IMPEACH! Cindy Sheehan and Cynthia McKinney in More Photos from Berkeley

Berkeley, California
October 7, 2007

Close to noon, the field near the Berkeley marina which Brad Newsham had chosen for his 4th Beach Impeach began to fill with people. The excitement was palpable and contagious-- especially when Cindy Sheehan and Cynthia McKinney arrived.

Cindy Sheehan rose to prominence in 2005 when she protested outside of George W. Bush's vacation home in Crawford, Texas. At that time, she had simply wanted him to personally explain to her why her son Casey had to die on a foreign battlefield in Iraq. To the world's outrage, Bush never did.

Cindy's personal act of courage opened a debate that was consequentially lacking among the politicians in Washington and in the national mainstream media. Bush and all those who defended his lies and mimicked his false and pompous shows of patriotism were shamed. Bush has yet to attend a single American soldier's funeral.

Cindy Sheehan's life has since become an odyssey of self-discovery and responsible compassion for others. Because Nancy Pelosi, the powerful Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, has refused to promote impeachment against the wishes of her constituency in San Francisco, Cindy Sheehan is now running for her seat in Congress.

Cynthia McKinney is also determined to see that the wishes of the American People be heard. Treated ignominiously by the Democratic Party when she was a maverick congressional representative from Georgia, she has abandoned that party and is now seeking to by popular acclaim to run as a Green Party candidate for President. Like Cindy, her honest and humanitarian principles and convictions have never faltered.

Both face many hurdles ahead. The establishment media will likely demonize them (just as they puff up politicians who are subservient to corporate money). The Republican Party will paint them as "un-American"; the Democratic Party will call them "spoilers".

Unbeknownst to their detractors, however, the American People are beginning to understand how much they have been mislead in recent years. They have seen what the current corrupt administration and its spineless opposition has wrought-- and they are ready for a healthy change in direction.