Dear Sirs and Madame,
I write to you all today with a profound sense of fear in my heart, for our nation, for our individual liberties and for our Constitution.
The House of Representative's, in a purely partisan vote backed and strong-armed by the most extreme elements of the religious right-wing that has seized control of the Republican party, voted out two Article's of Impeachment against the President of the United States.
Ignoring all exculpatory evidence, the facts of the case, a proponderance of opinion by America's leading legal scholars, the will of the American people and most frightening of all, the Constitution of the United States, the House has unilaterally decided, clearly along party lines, to legitimize the practice of prosecutorial excesses and abuses which are currently becoming the norm, rather than the exception, across this country.
If the government of the United States is allowed to remove a President because of alleged *lies* in a civil deposition (which, curiously, was found to have no merit...isn't this the basis of what started this whole mess?), alleged *lies* to a Grand Jury (which the evidence is suggesting was a set-up from the beginning...yes, there *are* perjury traps!), what can the government do to me? Or my wife? Or my neighbors?
If the government can do this to our President, it can do this, or worse, to me.
As a point of reference, ask the seventy-four people released from death-row what the government can do.
Ask Rolando Cruz.
I find myself torn between urging you to "cut a deal" to put this behind us or to allow a trial to proceed, that would expose the agenda of the more radical elements in this country for what they are: an attempt to destroy our current form of government and impose upon us all a rigid, hypocritical, hate-filled theocracy, where an elite powerful *minority* can impose it's will on those who do not think and believe as they do.
I guess all I can do is urge you to do the right thing...work to protect the rights of everyone.
This is not, and never has been about Bill Clinton, sex, lying about sex, perjury, abuse of power, the "rule of law" or any of the *sins* of one man.
It is about power and control; who will have it and how they wield it.
Mr. Fitzgerald, it is a heavy burden you carry to have one of the first votes you cast in the Senate be *the* most important decision you will ever have to make in your life.
You represent the entire state of Illinois, as opposed to a small district. Do not be lulled into believing that the voters will forget what you have been chosen to vote on by the next election.
You are being called upon to make a decision that goes beyond a district, a state and your own ideology.
You are being called upon to protect my rights, my country and my Constitution.
We will not forget. We are watching and we will remember.
The impeachment process was created to protect the country from tyranny, not to remove a President who won't go along with the majority party, even though, sadly, he has on a number of occasions, which underscores even more powerfully that this is not about Bill Clinton, sex, perjury, etc.
I ask you to ask yourself this one question:
Even IF the President is guilty of all he is accused of, do his *crimes* rise to the level of justifying his removal from office?
Even if *lies* were told, I don't think this is what the author's of OUR Constitution had in mind.
Thank you for hearing my views.
Glynn Ash
[email protected]
