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Headlined on 8/18/08:
Pelosi Gets "Booked" & Confronts Her Own Past
by Linda Milazzo
Monday
evening, in the plush environs of Los Angeles' American Jewish
University, a dedicated group of pro-peace, Pro-Constitution patriots
"booked" Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. No, I don't mean "booked"
as in charged her with a crime and jailed her. In this scenario,
"booked" is more akin to "punked" - in which case we surprised Madam
Pelosi by revising her new book, then forced her to read our revisions.
Duh-Dah!!
It happened like this: Madam
Speaker of the House Pelosi, second in line to the Presidency, appeared
at a book signing for her ironically titled new tome, "Know Your
Power." Since Madam Pelosi has not used her power as Speaker to hold
impeachment hearings against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, as
prescribed by Article 1 Section 2 of the Constitution, we
pro-Constitution patriots held her to task. We took her new book and
scrawled our personalized imperatives and questions within it.
I wrote "Honor Your Oath" on side-by side blank pages in the book and "Debate Cindy Sheehan" on the blank side of the book jacket.
See below:
Incomparable
activist and former Congressional candidate, Marcy Winograd, who sat on
my right in the second row of the auditorium, asked how much Pelosi
knew about torture. She wrote: "Nancy? Torture? Torture? Torture?" On my left, Jodie Evans, activist par excellence and co-founder of CODEPINK, wrote "Do Your Job!" Eight of us, who sat squarely in Pelosi's line of vision, including
environmental attorney, Sara Nichols, and CODEPINK organizer, Tighe
Barry, held up our copies of her book to show our bold edits.
Madam Speaker was so flustered by our efforts that she barely made a cogent remark for her whole "Know Your Power" talk. Our peaceful action had impact. The truth is a powerful tool. But
if only our actions weren't necessary. If only, as Jodie Evans
suggested, Madam Speaker would do her job!
For
me, as an Italian American woman who wants Pelosi to succeed, watching
her in action was difficult. She's sweet and congenial and inherently
likable. But those positives pale when compared to her tragic misdeeds.
Those of us who value our democracy and our Constitution are too
patriotic to succumb to her charm. If only her valor, her love of
nation, and her observance of the rule of law matched her likability.
But they don't.
Saddest
of all is the contrast of who Pelosi once was to who she his now. For a
woman who was once at the cutting edge of social progressivism, Nancy
Pelosi has lost her way. She has strayed from her former social
consciousness into the malaise of power. A sorry state for a woman who
32 years ago was a pivotal player in the 1976 Presidential campaign of
radically progressive California Governor, Jerry Brown.
In
that critically important campaign, known as "The People's campaign,"
Pelosi helped Brown push hard for social values. She was instrumental
in his win in the Maryland primary. Who would believe that 30 years
later, Nancy Pelosi, who'd fought so hard for social change, would
subvert the Constitution and enable the crimes of George Bush and Dick
Cheney? In 1976, Nancy Pelosi was a well connected political volunteer
and social justice activist. She maximized her minimal power to promote
a grassroots Presidential campaign.
Today,
that same Nancy Pelosi, with exponentially more power, turns a deaf ear
to "The People" and quashes their dissent. How troubling that a once
valiant activist, at the forefront of social causes, is now a tool of
the administration and an adversary of participatory democracy. Since
January of last year, members of peace and justice organizations across
the nation, not to mention her own San Francisco constituents, have
been begging Pelosi to meet with them to discuss defunding and ending
the war in Iraq and impeaching George Bush and Dick Cheney. Pelosi has
refused their requests.
The
only opportune venues since that time, where "The People" could
challenge the Speaker, are the stops along this tour. "The People" have
seized the opportunity and have been confounded every step of the way
by Pelosi's bewilderment at their disfavor. Indeed, the mere fact that
she scheduled this tour without anticipating the chilly receptions
shows she's impervious to her own folly. It's a similar fantasy to the
one the Administration held that it would be greeted by Iraqis with
flowers.
Pelosi
is either clueless or delusional. It's inconceivable that after
countless refusals to meet with the public that she'd not expect a
verbal flogging. Yet all along her ill-fated tour, although she is the culprit,
"The People" bear the brunt of her malfeasance by being ejected and
even arrested. In Washington, DC, people were discouraged from asking
questions. In Philadelphia, people were whisked off if they tried to
ask a question. In San Francisco, people were pushed away if they tried
to ask a question. In Los Angeles, attorney Peter Thottam, founder of
the Los Angeles National Impeachment Center, was hauled off and
arrested after he stood up in the front row and shouted:
I'm
going to vomit. Who gave you the right to take the Constitution and
shove it down the toilet? Who gave you the right to take impeachment
off the table? Stop talking to us like we're children. One million
Iraqis are dead, 5000 Americans are dead. You have destroyed the 1st,
2nd, 4th, 5th and 8th Amendments.
A second impeachment
activist, Jennifer Epps, was also arrested after attempting to question
Pelosi at the book signing table. Epps and Thottam both spent 13 hours
in jail and were released the next morning. They have court dates in
the beginning of September. The most telling exchange of the evening
was between CODEPINK cofounder, Jodie Evans, who has known Nancy Pelosi
for over 30 years. Evans stood up to Pelosi in frustration after Pelosi
said:
I completely agree the Constitution is challenged by
these people [Bush administration]. That's why we have passed over and
over again Contempt of Congress resolutions in subcommittee and full
committee and even on the floor of the House holding the Administration
in contempt for not honoring the checks and balances.
The following exchange ensued:
Evans: But Nancy, you swore to uphold the Constitution.
Pelosi: (recognizing Evans) You can ask me any question you want.
Evans: I brought 2 books because you said if there was proof that Bush... (Pelosi rescinds Evans permission to question her)
Evans: You said that you would answer the question.
Pelosi: I said that if you hand it [the question] to me I would answer it for you but I'm not interrupting the program.
(Evans holds out Vincent Bugliosi's book, "The Prosecution Of George W. Bush For Murder"and Ron Suskind's book, "The Way Of The World" to Security to give to Pelosi)
Evans: (to Security) So you want to hand her this?
Evans: (to Pelosi) But if you're going to talk about upholding the Constitution and you're not upholding the Constitution..
Pelosi: Let me just say this to you. I
take an oath of office to uphold the Constitution. Don't dare tell me
that I don't do that.
Evans: That's what I just said.
At that point Evans was hauled away by
Security and driven off the property of American Jewish University. She
was spared arrest because Security heard Pelosi grant her permission to
ask a question. Below is a photo of Jodie Evans attempting to hand the
books to Pelosi. It was shot by Jason Leopold and Alan Breslauer who
were seated in the rear of the auditorium. In this photo, Evans'
similarity to the Statue of Liberty is eerie, as are the books'
resemblance to the torch. A transcendent moment as Jodie tried to light
Nancy's way. 
Watching these two old friends and
current political opponents square off in a public arena was a powerful
moment for those who know their history. In 1976, when Pelosi was
working on Jerry Brown's Presidential campaign, Jodie Evans, just 22
years old at the time, was Governor Brown's Director of Administration.
The two women worked closely together. Pelosi, an ardent progressive,
had been Evans' mentor. As Jodie has told me:
Nancy loved me. She taught me everything she knew.
How
sad that these former allies have hit such a dismal impasse. How far
apart they have grown. Evans has been a political powerhouse on the
national scene for over three decades. She ran Jerry Brown's 1991
Presidential campaign in which she instituted campaign finance limits
and the first electronic fundraising effort that inspires grassroots
fundraising today. Unlike Pelosi, who succumbed to the pitfalls of
elected office, Evans has remained true to her progressive values.
Evans tells me:
Nancy has fallen prey to her hunger for more power and doesn't honorably use the power that she has.
A
few nights prior to the book event, knowing Evans would be challenging
Pelosi, I asked Evans how she would feel publicly confronting her
friend. I told her I thought it would be painful. Evans' response was
simplistic, yet profound. She said:
Friends don't let friends do the wrong thing.
It
doesn't get much clearer than that. In fact, that's the sentiment that
drives most activists who push for impeachment, an end to the war, an
end to corporate influence over government, an end to the military
industrial complex and the prison industrial complex and an end to the
disparity between rich and poor.
Patriots don't let their governments do the wrong thing!
That's the message we'll be bringing to Denver and to St. Paul.
Patriots don't let their governments do the wrong thing!
Say it loud! Say it proud! Say it loud! Say it proud! Say it loud! Say it proud! Note: Here's the video of Peter Thottam and Jodie Evans addressing
Nancy Pelosi at American Jewish University on Monday night - courtesy
of Jason Leopold and Alan Breslauer:
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Linda Milazzo is a Los Angeles based
writer, educator and activist. Since 1974, she has divided her time
between the entertainment industry, government organizations &
community development projects and educational programs. Linda began
her writing career over 30 years ago, starting out in advertising and
promotions. From 1976 to 1989, she operated an independent public
relations service providing specialty writing for individual and
corporate clients. For the past six years, Linda has focused on
political writing. Her essays, letters and commentaries have appeared
in domestic and international journals, newspapers, magazines and on
dozens of respected news and opinion websites. She's an educator and
creator of a writers' program she's taught privately and in public
schools. She currently facilitates an advocacy writing workshop and is
developing an advocacy writing program to be implemented in public and
private educational institutions and in community based organizations.
A political and social activist since the Vietnam War, Linda attributes
her revitalized-fully-engaged-intense-head-on-non-stop-political
activism to the UNFORTUNATE EXISTENCE OF GEORGE W. BUSH and her disgust
with greed-ridden American imperialism, environmental atrocities,
egregious war, nuclear proliferation, lying leaders, and global tyranny!
