[Sosfbay-discuss] Sheehan: Ms. Pelosi, you are not a leader

[Drew Johnson]

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/10/12/18453630.php

In this e-mail update today, Cindy Sheehan angrily criticizes the haughty
Speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi who recently dismissed anti-war
demonstrators by calling them mere "advocates" while she herself is one of
the "leaders".

Pelosi has studiously avoided dialog with any of the activists in her home
district of San Francisco (or elsewhere).

Cindy is running against Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco.

October 12, 2007
Leadership Void
Cindy Sheehan

"They are advocates. We are leaders."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in regards to "Anti-war activists."


People of America, this is truly the problem with what was once a
Representative Republic and now is a country run by "elected" officials
who believe that they, individually and collectively, are above any
accountability and are not answerable to their constituents. Our public
servants erroneously believe that they are the leaders!

Ms. Pelosi made this statement to a group of reporters at a luncheon
recently and she also went off on activists who have been participating in
vigils outside of her chi-chi home in the Pacific Heights district of San
Francisco. The people who are vigiling outside her house regularly, in a
Pelosi Watch are only exercising their rights as American citizens to make
their concerns known to a Rep who was elected from a district that is
wholeheartedly against the occupation of Iraq and for impeaching the liars
who got us into the illegal and immoral situation.

No, Ms. Pelosi, you are not a leader. You have proven time and again in
what you laughably believe is a "mistake" free run as Speaker of a
Democratic House that you will do anything to protect an Imperial
Presidency to the detriment of this Nation and the world, particularly the
people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

This Democratic Congress supported BushCo's disastrous and deadly surge;
handed him over billions of their constituent's tax dollars to wage this
murder; have by their silence and votes countenanced an invasion of
another country; approved more restrictions on the rights of the citizenry
to be protected against unreasonable search and seizure; Ms. Pelosi does
not even know if "torture" (which violates international law and the 8th
Amendment in our Bill of Rights) is an impeachable offense; and worst of
all the impeachment clauses were taken "off the table" in an ongoing
partnership with BushCo to make the office of the presidency a
Congressionally protected crime conglomerate that is rapidly sending this
Nation down a crap-hole of fascism. So, Congress has led us to a few
things: war, poverty, oppression, unemployment, and an inexplicable
continuance of the Bush Regime.

No, Ms Pelosi, you are not even a leader in the very narrowest of
definitions. We do not elect our Congressional Representatives to be
leaders, not to be used as willing marionettes for the war machine and
other special interests that serve the elite to the detriment of the rest
of us, but to represent the will of the people. We send our elected
officials to DC and pay their salaries and subsidize their benefits to do
the "Will of the People."

No matter how many times Ms. Pelosi and George Bush share tea and giggles
and no matter how often she "prays' for him, George is not the Decider and
she is only the Leader of the House of Representatives not the people. We
are the sovereigns in this country and I tried to demonstrate this when I
demanded a meeting with another haughty public servant: George Bush.

I cannot speak for every Democrat, Independent, Green or disenchanted
Republican (and there are many) in America, but the consensus from my
travels all over this country is that we put Democrats back in power in
both Houses of Congress to be an opposition to the Bush Regime and to stop
the annoying "bobble-headed, rubber-stamping" approval of all things
criminal and murderous. We did not wish to keep heading in the same
direction but desired to go another way, which would have required the
Dems to finally step up and forcefully counter and stop the high crimes of
BushCo. They have failed.

We are sick of excuses. We are tired of the blame being diffused on the
Senate, the Blue Dog Dems, the Republicans or even, incredibly, the people
of Iraq. A true leader accepts responsibility in ways that are not even
dreamed of by BushCo or Congress Inc. A true leader would stand up and do
what is intelligent and what is right and if he/she were a leader then
people would follow. A leader does not wait idly by for a crowd of
sycophants to gather around her before she does her job with integrity and
courage; a leader leads the way and the Democratic Congress with an
approval rating even lower than George's had better wake up to whom they
need to follow: us!

We have countless examples of true leaders throughout American history and
if not for them, women would not have the right to vote, much less be
Speaker of the House; Black Americans would still be slaves or at the very
least still drinking out of separate fountains; workers would not have the
right to unionize and children would still be mining coal; we would still
have troops in Southeast Asia, and we would still be under the aegis of
our close Cousins in Empire: the British. Some of our courageous leaders
have had to pay the ultimate price for their bravery and vision and Ms.
Pelosi should be ashamed of arrogantly whining over her rubber chicken
that Americans exist who want her to do her job because people are dying
and lives are being ruined with her complicity.

We have the right to hold both of the political parties accountable. We
not only have the right, we have the responsibility.

We not only have the right and the responsibility we have the power.
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