Open Letter to Rep. John Conyers

By Shea Howell, The Michigan Citizen

Last Saturday Representative Conyers decided to attend the Gathering for Justice, City of Hope event at Youthville. He walked into the room quietly just as a young local artist was announcing “Change the Music: an art festival and political forum for local organizers working to keep pressure on Congress to hold the Bush administration accountable for its crimes.”  As the young artist spoke passionately about the importance of pressuring Congressmen Conyers to impeach Bush, Conyers entered and took a seat directly across from him.

For a while Conyers didn’t say anything, but after a painful comment by a young man who felt there was little in the city that made his life worthwhile, Conyers rose. At first he tried to talk only about change in the city, but as calls to “Impeach Bush” increased, Conyers said, “You want me to talk about impeachment? All right, I will.”  He then explained that he knew more about impeachment than anyone in Congress and, by implication, anyone in the room.

Conyers went on to explain that it was a simple matter of real politics. We don’t have the votes, we can’t win, so why try? Then he asked “Had we bothered to consider who would replace Bush if he were impeached? Did we really want Dick Cheney as president?”  Finally, he said that he couldn’t do everything. So the real choice was “Did we want to impeach Bush or did we want him to get a reparations bill through Congress?” With that he sat down and the meeting moved on, with continuing but scattered calls for impeachment.
(Original Article)