My Mommy Is In Jail
I just got a call from Dad. Mom's in the Cumberland County Jail. She's not letting him bail her out.
What happened is this:
She and fifty other peace activists (ranging, according to news reports, from eighteen to over eighty years' age) marched on the Portland office of Tom Allen, their local congressman.
They were carrying a petition asking Allen to act decisively to stop George Bush's escalation of the war. Congressman Allen, who apparently had advance notice that they were coming, absented himself from the office so he wouldn't have to face them.
The congressman's staff apparently tried to get them to leave, but they wouldn't leave. Fifteen of the protesters have been hauled away in the paddy wagon. Dad sprang into action to bail them out, but apparently Mom is going to stay in jail as a political statement.
are there any "free the Portland 15" tshirts available yet?
"If my mommy doesn't get out of jail, I'll have to go to Portland with a sign that says 'FREE MOMIA'"
In H3W's favor, at least there's a good chance there will be something interesting to read on top of said scary toilet.
My thanks and gratitude to Kathe Chipman for taking action.
Passed Rep. Capuano's office today, not sure if it was a pro- or anti- war rally in front of it (giant SUV with a flag drapped coffin on top and "My Son KIA Iraq" on the side, could be either...)
Capuano did not vote to authorize force in 2002, after my letter to him, I like to think. That's about the extent of my agitation.
Again, I hope to help out soon.
Write to your congresspeople and tell them to impeach Bush and Cheney now, or else my Mom will keep going to jail.
Thank God for our country's revolving-door justice system!
(Just kidding.)
Seriously, I'm not sure what the legal consequences are going to be, but I know she's not giving up on her effort to change the world. And I have to say I'm proud of her. She sees a war that's rapidly bankrupting this country, not to mention killing thousands of our young people and tens of thousands of Iraqis--a war that was started on false pretenses by an administration that knew its pretenses were false--a war which even the highest-ranking American commander in Iraq admits isn't making us any safer than we were--and she feels that she has no choice but to do whatever she can to stop the war.
She sees an executive branch that refuses to acknowledge that it's responsible to anyone--that claims the right to eavesdrop on anyone without a warrant in the name of national security--that refuses to share with congress or judges the evidence to justify the claim of a national-security risk--that holds foreigners and Americans without trial and without access to lawyers, on the pretext that the prisoners are enemy combatants, but refuses them the protection of the Geneva protocols, claiming that the internees not prisoners of war--that encourages the use of interrogative techniques causing suffering anywhere up to the level of "organ failure or death"--my Mom sees this, and she feels that it's her responsibility to do what she can to get her legislators to defend the constitution by holding the executive branch responsible for its actions.
It took the Romans a long time to get around to admitting to themselves that the Republic was over and the Empire had begun. By that point it was too late. It isn't always as clear-cut as George Lucas would have us believe...
My apologies, DU, if any of this strikes you as unjust to our current leaders. I know that you don't always see eye-to-eye with the more liberal members of this online community. I actually am pretty certain that I'm one of the more conservative members of Rideside myself, in lots of ways. In this matter, though, I'm with my mother--we need change, the sooner the better, and any Democratic idiot (we have plenty to choose from) would be an improvement on the current crop of rogues and fools, as far as I can tell.
I hope you never worry you have to wonder whether some silly person named "DU" agrees with you or not.
I am glad yr mom is out - and I do agree with you. Just look at the following from the <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/09/28/sergeant_ordered_him_to_kill_soldier_says/">Glob</a> today.
Something other than what is being done right now has to happen - hopefully positive actions and thoughtful discourse will change things.
My one time ideal of a 'democratized Iraq' is anything but.
We've led the horse to water, and way more than 3 years in, it's still not drinking...
Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things at all, but my thoughts on Iraq from even a year or two ago are vastly different than they are now.
Sick of hearing about dead people every day. I want to be a part of a solution that won't kill people or at the very least will lessen the amount of senseless deaths. That's about all there is to it.
So I then asked him (gently), why would other countries of the world support the invasion of a sovereign Iraq by the US? He was a deer in headlights and walked away saying, "Don't try and trick me."
It's amazing how much of the Iraq invasion wasn't thought through.
"Punk as fuck" says they'll throw the book at her if she gets arrested again, so she's taking a break. Instead, she's trying to get us to go to them.
PS-- you free? Want to join? Baby's first protest?
RING AROUND THE ROSIE!
RING AROUND THE ROSIE!
RING AROUND THE ROSIE!
RING AROUND THE ROSIE!
(mouthful of soup)
RING AROUND THE ROSIE!
RING AROUND THE ROSIE!
RING AROUND THE ROSIE!
RING AROUND THE ROSIE!
(bite of bread)
Maddie Nigs at dinner still makes me smile days later...
RING AROUND THE ROSIE!
RING AROUND THE ROSIE!
RING AROUND THE ROSIE!
RING AROUND THE ROSIE!
(mouthful of soup)