Challenging Nancy Pelosi
By
BOSTON--A small but spirited group of protesters turned out to demonstrate against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the John F. Kennedy library on August 4.
Pelosi was in town to promote her new autobiography and also take some questions. She spoke of how wonderful the Kennedy family is and about her life of being born into politics. Only pre-screened questions were taken during the event, in order to ensure that no embarrassing political topics were brought up for the Speaker.
Protesters came to demand that Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic Party stop enabling Bush's wars and put impeachment on the table--where it belongs. Many demonstrators arrived an hour before Pelosi's talk, but were immediately directed by police to stand in a "protest zone."
The move was outrageous, and protesters objected. Eventually, Boston cops gave in and instead of being forced to stand inside the zone, activists were surrounded by police instead.
Some members of Code Pink were determined not to be silenced, and made their way into the audience of Pelosi's talk with a huge banner that read "Impeach." They were quickly thrown out.
Though small, the protest was important. Activists let the cops know that our freedom of speech will not be silenced.
