This week, Congressman John Doolittle made the effort to reach out to his constituents by holding a series of town hall meetings. John Doolittle, as many of you may or may not know, has had his share of controversy over the years. From incessant pushing of the Auburn Dam—a boondoggle that will cost taxpayers over $10 billion and promises to be a multi-purpose hydroelectric/drinking water/flood protecting super-dam (ask any water expert and they will tell you that a dam CANNOT be a combination of all three for obvious reasons)—to the Jack Abramoff scandals revolving around Indian Casinos in Iowa and sweatshops on the Mariana Islands, Doolittle has been mired in scandal.
But his partisan, back-stabbing, aloof ways are behind him as the "new and reachable" Congressman John Doolittle is making himself available for town hall meetings. Ripples of Hope attended the last of his series of town hall meetings Friday in Auburn, CA.
More below the fold...
John Doolittle will never get the respect some of his fellow representatives get. He has done too much to damage this country, and has alienated himself from centrist Republicans and the Democratic Party. But we were eager to hear if he has changed course on any of the issues, most notably the Mariana Islands.
As a newly created non-profit organization (we just filed with the CA Sec. of State for corporate status before filing for 501(c)3 with the IRS), we wanted to see whether the Congressman from California’s 4th District had changed his views on these tiny islands. Nick Shepard and I (Neil Pople) learned a great deal about Congressman Doolittle’s association with Jack Abramoff and the sweatshops Abramoff represented on the Marianas. On multiple occasions Doolittle and his staff met with Jack Abramoff concerning the Marianas, and in return for generous donations from Abramoff and the sweatshops he represented, Doolittle used his influence to kill over 29 pieces of legislation that would have helped some of the forced abortions, sex slavery issues and sub-minimum wage abuses going on for well over a decade.
So we wanted to hear from our representative on the issue. We arrived early, filled out our "comment cards" with the questions we had, and then patiently waited while Doolittle and the public engaged. Our question was simple:
"Since the ABC News 20/20 report, various documents from the Catholic Church, multiple outcries from human rights organizations, and now the former US Ambassador that helped created the Covenant between the Marianas and the US have all come out to publicly state that there are grave problems in the Mariana Islands, what kinds of legislation will we see coming out of your office to stop the abuses in Saipan?"
After the town hall meeting, Neil had the chance to approach the Congressman one-on-one. He asked the simple question we had on our minds. Congressmen Doolittle’s answer was just as simple:
"I would suggest that you write to Senators Feinstein and Boxer and strongly urge that they oppose the minimum wage bill under consideration in Washington."
WHAT???
Let us get this straight. If we deny the workers on the Marianas a living wage, we will curtail sex slavery? If we keep the natives on the islands from getting paid what they deserve, the forced abortions will stop?
Congressman Doolittle didn’t stop there. He went on to enforce his earlier public statements on the Marianas: that he never saw forced abortions and girls sold into sex slavery (we’ve never physically seen wars or manatees, but we know they exist) and that "the free market is what will fix the problems the Marianas face on its own." Naturally, we wanted to dig deeper. We wanted to know why the Congressman refused to believe that crimes could be committed in the CNMI. There’s sex slavery in the US, and forced abortions are not unheard of right here. Why would it be such a stretch of the imagination to believe it was happening elsewhere?
The truth of the matter is that when the issue of CNMI comes up, the Congressman gets nervous. Watching him respond to all the various questions during the town hall meeting, he appeared confident and seemed to have a handle on answering in the right way. When Neil brought up the issue of the Marianas, that confidence eroded. Why is Congressman Doolittle so worried about the issues surrounding the Marianas?
We need to get serious about finding new solutions to the problems facing the CNMI. We need to write our representatives and tell them about what is happening on US soil. The people on Saipan, Tinia & Rota deserve better, and we need to keep the pressure on our elected officials to take action. And if