The DC Pink House Experience

CODEPINK TRIP BLOG
By Dee & Charlie Ivy
Taking action in DC: Jan. 11-20, 2008

It was a joy to arrive here at the CODEPINK house in DC last night and meet some amazing women! After sharing dinner, which was prepared and on the table (and delicious), Charlie and I went monument hopping in the dark, as I we had heard this was a beautiful way to explore the National Mall and all the monuments. And it was!

This morning we had the great privilege of joining John Nirenberg on his final leg of his march from Boston’s Faneuil Hall to Washington, DC to urge Congress to hold impeachment hearings on both President Bush and VP Cheney. John 60 years old and currently a professor of organizational development . He said he teaches corporate social responsibility, and what he teaches his students is not playing out today in our government. When we asked him why he decided to take this journey, he said that he just couldn’t sign one more petition or write one more letter. “I had to do something more” he said. He went on to say that he hadn’t really expected anyone else to join in his journey and was pleasantly surprised each time it happened.

John brought with him a beautiful banner “WE THE PEOPLE” (from the Backbone Campaign) to present to Speaker Pelosi and we were all pleased to have the opportunity to sign it as we gathered this morning. John said he felt that for Nancy Pelosi, once elected, to take impeachment off the table is, in effect, to pardon both Bush and Cheney. He said we must bring them to justice for a multitude of high crimes and misdemeanors as well as a monumental array of unethical actions. He feels in failing to impeach, Congress has granted a permanent license to the president and vice president to continue to act above the law. He fears this sends the wrong message to the next administration, no matter which party is elected, and that this is not a precedent we can afford to establish. We both join John in asking Congress to do the right thing and thereby maybe the faith that has been lost, can be restored in the system as well as in our leaders.

Tonight we watched Sir, No Sir (do yourself a favor and rent this). It was difficult to watch, but once again the stories we knew (and some we didn’t) were confirmed through these individual stories. One soldier told the story of how important it was that they counted every body because the body count was used to confirm success in the Vietnam War. Because it was a sign of success, they counted them all! This caught our attention in light of today’s fact that we claim it impossible to come up with a body count of Iraqis. I guess that’s one lesson our government did learn from the Vietnam war - body counts are not really popular!
The night ended with Beth coming home – from jail! She, along with 81 others, was arrested yesterday as they demonstrated in front of the Supreme Court against the continued detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. We end this day once again feeling honored to be in this house with such beautiful women of conscience and to welcome Beth home.