~ American citizens dream of justice ‘From Sea to Shining Sea’
[UPDATE]
On Saturday, January 6th – just three weeks ago – over 1,000 Californians positioned themselves in the sand on Ocean Beach on the Pacific coast just west of San Francisco spelling out the word “IMPEACH!†in 100-foot letters. The story and photos, with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background, was seen worldwide from the front page of the Christian Science Monitor to a virtual “above the fold†feature appearance on web-based OhMyNews International.
At noon EST today, January 27th, as a last minute addition to a major antiwar, anti-Bush Administration protest planned for months by multiple political activism organizations, this ‘performance art’ statement was replicated – albeit on a smaller scale – on the National Mall in Washington D.C. Photographs were taken from atop the Washington Monument of a couple hundred protesters spelling out “IMPEACH!” again and include the Capitol Dome in the background.
As hundreds more protesters and activists were pouring into Washington D.C. from all over the United States, Newsham announced to the growing crowd that the stunt would be remounted at 3 p.m.
Debra Sweet, National Director of World Can’t Wait a New York-based accountability group dedicated to seeing that President George W. Bush be forced to “step down†from power said in an e-mail to supporters yesterday that this is “one thing that World Can’t Wait will participate in… as a way to send a large “IMPEACH†message. We have lots of plans, and they won’t all fold into this one action. But, we should be in on it and invite others to help.â€
San Francisco cab driver and author Brad Newsham, whose 10 year-old daughter had originally inspired him to instigate the original Beach Impeach Project late last year, was frantically recruiting participants into the wee hours last night in a plaintive e-mail appeal:
“We need 1,000 people to fill the lettering, but can accommodate thousands more. It will be a ‘bang-bang’ affair – no more than 15 minutes from start to finish. If we pull this off, it will be huge… and it will be historicâ€.
This generation’s “March on Washingtonâ€, largely coordinated by United for Peace & Justice with the support and assistance of AfterDowningStreet.org, ImpeachforPeace.org and other like-minded groups, draws its name from the August, 1963 “Jobs and Freedom†march in which Martin Luther King, Jr., Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, Jr. and others pushed for meaningful civil rights legislation, the elimination of racial segregation in public schools, a national minimum wage increase to $2.00 an hour and other demands.
As the chilling reverberations of last week’s Orwellian remarks by U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez at a Senate Judiciary Hearing hung odiously in stark contrast:
“The Constitution doesn’t say every individual in the United States or citizen is hereby granted or assured the right of habeas corpus (due process). It doesn’t say that. It simply says the right shall not be suspended…â€,
… memories of past protests and the words of national icons were recalled.
An estimated quarter million people descended upon the nation’s capital four decades ago to protest, listen to the music of Bob Dylan, Mahlia Jackson and others and to bear witness to one of the most famous speeches in American history in which Dr. King memorably said:
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ â€
Thousands, perhaps tens or even hundreds of thousands will protest on the National Mall today, but it isn’t just an early end to a war that they are yearning for, it is an early end to what Sweet, Newsham and those that are joining them consider a most horrendous American era.
Should President Bush step down early, for whatever reason, and America become a nation in which equality and due process are again assumed to be indeed self-evident, inalienable rights, Sweet and Newsham, along with those who will join them today in protest, would rejoice along with many others in an echo of Dr. King’s climactic crescendo ‘On the Mall’ so many years ago:
“From every mountainside, let freedom ring…
… Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
©2007 OhmyNews