[Dialogue] Symbolic Impeachment
LAURELCG at aol.com
LAURELCG at aol.com
Wed Feb 14 12:35:03 EST 2007
I am forwarding this from a man with whom I studied at the University of
Creation Spirituality. His subject line was, "taking back my power." I was
honored that he called me Sunday night to consult about whether or not I felt it
would be ethical to put this out on the internet. I thought it was very
powerful, and I also said that I hadn't been very supportive of the impeachment
movement because it is such a destructive, polarizing process (though not to the
extent the war and other crimes he enumerates, as I reflect on it.) Anyway, it
strikes me as a powerful form of prayer, more powerful as I read it than when
he was telling me about it on the phone. If anyone wants to reply, I'll send
it on to him, since he requests anonymity at the internet level.
Blessings,
Jann McGuire
Hello Friends,
I got to thinking this morning how our government derives its power from "We
the People", and in a simple minded way I thought, "How can we take our power
back from the people who are misusing it?"
I was thinking, "It's a kind of mystical thing, the way we give our power.
Sure,
elections are familiar to us now, but really the way we aggregate and
delegate executive,
legislative and justice functions is a highly sophisticated act of collective
belief.
"What is belief? It's a way of crystallizing a set of thoughts that seem true
to us, and
allowing them to guide our thoughts and actions. Belief is a foundation for
consciousness
to build on. Maybe if enough of us simply withdrew our consciousness and our
agreement to uphold that construction in consciousness which gives power of
this regime, their outward power would gradually wither away and the healthy
parts of our system would adjust, restoring a sense of balance and harmony to
what we are told is a government BY the people, FOR the people."
I thought this idea had merit (though an article I read by Bill Moyers has a
lot more to
say about this subject. He quotes Woodrow Wilson who said something that
could be equally true for us today, "What we have to determine now, as Wilson said
in his day, “is whether we are big enough…whether we are free enough, to
take possession again of the government which is our own. We haven’t had free
access to it, our minds have not touched it by way of guidance, in half a
generation, and now we are engaged in nothing less than the recovery of what was made
with our own hands, and acts only by our delegated authority.”
As we face that challenge even today, a story about Helen Keller is worth
remembering.
Toward the end of her career, as she was speaking at a Midwestern college, a
student
asked: “Miss Keller, is there anything that could have been worse than losing
your
sight?” Helen Keller replied: “Yes, I could have lost my vision.”" I
encourage you to
read Bill Moyers' article, "Discovering What Democracy Means":
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0212-31.htm)
Any way, here's what I did. (Somewhat edited with the benefit of hindsight.)
I said my morning prayers at my altar. I lit a special candle. I downloaded a
picture of
Bush and Cheney (a nice one too I might add - see below) and one of Nancy
Pelosi (she's
in red, with the word "power" behind her!)
I put the Picture of Bush and Cheney on my altar and said, "I note that the
power to
remove a President and Vice President is set out in the Constitution for high
crimes and
misdemeanors. In so far as you have been given power by "We the People",
under the
constitution of the United States of America, and in so far as you have
abused that power by acts and negligence, in so far as you have acted in bad faith,
in so far as you have illegally authorized killings, torture, detention
without trial, rendition for the
purpose of torture, in so far as your efforts to increase the power of the
Presidency has usurped and corrupted our constitutional government and the rule
of law, and in so far as your policies have made this country less safe, more
hated, and more indebted
internationally, you have in my opinion, disqualified yourselves from holding
your
elected office and I therefore withdraw my agreement to you holding any power
to hold the offices of President and Vice President."
"I remove this power symbolically now by extinguishing this candle and
folding your
photograph on itself. You now have power over yourselves only. You are now
subject to the laws of this nation, and international laws that we have
ratified. You are now answerable to those laws."
I picked up their photo and folded it over, so that they faced each other and
the blank
side of the paper was facing out. This represents to me their power turned on
themselves, and a fresh start for the rest of us.
I continued, "Your time in office is now over, and I ask for your
resignation. I call on
Congress to impeach you immediately if you do not resign. I call on your
Cabinet and
political appointees at all levels of government to resign also."
I then placed Nancy Pelosi's photo on the altar in front of the candle and
lit the candle
again, this time using the light from a special candle on the altar rather
than a match.
"Nancy Pelosi, since you have been elected Speaker of the House of
Representatives, you are the next in line of succession to the Presidency. Thus, with
the removal of power from both the President and the Vice President, executive
power devolves to you. In accordance with the Constitution of the United
States, I now give you my power to
execute the laws of the United States, to command our military forces, and to
act as the representative of all the people--in other words to become the
President of the United States.
"I do this trusting you will do so honestly, effectively and in good faith,
so that all
may be at peace and justice may prevail."
Her photo continues to be on my altar.
The intention here is entirely peaceful and on the level of consciousness. It
is intended
for peaceful purposes only.
I share this thinking that there may be others who want to duplicate it or
develop this
action. Feel free to share it, but if you do pass on this email, I request
you to remove
my name and email address so that it is anonymous. Thank you.
I would be interested to hear any feedback.
PS. If anyone wishes to see / use the photos I used, here they are:
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/bush_cheney.jpg
http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:zSi90quLWmiCGM:http://radfilms.com/NAR%2
520Pelosi.jpeg
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