Gone By April 1

A year and a half ago I made myself something of a pest by calling the offices of several representativees and senators and demanding they join the impeachment movement. Time after time staffers in those offices told me in surprisingly candid terms that, no, their bosses had no use for Bush and Cheney, and believed the two of them had almost certainly committed impeachable offeneses, but it was too risky for their bosses to stick their necks out and call for impeachment. The Bush machine was too strong and ruthless and slick, and there was not a loud enough public clamor. What these officials needed, they said, was some backup, and during the last election we the people gave it to them. And now, just a week into the new Congress, it’s a whole new political world. As far away as Ocean Beach in San Francisco, you can almost hear the jeers of opposition pouring out of the Capitol. Just three days ago a neighbor of mine sent me an email saying that, although he was torn, he thought the wise course was to wait things out, to not call for impeachment. Today he stopped me as I drove past his house: “I’ve changed my mind! Did you see the morning paper? Twenty thousand more troops! I’m with you now.” Another friend who has taken the "pragmatic" road the last several years answered his phone the other day, “Impeach Bush Now!” Yeah, he probably had caller ID, but the clerk at Safeway this morning didn’t. “They just gotta go,” she told me, and the two customers behind me spoke their agreement out loud. The man who married my wife and I served in the infantry in Vietnam. This morning I asked Jack, “So what’s it feel like to be told, ‘Get on the plane soldier -- you’re going over’?” “Oh, he said, “your gut twists into a knot. You knew it was coming sometime, but you can’t believe it’s actually TODAY. Your whole life is turned upside down…” I’ve got to believe that the soldiers getting on those planes today are happy to know that there are people on the streets tonight -- and on the beach last Saturday –- demanding change. We can change our government any time we want to if we demand it clearly and loudly enough. Tonight, I’m heartened. With plans still cooking. I’m not trying to be coy, I just don’t want to take the thing out of the oven before I’m halfway sure it won’t just fall apart. Thanks for sticking with me. Stay tuned.