Soldier/diplomat turned activist calls for accountability
Col. Ann Wright Speaks in Oxnard and Ventura
By Susan Zannos 11/08/2007
After three decades serving the United States, Col. Ann Wright was pushed over the edge by the invasion of Iraq.
Wright, who brought her story to Oxnard on Nov. 3 and Ventura on Nov. 4, served in the U.S. Army for 29 years and in the U.S. Foreign Service for 13 years. She received the U.S. State Department’s Award for Heroism for evacuating 2,500 people when rebels occupied the capital of Sierra Leone in 1997. But by early spring of 2003, Wright felt she could no longer support the policies of the Bush administration.
“I disagree with the administration’s policies on Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, North Korea and curtailment of civil liberties in the U.S. itself,” Wright said in her March 19, 2003, letter of resignation to then Secretary of State Colin Powell. “I believe the administration’s policies are making the world a more dangerous, not a safer, place.”
In the 4 ? years since penning that letter, Wright has taken up a career as an author and activist writing and speaking against the occupation of Iraq and for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. This month, Write is scheduled to release Dissent: Voices of Conscience, which details her experience and profiles other government whistle-blowers and officials who resigned from powerful positions out of protest of the administration.
Wright began her weekend in Ventura County at the United Methodist Church in Oxnard. With her speaking at that event was David Swanson, founder of After DowningStreet.org, the activist organization that began after the Sunday Times of London published documents indicating that the citizens of the U.S. and the United Kingdom had been lied into war.
“We are an overwhelming majority,” Swanson said, citing the results of recent polls that show people to be 64 percent in favor of impeaching Cheney and 61 percent in favor of impeaching Bush. Swanson and Wright urged their audience to call, e-mail, and fax letters to their representatives to ask them to support Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s (D-Ohio) impeachment motion in Congress this week. (Kucinich is also a candidate in the 2008 presidential race.)
Wright’s theme in Oxnard, and at the Topping Room of Ventura’s E.P. Foster Library, was accountability.
“People need to be accountable for their actions,” she said. “Holding officials responsible is called impeachment … There can be nothing more important than holding people accountable for illegal acts they have committed.”
Wright used stories of being arrested on several occasions for peaceful demonstrations to support her point.
The former colonel came to Oxnard and Ventura at the behest of Citizens for Impeachment, Ventura County. Cindy Peister, the group’s organizer of events, said Citizens for Impeachment “was formed in response to the urgent need to address the impeachable offenses of this administration, offenses that the Democratic leadership refuses to address.”
Peister met Wright when both participated in demonstrations in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 15.
“I looked around while we were marching and there was Col. Wright next to me,” Peister said. “There wasn’t much opportunity to talk, but I asked her if she would come to California to speak to us. Ann said, ‘My bags are packed.’”
Upon her return from Washington, Peister secured endorsements for Wright’s visit from Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, Ventura County; the Campaign to Elect Kucinich for President, 2008, V.C.; Progressive Democrats of America, V.C. (PDA); Ojai Code Pink – Women for Peace; Peace Coalition of Greater Ventura; HopeDance; International Socialist Party, V.C.; Not In Our Name, Ventura; Nurses for Social Responsibility; V.C. Green Party; Ojai Peace Coalition; V.C. Stop the War; Global Exchange, V.C.; Veterans for Peace, Chapter 112; and Gold Star Families for Peace.
The large audience in Ventura stood to applaud Wright at the conclusion of her speech. Mary Pallant, a candidate for Congress in the 24th District and lead organizer for PDA, expressed the prevailing admiration for Wright’s courage in standing up and speaking out against an unjust war.
“Dissent is patriotic,” Pallant said. “A true patriot loves one’s country, not necessarily one’s government.”
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