So, today’s big action at Take Back the Capital was the visiting of Congress. It was the chance for the people to go and try to talk to their representatives and let them know how the votes they take are affecting the real people of the nation.
99 Senators and Representatives were targeted (a few were Blue Dog Dems, most were Republicans) for a visit. I decided that I would tag along with the MassUnites crew from the great state of Massachusetts and visit Freshman GOP Senator Scott Brown.
It is a rainy if not cold day the nations Capital and about 150 folks set out to see Sen. Brown at the Dirksen Building. The organizers were pretty good, they had bull horns at the front and the back of the group to keep us all together and made sure that everyone (who was part of the march, those of us covering it not so much) had plastic ponchos to ward off the steady rain.
It is a longer walk than one would think from near the Washington Monument to the Dirksen building, which is kind of tucked behind the Capital building. Everything here in the District (especially around the Mall) is bigger than usual and this gives a false impression as to how far away things really are.
The crowd was spirited though. They chanted all the old standards; “The People United will never be defeated!” and “What do we want? JOBS! When do we want them? NOW!” (if there had been zombies here, it might have been: What do we want? BRAINS! When do we want them? BRAINS!, but I digress).
It seems that I was not the only person who thought that seeing unemployed workers talking to Sen. Brown might be a good story, as NPR, the Nation, ABC and the New York Times all had reporters walking with this group.
Having talked to several of them before the march they were very optimistic that just showing up at the Senators office they would be able to talk to him and let him know how his very near total lock step with the Republican agenda was hurting the average Jane and Joe of his state.
One area where the organizers did slip up a little was not thinking about what it would take to get 150 people through the security checkpoint at the Dirksen building. But it did give me a chance to sprint upstairs to Sen. Brown’s office and see the calm before the storm.
Sen. Brown’s office is what you might expect from a United States Senator, lots of medium dark wood and wine colored carpets. There were several bright young things working in there, and they had exactly no clue as to what was coming at them shortly.
There were several reporters hanging around in the hall, and one of the aids came out to see what we were doing. He was not the sharpest guy there because when the reporter from the Chinese State Media said he was from Shinwa, he did not know who that was. But it was okay, the Shinwa reporter did not know what the protest was all about either.
When the crowd began to arrive the office panicked a bit, as they had already admitted to a couple of early arrivals that the Senator was in DC and actually in the office. One ran out to talk to the Senator to see if he would talk to his constituents.
It turns out that Scott Brown is just as big a coward as we all thought. He was willing to have his Legislative Aid and Chief of Staff meet with three members of the big crowd of constituents but was unwilling to meet with them himself.
But the leaders of this protest were not going to be deterred that easily. If the Senator would not see them, then they would stay at his office until the end of business today. They were even willing to take most of the crowd out of the office and just quietly line the halls.
One of the things that had been stressed again and again to this crowd was the need to be respectful of the fact that work was being done at the office building, and while that many people could make a bit of noise in the tiled hallway of the Dirksen, they were doing there best to be as quite as possible. They clearly understood that to get respect you have to give respect, even if Scott Brown was not going to respect them with a meeting.
I left at that point, but one ominous thing caught my eye as I was leaving. There were about 10 Capital Police gathered in the entrance on my way out. When I casually asked if they were there for the protesters, they said they were. Wanting to get this post out to all of those who could not be here with us, I went on my way.
Here is hopping that the peaceful attempt to petition their elected official does not end with the MA delegation being tossed out of the Dirksen at the fearful urging of a Senator who has not held a single Town Hall event since he was elected to office.
All in all it was, to borrow a phrase that was also chanted on our way to the Capital exactly what democracy looks like. There were teachers, steel workers, homeless folks, small business owners and others in the crowd. There were kids as young as 10 and folks as old as their mid 70’s all intent on making the voice of “We the People” heard on Capital Hill.
I hope that most of the Senators and Representatives that got visits actually talked to the people who have come so far to have their voice heard over the din of the lobbyists, but I don’t have a lot of hope. Still if they don’t like this kind of thing, then they probably should listen to the 99% a little more, this is just the start, not the end of the movement.
The floor is yours!