nuns amongst us wouldn’t have tolerated it any other way. But we were rebuffed completely in our efforts to gain an audience with our elected official and, instead, arrested for trespassing at a taxpayer-funded office.

While Welch’s response to us was, indeed, appalling if not completely bizarre, the reaction from the public has been more interesting. Not surprisingly, the hardcore Dem partisans ran to the defense of their anointed one, Peter Welch, ignoring the facts as we presented them and, instead, deciding to cast personal aspersions about the dreamers (“hippies,” “radicals,” “un-credible,” etc. ho-hum). How very Rove-like of them, huh?

But, remember, the issue here is the war, not the personalities or fashion styles of the protesters. And these partisans love to talk about how much they hate this war, but apparently not enough to see through their partisan blindness to realize that their elected Democratic leaders keep voting to fund the war. And hell hath no fury hot enough for those who take the “risk” to point that out. But that’s okay, we’ll never be invited to the cocktail parties anyway. It’s a risk we take to truly believe in the power of democracy.

But there’s been another reaction to our little visit to Welch’s office that has been truly inspiring: The reaction from the vast majority of non-partisans. Yeah, the everyday folk who don’t dither with navel-gazing blogs, get invited to high-priced political fundraisers and who only get recognized by the Peter Welch’s of the world when he dons his bottle of hand-sanitizer every two years to get close enough to them to ask for their votes.

These folks have been excited about our action. They see, hear and recognize the bullshit being spewed by the partisans and they’re cheering us for calling it what it is. They’re the ones who saw the Dems wave the flag and vote for the war until it got unpopular and then continue to wave the flag but merely talk about hating the war. But votes? Forgetaboutit.

Last night, for example, I stopped at a general store for a snack. The second I walked in the couple that runs the place exclaimed that they saw me on television protesting. I didn’t know where it was going to go because I have no idea about their politics and – perhaps stereotypically – assumed they were conservative. And the gentleman came across the counter and shook my hand and said this: “I switched parties to vote for Welch because I believed that he was going to stop this war. I’ve been waiting for people to hold him accountable.” He then thanked me and told me to remember to tell the judge that I was “trespassing in an office paid for by the public.” Indeed.

And therein lies the lesson for me. Forget the partisans. They’ve lost the ability to dream, to be creative and, worse, to even be honest most of the time. In their thirst to get the cocktail invitations to the next great Welch or Obama or Clinton “spectacle,” they’re apparently all-too willing to silence themselves and, worse, attack those who of us who still hold onto that quaint notion that it is our responsibility to speak up – especially when people are dying.

If they don’t want to dream, so be it. But we can no longer let them kill our dreams. Forget the partisans, organize the people.

I’m hopeful again. And so it goes.

Filed Under: activism, blog, essays & columns, vt politics, war & peace

I Visited My Congressman and All I Got Was Handcuffed

October 23, 2007 By M. Colby 4 Comments

What was all that crap I wrote about “hope” yesterday? Oh never mind. Because today I’m just finding myself cranking Lou Reed’s “The Blue Mask” and wanting to slip into the almighty zone of indifference. Yes, that’s it, I think I’ll open the window for some air and a chance to let the wet wind here me utter this guttural moment of clarity: AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHH! There, I feel a little better.

Okay, there was plenty of hope yesterday as the twenty of us relics from the dustbin of democracy dragged our cranky asses to the office of our lone representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, Peter Welch, to officially deliver our dismay with his continued willingness to fund the Iraq war. Nothing radical there, huh? Well, we didn’t think so until we got to the office and his staff treated us like we had Martha Rainville masks on. Ouch.

We got about three and a half minutes to quickly express ourselves to his clearly contemptuous staff member before having their office doors slammed on our faces with the declaration that we would not be allowed to speak with Peter Welch via the phone and that they had work to do. Wham! Slam! Bam!

No wonder the Iraqis are so skeptical of the so-called democracy we’re trying to export to them. Because if  it looked anything like the slamming doors we saw yesterday while trying to express ourselves to our elected official, I wouldn’t want anything to do with it either.

And let’s remember that the twenty of us were there to speak with Welch and/or his staff about the issue he calls his “top priority.” Geez, I’d really hate to see the reaction we would have gotten had we come to address a lower priority of his.

But we dutifully stayed until closing time – just like we promised. And then the cops came — just like they promised. And then the negotiations began.

“What can we do to end this without arrests or incident?” asked the Burlington police officer.

And to that reasonable question we made what we thought was a very reasonable proposals to end the whole thing: We would leave if Peter Welch agreed to meet with us at a time, place and date of his choosing. Quite honestly, we thought it would be over and we’d soon be leaving with a promise to meet with our congressman in the near future – a meeting that became even more relevant as the news came out during our time in his office that Bush was seeking an additional $46 billion for the war.

The police and Welch’s staff huddled in the next room to discuss our offer. Calls were made to Welch’s Washington office to further contemplate the offer. We thought they were simply trying to figure out the proper scheduling.

Silly us. Because the police officer came back with the news that stunned us: “They are rejecting your offer and they would like us to arrest you if you don’t leave now.”

Got that, people? No meeting with Welch and, instead, handcuffs for the eight of us who remained after the final warning – myself included. And so, for the four of us “repeat” offenders – those who were arrested at his office last March – it’s off to court on December 4th to be arraigned on the charge of trespassing at the office of our congressman.

I’ve got my statement ready for the judge: “Yes, your honor, I was peacefully involved in seeking a meeting with my elected official, Peter Welch.” And let’s see how much jail time that gets me.

I went to Welch’s office yesterday with a gnawing desire to do something about the war in Iraq that I find so morally and legally reprehensible. I’m tired of the inaction. I’m tired of the lethargy. I’m tired of the soothing calls to “just wait” until after the election for change. I’m tired of hearing myself complain about the war but so rarely risking much of anything to stop it. And visiting our man in Congress who keeps voting for more money to prosecute this war seemed like a very reasonable thing to do. Please, correct me if I’m wrong.

Call me a hopeless political romantic, but I still believe we can stop this war. But it’s going to take more than twenty people willing to go to their congressman’s office to say, “stop the funding.” And it’s going to take more than a yawn of a response when those people are arrested for seeking a meeting.

Anybody awake out there? Let’s talk. Because the time for action is now – before Bush gets another $46 billion for war.

See you in court….

[Oh yeah, you can find some media reports of the endeavor by clicking here (including video option) and here.]

Filed Under: activism, blog, vt politics, war & peace
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »