The DC rally was incredible!!! 500,000 participants is a conservative estimate. Wish you all could have been there to share in the energy pounding throughout the streets of the Capital. The country is truly fed up with Bush and the war.
I stayed on through Monday for the lobbying effort and joined with groups meeting with staffers at Barbara Boxer's office, Dianne Feinstein's office, and Nancy Pelosi's office. They obviously took us seriously. The staff we met with were top people. We were advised in our lobby training that legislators usually allow 20 mins for a meeting. Each office met with us for 1 hour and listened very closely to our views. The lobby training we had prior to these meetings proved very helpful. Since we were briefed ahead of time, we knew which bills to focus on and what arguments we could expect from each representative. We have follow up plans to keep the pressure on.
There are some important points and actions I wish to pass on to the Kos community, as I believe our numbers will make a difference.
Nancy Pelosi is the minority leader in the House. Publicly she has been quite outspoken against the Bush Administration and the lies provoking our entry into this war. However, her voting record does not reflect her public stance. As the Party Leader, she is open to our comments even though we are not in her congressional district. In fact, with the particular war issue, the more comments she gets from people outside of her district, the better. (Her defense appears to be that as minority leader she must represent more than just her district when she votes.) So we all need to start with Nancy if we want to turn support for the war around.
- First, it became apparent from the staffers we met with that our EMAILS are very important in shaping our representatives' actions. If we want to influence our representative's vote, we need to pressure them in that direction. Legislators check (often multiple times a day) to see how the emails are running on particular issues. WE NEED TO USE THIS TOOL.
- Second, there are specific bills in the House that we need to push our representatives to support (regarding getting our troops home and ending this war). Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee, have both been absolute leaders in these efforts. Woolsey's initial bill was the one most favored by those seeking to bring an end to the war, had 128 who signed on in support, but did not pass in the House. (Nancy voted against it.) These are the bills we are currently focusing on:
-- House Res. #55: Withdrawal of US Armed Forces from Iraq. Introduced by Neil Abecrombie (D-HI) and Walter Jones (R-NC). AKA the "Homeward Bound" bill, calls for the President to announce a plan for withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq by 12/31/05, and to begin withdrawal by 10/1/06. (We would like this to happen sooner, but this is the best we could do and get Repubs to sign on. While we work toward a better plan, signing on to this will help.) So far, 58 co-sponsors including 4 Republicans.
-- House Res. #197: No Permanent Bases in Iraq. Introduced by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA). Prohibits US from entering into any military base agreement with Iraq that would lead to a permanent US military presence in Iraq. To date, 47 co-sponsors including 1 Republican.
-- House Res. #551: Student Privacy Protection Act of 2005. Introduced by Rep. Honda (D-CA). Makes change to the No Child Left Behind Act, forbidding schools from sharing student contact info with military recruiters unless parents request that the info be shared. Currently, the military has access to info unless families sign a form that it not be shared.
* Third, to my shock and disappointment, Nancy Pelosi voted against Lynn Woolsey's bill, and has refused to sign onto ANY of the other legislation currently circulating, with the exception of #551. (There were and are several other bills, including Barbara Lee's resolution for an independent commission to investigate US intelligence relating to Operation Iraqi Freedom, investigation into the Downing St Minutes, and Barbara Lee's bill requiring an international commission to monitor treatment of Iraqi prisoners, to name a few.) Besides refusing to sign on or support any of these measures, Pelosi has also consistently voted in favor of every bill the Bush Administration has proposed to continue funding the war.
THIS IS IMPORTANT AND NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED, AS NANCY IS THE MINORITY LEADER AND SHE CAN INFLUENCE OTHER MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. Send Nancy Pelosi an email thanking her for signing onto House Res. #551, but insisting that she support Res. #55, Res. #197, and other resolutions that are proposed to end this illegal war. Include that she must also stop voting for funding of permanent bases and other supplements for war funding. (Appears from the comments of her staff person that met with us, Nancy is particularly hesitant to vote against funding measures because she is afraid that would be interpreted by the public as not supporting the troops. We need to remind her that over 60% of the American public now believes the War in Iraq was a mistake and 63% of registered voters in San Francisco voted for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. It's clear that Bush is determined to continue this war as long as we continue to fund it. It's also clear to the public by now that the funds are going to war profiteers and not to the troops.) Our elected leaders need to step forward in reframing the circumstances of this war, the realities of the influence of profiteering, and the secret political goals that feed this war and claims the lives of our troops and innocent Iraqis. Our presence only fuels the insurgency by promoting a cause for the terrorists.
After sending an email to Pelosi, do the same to your congressperson. Ask your congressperson to sign on to these bills if they have not done so already. Email your senators that you want them to introduce or co-sponsor bills similar to those being circulated in the House. Ask for a written response so that you can then followup to influence their opinions if they are not working actively toward ending the war. (The lobby organizers reported back to us that they received lots of calls that these bills gained additional co-sponsors as a result of our lobbying efforts and that the various investigating committees were contacted by many legislators expressing an interest in joining.)
Cindy opened the door for us, now it's up to us to do our part.
