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Takoma Park impeachment resolution vote tentatively July 23

Posted by Thomas Nephew on June 27th, 2007

Impeach Them
Takoma Park Impeach Bush Cheney yard sign:
“call your reps * attend council meetings
* takomaparkibc.wordpress.com“

According to the rolling agenda document posted at the city’s web site, the Takoma Park City Council has tentatively put a resolution calling for the impeachment of George Bush and Richard Cheney on the agenda for the meeting of July 23 (7:30pm, Takoma Park Community Center, 7500 Maple Avenue). If you support impeachment:

  • Call or contact your council member between now and the 23rd and let him or her know you support the resolution. Phone and e-mail contact information for the mayor and each ward’s council member are available on the City Council web page (click on their photographs.)*
  • Attend a city council meeting between now and the 23d, to thank the council for considering the resolution, and to speak for it. You’ll have three minutes during the public comment period, and are expected to give your name and address.**
  • Attend the July 23d city council meeting, and speak for the impeachment resolution during the comment period preceding the vote.
  • Visit the Takoma Park Impeach Bush & Cheney web site to learn more about impeachment and about how you can help.

I went door to door recently, distributing lawn signs and gathering signatures supporting impeachment and the resolution; while support is strong, I sometimes encounter people who think it’s naive or inappropriate for a local city government to weigh in on an issue like this.

I tell them that yes, I’d have preferred members of Congress to have made much more progress than they have (a resolution by Rep. Dennis Kucinich calling for Cheney’s impeachment has 8 co-sponsors). But they haven’t, and they’re clearly not going to unless it’s demanded of them. As a speaker at the last council meeting put it:

I think that we can see that Congress has been intimidated by the president and by the whole national security apparatus, and that it’s the place of local governments like Takoma Park, who don’t suffer the same intimidation, to stand up and create some groundswell so that Congress understands that the people are behind this.

We can wring our hands and say “somebody oughta do something” about Bush and Cheney. It turns out that ’somebody’ is each of us. This is one thing we can do. Let’s do it.

=====
* Don’t know which ward you’re in? Here’s a map of Takoma Park, and here’s a street list if you can’t tell from the map.
** Your comments will be an important part of a public record documenting support for impeachment, and resistance to unconstitutional and lawless behavior by President Bush and Vice President Cheney. If you can’t make it in person, you can also submit written testimony: “If you are unable to attend a public hearing, you may submit your testimony in writing to the City Clerk via clerk@takomagov.org or by mail to City Clerk’s Office, 7500 Maple Avenue, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Written testimony will be copied to the Council and included in the official record of the hearing.”
EDIT, 6/29: photo added.

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4 Responses to “Takoma Park impeachment resolution vote tentatively July 23”

  1. eRobin Says:
    June 28th, 2007 at 4:59 pm

    Thanks for keeping us posted!

  2. Thomas Nephew Says:
    June 28th, 2007 at 5:08 pm

    It’s not quite the least I could do, but it’s close. :)

  3. KCinDC Says:
    June 30th, 2007 at 6:08 am

    Two more cosponsors signed on yesterday: Hank Johnson and Keith Ellison.

  4. Thomas Nephew Says:
    June 30th, 2007 at 6:15 am

    Yes, I heard about that! Plus McDermott — kind of, he doesn’t seem to have formally cosponsored Kucinich’s bill yet. Plus he voted against Emanuel’s funding cutoff for some reason. Wonder what’s up with that.
    UPDATE: belay that — McDermott is or soon will be a sponsor too, according to his speech before Congress on Thursday: “I am adding my name to H.Res.333, calling for the impeachment. For the good of the Nation, the Vice President should leave office immediately. Call it a medical condition, call it a political condition, call it what it is; the departure of a person who forgot that he works for the American people.”

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