Here's part one (of three) of an article by Miriam Raftery at rawstory.com about the anti-war movement. She connected with the SD group that went to DC, so I know some of these peeples. Barney was on my flights to and from, and Fernando Suarez was in all the same senator and representative meetings as me. We live in the same area. Very cool. A good article too. Thanks, Miriam.
Speaking of the representative meetings, I wanted to touch on that too. When I first told my mom I was going to Capitol Hill to do my own lobbying, her first response was, "don't wear your flip flops. I raised you better than that." Ok mom. I didn't. I wore my pink tennies, but no flip flops.
Our first meeting with in Barbara Boxer's office. We were a few minutes late for the meeting because we got to her office just in the nick of time only to find there was some remodeling going on and not only was she not in that office, she was not in that building. We had to traipse down the hall and down the elevator and through a basement and up some stairs....through three different buildings. Finally we arrived, and quietly slipped into the conference room where the meeting was already in progress. Boxer wasn't there, but there were three staff members in the room who listened to the comments and requests of the group. They were fairly non-commital about anything new, but Boxer is pretty well on board with the issues anyway so it was nice to just be able to be able to reinterate our points and thank her.
The meeting in Feinstein's office was soon after, and there were quite a lot of people there. Probably close to 40-50 people and we weren't the only contingent that day. Most of the group were from Progressive Democrats of America and Physician's for Social Responsibility. Mimi Kennedy was there, and so was Fernando Suarez. The PDA and PSR folks were well prepared, and presented the information very well. I was pleased to be a part of that group, even though I didn't get to speak. I certainly had no problem with standing with these folks. Feinstein didn't come to the meeting, though someone said they saw here in the office. Her staff members were somewhat defensive. Polite, but chilly. It probably would have served him better to just listen, and stick with his "I can't speak for her" story but he said things like, "you elected her to use her good judgement and that is not always the same as the will of the people", which is true, but the wrong sentiment for the moment. That said, he took lots of notes and said he'd share it all with her. Though I suppose that doesn't mean much if it's in conflict with her "good judgement". They committed to nothing. It was a downer, dudes.
So I went to the National Gallery and the Hirshorn for a few hours, and came back (refreshed? no, not really) for a 5:30 meeting with my congresswoman. We were a smaller group of seven and we met with Susan Davis in her office. Hey, after the meetings with the senators, I was pretty damn impressed that she showed up and we got to sit in her office, so she got brownie points from the start. She was a better listener than the Feinstein aide too, and while she didn't commit to supporting any of the legislation we proposed, she asked good questions and seemed genuinely interested and cared about our personal stories. She also was supportive about our concerns with regard to military recruiting, and the health and well being of the soldiers, etc as they return home. Speaking with Rep Davis was a much better experience than what we had in the senator's office.
Speaking of Fernando Suarez, he's great. He's awesome, in fact. One of the people that went into Davis's office with us was a filmmaker who's making a documentary on the anti-war movement in general and the events in Washington in particular. He followed Mr Suarez around all day and filmed the meetings. I might be in a movie with my pink tennies and my ponytail; for pete's sake...why didn't someone tell me beforehand! ?
Speaking of the representative meetings, I wanted to touch on that too. When I first told my mom I was going to Capitol Hill to do my own lobbying, her first response was, "don't wear your flip flops. I raised you better than that." Ok mom. I didn't. I wore my pink tennies, but no flip flops.
Our first meeting with in Barbara Boxer's office. We were a few minutes late for the meeting because we got to her office just in the nick of time only to find there was some remodeling going on and not only was she not in that office, she was not in that building. We had to traipse down the hall and down the elevator and through a basement and up some stairs....through three different buildings. Finally we arrived, and quietly slipped into the conference room where the meeting was already in progress. Boxer wasn't there, but there were three staff members in the room who listened to the comments and requests of the group. They were fairly non-commital about anything new, but Boxer is pretty well on board with the issues anyway so it was nice to just be able to be able to reinterate our points and thank her.
The meeting in Feinstein's office was soon after, and there were quite a lot of people there. Probably close to 40-50 people and we weren't the only contingent that day. Most of the group were from Progressive Democrats of America and Physician's for Social Responsibility. Mimi Kennedy was there, and so was Fernando Suarez. The PDA and PSR folks were well prepared, and presented the information very well. I was pleased to be a part of that group, even though I didn't get to speak. I certainly had no problem with standing with these folks. Feinstein didn't come to the meeting, though someone said they saw here in the office. Her staff members were somewhat defensive. Polite, but chilly. It probably would have served him better to just listen, and stick with his "I can't speak for her" story but he said things like, "you elected her to use her good judgement and that is not always the same as the will of the people", which is true, but the wrong sentiment for the moment. That said, he took lots of notes and said he'd share it all with her. Though I suppose that doesn't mean much if it's in conflict with her "good judgement". They committed to nothing. It was a downer, dudes.
So I went to the National Gallery and the Hirshorn for a few hours, and came back (refreshed? no, not really) for a 5:30 meeting with my congresswoman. We were a smaller group of seven and we met with Susan Davis in her office. Hey, after the meetings with the senators, I was pretty damn impressed that she showed up and we got to sit in her office, so she got brownie points from the start. She was a better listener than the Feinstein aide too, and while she didn't commit to supporting any of the legislation we proposed, she asked good questions and seemed genuinely interested and cared about our personal stories. She also was supportive about our concerns with regard to military recruiting, and the health and well being of the soldiers, etc as they return home. Speaking with Rep Davis was a much better experience than what we had in the senator's office.
Speaking of Fernando Suarez, he's great. He's awesome, in fact. One of the people that went into Davis's office with us was a filmmaker who's making a documentary on the anti-war movement in general and the events in Washington in particular. He followed Mr Suarez around all day and filmed the meetings. I might be in a movie with my pink tennies and my ponytail; for pete's sake...why didn't someone tell me beforehand! ?
posted by Terry at 8:00 PM
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