Much of our political activism in recent years hasn't accomplished what we've wanted. :-(
How to respond? Maybe we need to go to the heart of the matter ? and impeach.
As a result of recent action in the Congress, people are flocking to the various impeachment campaigns. Many of us feel ? if enough of us embrace impeachment ? that these campaigns can have a definite impact.
We're in the majority on this issue ? let the House Judiciary Committee know it!
Here are some easy actions ? the bare minimum ? that you, and everyone else should do to advance the impeachment cause.
There are three important steps:
- Persuade the "deciders";
- Get plugged in;
- Increase the buzz.
Persuading the "deciders" should be your first tactic.
Contact your congressional representative using this non-partisan website:
Send an email supporting impeachment to your own legislator.
While doing so, consider how you might increase your effectiveness:
- phone calls are better than email;
- letters may not arrive for two weeks or so (security reasons), but in some ways letters are better than phone calls ? your representative may read it personally, and may even wave it around on the house floor;
- a visit in person to your legislator's office is better than any other choice; and,
- doing all of these cannot hurt.
Contact the entire House Judiciary Committee ? the impeachment ball is now in their court:
Contact individual members of the committee. Identify them here:
Important: many congressional websites and mail services establish barriers to keep you from contacting representatives other than your own. Email messages may be blocked, or re-directed to your own congressperson. It is probably easiest and best to telephone representatives other than your own.
There are two Judiciary Committee members who still accept normal email ? ask them to impeach:
Contact Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who earlier "took impeachment off the table...", and tell her that the time has come to put impeachment front and center :
Office of the Speaker
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-0100
AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov (confirmed) ? use if you are not a resident of California's 8th Congressional District ? easy!
sf.nancy@mail.house.gov (confirmed) ? use if you are a resident of California's 8th Congressional District ? easy!
You may contact your senators as well, but the House of Representatives has to act first.
Get plugged in to an impeachment network.
Many states now have local impeachment organizations and many cities have streetcorner vigils; do a search on "impeachment" and your state to find out.
Sign a petition, and get plugged in via the People's Email Network:
They have a campaign to poster universities and campuses, and some other actions as well.
After Downing Street supports impeachment in many different ways:
Check out their Resource Center:
Join up ? easy!
Increase the buzz:
Respond briefly, but pervasively to news stories that mention impeachment. Let the writers know that we care about this issue. Here are links to the latest news stories:
Don't bother reading every story in detail. Rather, quickly check for reporter's email links. Send them an email encouraging positive, or additional, coverage of impeachment. (If you refer to the existing news story, your message carries more weight.)
If there is no writer's email link in the story, check for a link to the newspaper's editors, and send them an email. If that isn't easy & quick to do, move on.
What to send? Either write about what their paper has written, or create your own brief message in Notepad or another text editor. Copy and paste into your emails to save time.
Send a message to email lists on which you participate. Forward this email, if you wish.
Contact your family, friends, associates. Let them know your views on impeachment, and offer to provide them with information and resources to get active.
Send a letter to the editor. You can find local media contacts here:
You don't need to know how to write! It is great to see letters printed, but if enough of us participate, even a very brief message just to let them know what you are thinking can help influence their coverage.
Explore impeachment in the blog world:
Hope this makes your impeachment activism easier,
richard myers
Denver, Colorado