This morning I attended a town hall meeting hosted by
U.S. Representative Barbara Lee (D-Ca). Rep. Lee represents California's Ninth Congressional District, which includes Oakland, Berkeley and neighboring communities. You may remember Barbara Lee as the Representative who cast the lone vote against the resolution to grant President Bush the authority to use force against those responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Ms. Lee carries forward the legacy of Ron Dellums, her predecessor and mentor, who was first elected to Congress as an anti-war candidate (the Viet Nam war, that is).
Dellums, by the way, is currently running for Mayor of Oakland, California, hoping to occupy the office now held by Jerry Brown, former Governor of California, who is termed out and is running for Attorney General of California.
In addition to Rep. Lee, the panelists included U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Ca), Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange and Code Pink, and others. The moderator for the event was Sandy Close, executive director of the Bay Area Institute/Pacific News Service and winner, among many other honors, of the MacArthur Foundation Genius Award. A quick Google will tell you all you need to know about these progressive luminaries and all they have done and continue to do to promote the cause of humanitarianism and compassionate living in the face of the wave of greed and corruption that has been engulfing our country and the world.
The event was, if anything, predictable. The usual progressive-looking crowd was in the audience at the Grand Lake Theater, lots of long hair, much of it turning gray, minorities, families, all enthusiastically applauding every catch phrase and slogan that came from the parade of speakers at the podium. The most enthusiastic applause went, of course, to Rep. Lee, who has long been one of the staunch standard-bearers of the liberal cause in the U.S.
The main theme of the event was the war in Iraq. Rep. Lee has recently enjoyed a minor but significant victory in the effort to bring the American involvement in the Iraq mess to an end. An amendment to an emergency spending bill for the war, H.R. 4939, introduced by Rep. Lee and prohibiting the funding of permanent military bases in Iraq, was passed by the House.
The rest of the discusion was, of course, not so uplifting, but Rep. Lee continuously emphasized that of such small victories is ultimate triumph made, and that even a small victory should be a springboard to renewed enthusiasm and effort toward a larger goal.
There was also, of course, the customary few minutes of questions (pre-written on slips of paper provided by the Congresswoman's staff and turned in before the start of the program) from the audience to the panelists, particularly Reps Lee and Woolsey, and these, too were true to form. As for myself, I'm pretty sure of the answers to any questions I might have asked, so I went for the snark!!! I wrote and turned in the following, directed to Rep. Lee:
"The Democratic Party leadership has been nothing short of pathetic for the last five years. Maybe you should take Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer out to the woodshed and teach them how to take a stand on principle."
Alas, my pithy remark remained unspoken, probably clutched in the hand of some third-level intern charged with tabulating the basic messages contained in all those little slips of paper. Such is the fate of so much great snark......
But I digress; on to the business of honoring a true American Hero. I'm not talking about soldiers, though they are indeed heroes for putting their lives on the line for all of us. Same for police and firefighters. Nor am I talking about elected representatives, though many of them are heroes as well when they stand up against power to truly represent the people who elected them.
Earlier in this diary I mentioned the Grand Lake Theater, the location of the town hall meeting I attended this morning. The owner of the Grand Lake Theater is a guy named Allen Michaan, who is something of a local luminary around my neck of the woods. Back in 2004, when the presidential election was effectively stolen by the forces of evil for a second consecutive time, he posted the following message on the marquee of the theater:
This Is America - Every Vote Should Be Counted
This practice has continued, to the delight of the locals, to this day; when I arrived at the theater for this morning's meeting the following message greeted me from the marquee:
Secretary of State McPherson Certifies Diebold Election Theft!
He Is The Enemy of Democracy!
Needless to say, Michaan is well thought of around here, and so I'll take advantage of this cyber-venue to sing his praises and thank him for being a true American Hero.