All posts by Anne

Tibetans to Walk from Burlington to Montpelier

From the website of the Tibetan Association of Vermont http://www.vermonttibet.org/:

Tibetan Association of Vermont & Students for a Free Tibet  are coordinating a “Peace March for Freedom in Tibet”. This 40 miles walk will start at 9 am on April 12th in downtown Burlington, Vermont in front of City Hall. It will conclude on April 14th at around 12:30 pm with a rally in front of State Capitol, Montpelier. There will be two stops, one in Richmond and other in Middlesex.

We invite everyone to begin planning to join us in Montpelier, VT on Monday April 14. You can also join the march from the beginning as well. Please contact tsering05408@yahoo.com or call (802) 578-0264 for sign up or for more information.

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Also, at 1:00 Wednesday, April 16th, a resolution in support of Tibet will be read on the House floor. Members of the Vermont Tibetan community will be there and will be introduced.

Democrats Move on without Addressing First Amendment

(I think this is worthy of a response from Welch – promoted by JulieWaters)

U.S. Rep. Peter Welch came to the Democratic State Committee meeting Saturday to ask for the Committee’s endorsement for the ’08 congressional race. However, knowing that there are serious concerns among some Committee members about his vote to condemn MoveOn.org for exercising its free speech rights by placing an ad in a newspaper, he didn’t take questions or comments from the Committee members. Additionally, abstainers from the vote to endorse were not permitted to state their reasons for abstaining, as is customary.  

If Rep. Welch can’t dialogue with dissenters within his own party, how can we ever hope that he will be able to stand up to the Republicans in Washington, who are busy at every turn trying to undermine the Constitution and weaken our Civil Liberties? The steamrolling through of an endorsement without being willing to publically address the MoveOn vote does not do justice to the Democratic Party’s commitment to democracy on the national, state and local levels. We can do better than that.

A short discussion with the Committee of the reasons for his defense of his vote, and of some of his friends’ reasons for their strong opposition and concern about it, could have left him in a stronger position as he heads back to Washington; knowing that we will have his back if he stands strong for the Constitution and Civil Liberties. It was a mistake, in my opinion, to not allow discussion of this at the State Committee meeting – to not be willing to take our questions publically. It makes me afraid that he will not stand up enough in Congress to protect the Constitution in these perilous times. I hope I am wrong.