whitebeard

Don't curse the darkness, light a candle.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

North american Peace Activists in Rome

On July 23, 2007, the 5th anniversary of the Downing Street Memo, as
activists in the U.S. staged a sit-in calling for impeachment at the office
of John Conyers, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, members of our
group in Rome formed the I-Team and brought the issue of impeachment
to tourists in the Eternal City.

We started at the Pantheon where Anna served up her "Impeachmintini"
(white wine, peaches and mint), complete with Impeach umbrellas and
custom labels, to supporters from the U.S. and Europe. We attracted
attention with our Impeach t-shirts as well as the megaphone, chanting
Impeach Bush, Impeach Dick Cheney, too!

A large group of Irish schoolboys shook our hands, had their photos taken
with us and shouted, "We love you" as we left the square. Next stop was
Piazza Navona where we ran into Jerry, a Dominican Friar who has
marched with us before. He was leading a group of Dominicans from the
U.S. on a tour of Rome, who all cheered for us when they learned what we
were doing. They took our photos and had their photos taken with us.

Indeed, many tourists -- as well as second- and third-story local residents,

peering down from their windows -- took photos of us, especially when we were

at the Pantheon where we lined up in front of the fountain and later the portico.

There was an elderly Dutch couple and a couple of young ladies (one from

Connecticut and the other from NY) who greatly appreciated both the aperitif

and our sentiments. Another Dutch couple claimed to be abstemious, but said

they fully supported our efforts. When it came to young American tourists,

there seemed to be a pretty even divide between those who were enthusiastically

behind impeachment and those who were probably more indifferent than actively opposed.

For the most part, people were very supportive, though we did run into a
few Bush supporters. One man told us we were disgusting and said, "if you
don´t like America, why don´t you just stay in Italy." Amusing, since most of
us have lived in Rome for decades!

The last stop was Campo de Fiori where a photographer friend was waiting
for us, and we handed out the last of the 200 flyers. But the big surprise
was still to come.

Over ONE THOUSAND faxes had been sent from our site - with no signs
of slowing! These obviously didn´t all come from our local group. In fact,
our Judiciary Fax Blast to John Conyers´ office was picked up by several sites,
such as AfterDowningStreet, DailyKos, InformationClearingHouse,
WhatReallyHappened, DemocraticUnderground and a number of blogs.
And the people responded!

Meanwhile, back in Washington, Cindy Sheehan, Ray McGovern, David
Swanson, Rev. Yearwood along with 20 other activists were arrested at
John Conyers' office, where around 300 protesters packed his office and
lined the halls calling for impeachment.