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Impeachment Protest at Visclosky Town Hall Meetings
By Nick Egnatz, Munster, Indiana, Veterans For Peace
On Wednesday January 12 a group of activists from Veterans For Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Code Pink took their impeachment message to Congressman Pete Visclosky's (D-IN) Town Hall Meetings. With activists each holding a letter spelling IMPEACH, we stood witness to the crimes of the Bush Administration at four separate Town Hall Meetings.
We started at the 10AM meeting in Hobart in which we stood in the back of the room. Congressman Visclosky was kind enough to walk back and shake all our hands before the meeting started. Although we all appreciated his trademark courtesy, we would liked a commitment for impeach to go along with it.
When we arrived at the noon meeting in Griffith , we were told to get ourselves ready and we would be told where we could stand for our protest. A total of fifteen individuals took part throughout the day to spell IMPEACH at each of the meetings. We held the letters held by so that our Iraq Vets, Vince and Derek would have the most impact with their IVAW tee shirts visible. Taking part in the action were Jose Rolon, Jim Roseen, Jan Stewart, Anita Skomac, her mother Myrna and son Drew, Ursula Cano, Nick Egnatz, Vince Emanuale, Derek Giffin, Joyce Niksic, Nancy Thompson, Karen Kroczek, Sue Eleuerio and Linda Daniels. In Highland we had a couple who got up from the crowd and joined us standing for impeachment.
Thinking that we might be stuck in a corner with our message, we were all quite surprised when we were escorted behind the town board members seating area and told to stand there directly behind the Congressman when he conducted his meeting. In Highland , it was a classroom set up and we were put just off to the side of the Congressman and in Munster we again were right behind the Congressman as he met with his constituents. In the picture from the Munster meeting, Karen Kroczek who was our letter A was absent since she was taking the picture.
We had great visibility and reception from the attendees. The meetings ranged from an estimated 50 in Griffith the smallest locale to about 120 in Munster . Congressman Visclosky does 24 of these meetings in a 5 day span every January. I thanked him for this at the Griffith meeting where I was able to ask him a live question as opposed to the written ones which he normally uses in his format. I have heard from people all across the country who have said that their congressman is not accessible, never holds town hall meetings and avoids meetings of any type with concerned citizens.
The Congressman's answer to all impeachment questions is that it is a divisive process and with the time remaining he believes it will best be spent on trying to pass meaningful legislation. Unfortunately, whether a written or a verbal question, when we ask a question in this format we do not have the chance to rebut his answer. Anyway my verbal question referenced the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff Report in 2005 which stated there was a prima facie case that the President and his Administration had broken 7 different federal and international laws in taking us to war. Of course I though that the country deserved an impeachment investigation and trial in lieu of these serious charges which had met the so called "burden of proof" implied in prima facie. I just got his stock answer and on to the next question.
About our congressman: twenty years in Congress, Chairman of the Water and Energy Subcommittee, he voted against the Iraq War Resolution, has signed on as a co-sponsor of John Murtha's bill to redeploy our troops out of Iraq and has voted with the majority of the Democratic Party to fund the war through the years. His office is professionally run and he is very responsive to constituents. Even in his Town Hall Meetings he refrains from partisan jibes or attacks and concentrates on policy and constituents' concerns. In fact in almost all things, he is a great congressman, but he refuses to break with leadership on impeachment and war funding. He is in fact a result of our broken Two-Party System of Government. How can an honorable man be right on so many issues and wrong on the two most important issues of the day? Restoring the rule of law with the impeachment of the war criminals and stopping the funding of the continued occupation.
At the last meeting in Munster, where we were so prominently located at the head of the class, an elderly man stood up as the Congressman was starting his talk and said that he had come to hear the Congressman and was offended to see the imbeciles standing behind him, referring to yours truly and his merry band. I almost spoke up that I would like to handle that question, but Congressman Visclosky said that he was honoring our exercise of free speech and that we had an Iraq War Vet who had fought for that freedom of speech.
Vince and I attended the Chesterton Town Hall Meeting on Thursday at noon which was attended by about 100 people. We didn't do an impeachment protest just wore, IVAW and VFP shirts. When an impeachment question came up the Congressman referred to our protest of the previous day and mentioned Vince's status as a vet. Incidentally the question which was written and authored by me referred to the possibility of the President starting a new war with Iran or Pakistan . It was greeted with enthusiastic cheering from what seemed like everybody in attendance, but again all we got was the stock answer.
phone: (202) 225-2461 . fax: (202) 225-2493