Congressman Schiff, How will it Feel to be Occupied?
Grassroots Democrats to Occupy Schiff's Office
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Broken Hearts Week
You can hear the grumbling in our chat groups. Eating their own.
Not fair. Renegades. Winograd, there she goes again. First Harman, now Schiff?
Yes, next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, from 11 - 6 PM, I will join other anti-war activists, some of them leaders of local LA Democratic Clubs, to conduct non-violent civil disobedience. As part of a nationwide Occupation Project, we will occupy Congressman Adam Schiff's office at 87 North Raymond in Old Town, Pasadena (Los Angeles area).
The demand? Schiff, who voted for the war again and again, must stop funding the US occupation of Iraq.
Risking arrest, we will sit-in, block the entrance, leaflet cars, and demonstrate outside Schiff's office, just as Voices for Creative Non-Violence and Code Pink occupied the offices of Senators McCain and Clinton recently.
Why are we, some of us grassroots Democrats, occupying the office of a fellow Democrat, Congressman Adam Schiff, when 10 miles down the road we could storm the GOP palace of sleazy deal-maker David Dreier?
The answer is simple. The Democrats, not the Republicans, now control the House. And the House controls the purse or war budget. Any day now the House Appropriations Committee, on which Schiff sits, will be the first to examine Bush's 150-billion dollar Iraq War Supplemental.
Unlike a bill, a supplemental cannot be vetoed by Bush.
And let's not forget it was the Democrats, not the Republicans, who voters swept into office in an Iraq War Referendum last November.
Elected Democrats have a duty, an obligation to respect the will of the voters.
Enough of this face time; we've talked to 'em and they continue to equivocate.
Enough groveling with entrenched incumbent Democrats who, despite an onslaught of global and local anti-war sentiment, voted to give Bush a blank check to bomb Baghdad. Never mind the fictitious WMD's. Oil. Was it really worth it, Congress Members?
We begged. We pleaded.
They rained destruction.
We smiled at them. We sent respectful emails.
They cut another war check.
We orderly marched in the street. We went back to their offices.
Pelosi announced cutting the funding was off the table.
Polite? We should be polite? We should ask for another meeting with the same District Director we lobbied a month ago when we kindly requested Congressman Schiff and the rest of the Democratic Party leadership act like real leaders and vote to end the trillion-dollar occupation of a once-sovereign nation now buds with Iran.
It's not okay to say you oppose the war and then vote to fund it.
It's not okay to ignore the voter mandate.
Enough of this face time. We need in your face time.
Stay tuned Monday and Tuesday as peace voter blogs live from the Schiff occupation.
Want to join us? I'll see you in the street.
Marcy Winograd
PS: Visit Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles for more info.