On Monday night on his show, Countdown, Keith Olbermann announced that on his Tuesday show he would present one of his infrequent powerful comments the subject of which would be a request that George W. Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney resign their positions as President and Vice-President of the United States.
On Tuesday morning I sent the follwoing message to the show's e-mail address.
"Last night while watching our favorite newscast, Countdown, my wife and I were discussing, as usual, why, taking into consideration their lack of popular support and their lack of respect for the rule of law, George W. Bush is still the President of the United States and Dick Cheney is still the Vice-President of the United States.
"While I am a supporter of impeachment, I have predicted for the last year that there will be no need for this action because George W. Bush and Dick Cheney would, because of public pressure, recognize that they had shamed and soiled their offices and resign.
"Like so many of my predictions, this one has yet to come true.
"Frustrated while listening to the reports of the most recent outrage, the commutation of Scooter Libby’s sentence, I turned to Joan and told her my dream of a symbolic action – what if the President gave a press conference and no one showed up.
"You then announced, and shortly thereafter did, a segment on the story about US magazine being 100% Paris Free. I thought that you might segue from that to a 100% Bush Free comment.
"My dream and your story made me think of another question I have often had – why is it that individuals can act in outrageous ways and still be treated as respected members of the community. What has become of the traditional response of shunning?
"I took a quick look at Wikipedia for a definition. “Shunning” is “the act of deliberately avoiding association with, and habitually keeping away from, an individual or a group”. One of the goals of shunning is to remove or limit the influence of a member over other members in a community and “to isolate, to discredit or otherwise disempower such a member, often in the context of actions or positions advocated by that member.”
"That works for me!!!
"I await and look forward to your comment tonight with your request to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney that they resign, but, in order to increase the likelihood that this happens, you may want to suggest that the public shun these two - non-profit and corporate organizations not attend receptions at the White House, members of the media not gather at unofficial White House gatherings, government officials not make promotional outreach to either of them, educational institutions not ask either of them to speak - so that these two understand in a very direct way that we, the people, no longer want them in office."
As I expected, my suggestion was not incorporated into his talk. It was, however, quite impassioned and, as our one ally in the coalition of the willing would not say, "spot on". See for yourself.
But do remember to keep in mind the value of shunning and pass it on.
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