The following exchange is from Dialogue Group 13, Thread 38.

1. Effects Impeachment Is Having On Me
Thu, Jan 28, 1999 - 10:56 AM/EST
JimP

I read Group 14's discussion of the effects the impeachment is having on them, and was very impressed with the changes in themselves some of them felt were a result. I recommend it for us all. While I see Thread 36 is a framework for this group to discuss where we are personally, and where we would like the nation to be as a nation as a result, I thought that I'd modify the subject and post a little about my personal changes. They are a result of the impeachment peripherally, but directly as a result of being a member of this Group, and possibly other groups in the future.

I have known for years that I am a lazy thinker. I also know that I have a tendency to hold a position mentally that I have not thought through. When, for whatever reason, I have to put that position into words on paper, or in a word processor document, I often have them change as I write. I'll read something I've written, and begin to question it. I'll say, that isn't logical, or it isn't consistent with other positions I hold. Sometime, I see clearly that there are other, equally valid points of view that I should at least review. I hope that as I write, I remove some of the pre-conceived ideas and positions, reform some of them, and add new perspectives where necessary. It is amazing how many times over the past weeks that I've said to myself, "Why didn't I see that before?" I have each of you to thank for that.

Participation in this group has provided me with ample opportunity to re-examine positions. I've also been doing a great deal of reading recently, and while you aren't interested in a bibliography, let me tell you that the material I've been reading has also helped me to re-examine some positions.

Analyzing what I've learned, not, I hope, the final analysis, I have changed because of participating in this group. I feel certain that I am better able to appreciate other perspectives, without necessarily adopting them as my own. The possibility that I will adopt them, or modify my own, is stronger now than before this process. I have decided that since my thought processes seem to clarify themselves as I write them, I will do more writing, even if only to a journal. I intend to write a series of longer essays on most of the paragraphs in the outline in Thread 36, for my own clarity of thought. Don't worry, I will not have them complete in time for the group to be burdened with them. It's a long-term, personal project.

I am interested in hearing thoughts others of you have along these lines.

Regards,

Jim

2. For what it's worth...
Tue, Feb 2, 1999 - /EST
Gayle

The effect the Impeachment is having on me is to make me far more distrustful of our representatives in Congress. I trust fewer of them than I trusted before, Republican and Democrat. The middle-of-the-road Republicans I helped put in office have shown me they can be pushed around by the extremists, and they have even more of a hive mentality than their buddies across the aisle. The email and snail mail responses I've received, from local and national representatives, are so similar that I'm sure they sat down together and came up with a party-line form letter...the high point of originality was their typed names and handwritten signatures.

I keep hearing, "Democrats promise more but don't deliver." Well, I believe I'd rather be promised something and have to wait, or possibly never get it, than to have something and have it taken away. I don't believe the government should be huge, but neither do I believe it should be so diminished that critical departments become extinct. Nor do I believe that certain Amendments should be eliminated and rights lost. The effect on me: it literally makes me ill to smell all the party flatulence.

If they ever get back to work on the business of the nation and decide to cut taxes, as the Republicans keep promising, we will end up paying out as much or more in state/city/county taxes to make up the difference we get in matching funds. As population is not evenly distributed, some states will be worse off than they are. Some Republicans say schools shouldn't adhere to a federal standard, they should be governed at the state or local level. There are other examples, but I'm totally sick of promises and threats. Though they don't say it aloud, it appears obvious that these particular Republicans want us to go from the *United* States of America to the *States of America*. The effect on me: absolute nausea...this is not what my father, grandfathers, uncles, and aunts fought for.

The Impeachment hearing itself makes me ashamed of our representatives. They aren't even adult enough to decide first if 'offenses' are impeachable or if there is real evidence prior to loosing a travesty on the nation and the world. Not to mention that some of them will not quit their imbecilic ways even after the vote is taken...I'm sure we'll hear about 'dishonest, sleazy, lying Liberals' (a word now made synonymous with Democrat) for decades to come. The effect on me: I don't particularly want to vote for Democrats anymore, but it will be years before I trust and vote for another Republican.

I guess you can say the overall effect on me is to have turned me from a moderate into a temporarily rabid liberal. I expect this phase will end once the majority of extreme Republicans are voted out of office.