Impeachment
Is the Issue

Over 100 Vermonters from 40 towns traveled to Montpelier Tuesday to express their displeasure with the legislature's reluctance to debate an impeachment resolution that passed in 37 Town Meetings, including here in Tunbridge.

In addition to constituting a healthy exercise of grassroots citizen governmental activism, the trip gave many of us a chance to meet directly with our legislators and get a sense of their positions vis-a-vis the issue as well as hearing their concerns about crossing the House and Senate leadership in Montpelier.

To their credit, both House Speaker Symington and Senate Pro Tem Shumlin spoke to us about procedure, tight schedules and their unwillingness to bring the issue to the full chamber for a debate and vote. No amount of bureaucratic excuses were going to pacify this passionate pro-impeachment assembly. Symington's reasoning of focusing on Vermont issues was met with a slew of statistics relevant to Vermont's escalating war costs and diminished funding for social services within the state.

Shumlin seemed incapable of finessing contradictory statements that he has made during the last several months regarding his support for moving the impeachment process forward. He did slip in a comment about the only way to debate the issue would be to extend the session, which set off a spontaneous chant of "Extend the session! Extend the session!" Speaker Symington acknowledged that the House Resolution regarding ending the war in Iraq was debated and voted on the floor in one afternoon.

Vermonters have a distinguished history of exercising true democracy through their Town Meetings and direct contact with their citizen legislators. Our President and current administration have demonstrated little regard for the Constitution as they have presented us with false evidence in the prologue to the Iraq War, permitted torture and overseas secret prisons and instituted extra-legal surveillance of US citizens.

We feel that it is incumbent on our fellow Vermonters to contact their local legislators and strongly urge them to push for a full floor debate and vote on this impeachment resolution.

Todd Tyson and Betsy Gaiser

Tunbridge