Activist seeks trial, pardon for Bush

By BOB AUDETTE, Brattleboro Reformer

BRATTLEBORO -- The man behind the local movement to impeach, arrest and indict President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for war crimes and violations of the U.S. Constitution is asking the country's next president to grant Bush a pardon.

"The country needs reconciliation," said Kurt Daims.

But Daims doesn't want the next president to pardon Bush until he is tried and convicted of war crimes and of violating the United States Constitution. Daims also hopes a trial will shine a light on all those who have committed crimes while hiding in the shadows. "Bush wasn't the only wrong-doer, he said. "Without accountability millions of people are losing all faith in our nation."

Daims is circulating a petition around Brattleboro to include on the town warrant a resolution calling for the trial and pardon of Bush. In the past two years, resolutions to impeach and indict the president and vice president have been approved by town voters.

While Daims believes Bush should stand trial, he also believes punishment would only bring more division to the country.

"The compromise is to let Bush be safe and have the truth come out so reconciliation can begin. The war has been very divisive, but truth and reconciliation can heal and strengthen us to make great changes together.""

Some people who supported Daims' previous resolutions do not want to see Bush pardoned, he said, because "They want his head. But we must compromise now, for the good of the nation."

Daims said he was touched by the way the president elect based his campaign on conciliation and inclusiveness and revised his resolution after he realized his first draft was "nasty in tone" and not in keeping with Barack Obama's message.

"He inspired me to think about what more people would join on to."

Rewriting the resolution was a way for Daims himself to reconcile with the past.

"I still had my own vendetta against Mr. Bush," he said, but not getting to the truth of the past eight years is standing in the way of moving the country forward under a new president.

At first, people who support George Bush and his administration's policies have been put off by Daims' new resolution, but he said many of them also want the same thing -- Bush pardoned so that the truth can come out.

"Nobody with half a heart wants to drop the whole thing."

Daims admitted his resolution may only be symbolic but so was Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, he said, which led to the 15th Amendment giving black men the right to vote.

"Do you think that was only symbolic?" asked Daims. "Lincoln's legacy is coming true in Obama. As the nation's first African-American president he will emancipate the truth."

While Brattleboro is the first town in the country to get to work on this resolution, other communities are also working on similar resolutions, said Daims and groups that drafted impeachment resolutions are now converting to calling for truth and reconciliation.

Signature petitions will be available during Gallery Walk tonight and are also available anytime at Gallery in the Woods at 145 Main Street, at In The Moment at 143 Main Street or at 16 Washington Street.

For more information visit bushindictment.org.

Bob Audette can be reached at raudette@reformer.com, or 802-254-2311, ext. 273.