Friday, April 28, 2006

Reportback about the latest town meeting

The town meeting went pretty well and I've heard that
it could have been the best one yet in terms of
discussion and interest. There might have been around
60 people, up from 55 at the Hillsborough event, but
less than the Auditorium's capacity. Did anyone make
an exact count? I thought there were around 30 when I
got there, but later there were more people and I
might have underestimated. The crowd was somewhat
diverse, but mostly white and there were few people
under 30. GRIM, the Durham and Orange Co. BORDC's,
Kent Kanoy, and Stan Goff tabled.

Thanks to Joan, also representing the Durham Bill of
Rights Defense Committee, and John for moderating
(Joan moderated during the first half and John did so
for the second half). The meeting started with three
songs by the Raging Grannies, including one on
impeachment and the one saying "I'm going to let it
shine." Stan spoke first, linking the case for
impeachment to the Iraq War and from there to social
issues such as the huge and predominantly black US
prison population. He also pointed out Democratic
Party cooperation with Bush and the need to exert
pressure on both parties. Al McSurely spoke next and
talked about strategy and GRIM's list of impeachment
objections and answers, from the objection that
getting rid of Bush gives us Cheney to the argument
that working for impeachment detracts fron other
causes. Rev. Curtis Gatewood spoke about the
hypocrisy of "Bush Christians" (unfortunately none
came) and also linked impeachment to working class
issues and poverty.

There was time for several questions and comments.
There was some back and forth discussion, especially
about whether Iran will be attacked overtly and how
this could be sold to the public. We could have
talked for a while, but the Library was close to
closing. Kanoy was invited to speak briefly. Bowser,
a former Durham official and candidate for sheriff
this year, attended. I plan to write more here on
what was said later.

I'll write about the process of organizing this later,
since it could be useful for future events. I don't
think any of the media we contacted attended this time
and we don't have a recording. It could have been
better organized, since some decisions were made at
the start of the meeting and it started late, and the
publicity was good but could be better. There also
might have been conflicting election related events.
At the earliest we could have a second Durham event in
June without being too much in a rush. In the future
it would be good to have women speakers represented,
but I wasn't able to find anyone this time.

What are other people's impressions of or comments
about the meeting?

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Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Durham town meeting on impeaching Bush and Cheney Thursday

Come discuss the case for impeaching Bush and Cheney,
the process, and what citizens can do, Thursday, April
27th, 7-9pm in the Auditorium (to the right at the
entrance) of the Durham Main Library (300 North
Roxboro St.). Featured are NC NAACP 2nd Vice Pres.
Rev. Curtis Gatewood, civil rights lawyer Al McSurely,
Raleigh activist and author Stan Goff, and the Raging
Grannies.

This meeting was organized by the non-partisan Grass
Roots Impeachment Movement and follows the format of
the previous Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and Hillsborough
town meetings. The next GRIM meeting might be around
May 19th. A formal organizing meeting was last Friday
in Chapel Hill, though the group has been around since
the beginning of the year under that name. Pittsboro
and Raleigh town meetings are being planned (and we
could use help). You can contact me by commenting here
or emailing me at southplumb@gmail.com.

www.davidpricewatch.org and www.impeachbushcheney.net
are also useful local sites and GRIM's new listserve
is grim@impeachbushcheney.net. The petition to Price
is still available online at
www.petitiononline.com/dsmnc/petition.html and on
paper in various places. There is also a campaign to
have people wear orange for impeachment on Fridays
(see orangetoimpeach.blogspot.com).

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