Who expected to run for Congress? Not me. I make "Out of Iraq" signs. Call radio stations.
Mock arrest CA's Secretary of State for Diebolding our elections.
Leaflet high school students about the human cost of war.
Yet, here I am, almost three months after the big day, the day I saw Jane Harman surrender our Constitution on Meet the Press, telling the world how "deplorable" it was Bush's warrantless wiretaps were leaked -- the day I decided to challenge Harman for the 36th congressional seat because if she were silent about warrantless wiretaps surely she would also comply with a US attack on Iran. I email friends. Someone I know must be thinking of running against Harman. What do you think?
To find out, please follow me below the jump.
They write back.
Run, Marcy, run!
Only 8 days left before the Dem Party primary election. Better make `em count. Better make a splash, and if the media is elsewhere, better make my own media.
Call it the Win-mobile. Look for me in a blue convertible. Listen for sightings. Salsa blaring. Who is that woman broadcasting as she cruises past? Is she on a microphone? What's the message?
Peace. Memorial Day Weekend. Peace.
At a campaign picnic, in between the smoky burgers and a staffer's wedding, in between money pitches and Croation lessons for the next stop, I ask the veterans in the crowd to stand in the glorious sunshine. Tim Goodrich, co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War and a Winograd for Congress staffer -- rises along with another uniformed veteran, who later tells me it's not fair that National Guard troops don't get the same GI benefits as other members of the military. I didn't know this.
I know that my campaign manager's son is in the Coast Guard. And I hope and pray that he will continue to rescue those lost at sea and not, one day, be called to battle for oil, for Halliburton, for empire, for perverse vengeance.
A man at the picnic takes me aside. "You don't really mean 'Out of Iraq Now' - Do you? That's cut and run", he says. I mention something about the massacre and the Marines from Camp Pendleton, wonder how many more of our young men and women will kill or be killed or come back in wheel chairs or blinded before Americans see that force and occupation only breed hatred. "But NOW?", he says again, "Now is too soon to leave Iraq".
Six months from now will be now. A year from now will be now. Two years from now will be now.
When we left Vietnam, panicked soldiers gripped on to helicopter wings.
Tom Hayden arrives at the picnic. I tell him about my conversation with the Not-Nower's, those who fear a US withdrawal will leave a dangerous power vacuum. We agree --- as long as the US occupies Iraq, those who want peace in Iraq will have no legitimacy, will be viewed as puppets - powerless. Only when we announce our plans to withdraw, when the C-130s take flight, will neighbors in the Middle East who want peace assist in establishing a transition government.
As I climb into the blue Win-mobile, I hear my Code Pink friend say that it's time for all wars to end, not just this one in Iraq. A half hour later, being interviewed on Barry Gordon's Talk Left, I remember her words and pose a question.
What if military might were not an option? What if it were off the table? Then what? How would we, the collective all-the-world we, solve our problems?
Now that's something to think about on Memorial Day Weekend.
Peace,
Marcy Winograd
36th Congressional District Candidate
www.winogradforcongress