uly 9, 2006
By DANIEL BARLOW Staff Writer

BRATTLEBORO – Anti-war icon Cindy Sheehan will travel to Vermont later this month to lend her support to the state's grassroots effort to impeach President George Bush for misleading the country into the Iraq war.

Sheehan is scheduled to speak at rallies in Brattleboro and Montpelier on July 30 as part of a push for municipalities in Vermont and neighboring states to pass impeachment resolutions against the president.

Dan DeWalt, a Newfane selectman who organized a Town Meeting Day impeachment resolution, said Sheehan's appearance at the rallies will be a "call to arms" for the movement to remove Bush from office.

"We've sat on the sidelines too long and now it is time to act," DeWalt said. "I never intended to get a part-time job without pay impeaching the president, but that's what happened."

Seven Vermont towns, including five in Windham County, have passed resolutions at town meeting this year either calling for investigations into Bush or his outright impeachment for a number of perceived violations of his oath of office.

The town of Westminster may soon join those seven. Town resident Benjamin Mitchell is now circulating a petition calling for a special town meeting to vote on the impeachment question.

DeWalt, who kicked off the state impeachment movement earlier this year, said the effort had begun as a symbolic gesture against the direction of the country under the Bush administration, but said it has since become a concrete and concerted effort to make his removal from office a reality.

"What we saw a few months ago was the embryonic beginning of a revolution," DeWalt said. "Vermont is now part of the national stage on the issue of impeachment and the votes at our town meetings have been inspiring others across the country."