Sometimes the most spontaneous events become the most inspiring.
2 days ago a national Moveon organizer called and asked if I would be willing to help get people together to give our local congressman, Don Manzullo, petitions asking to sponsor HR 64 bill to remove Bush's authority to wage a war against Iran. The first thing I thought, oh dear, one more thing to do. I was running a candidate forum on Wed. and participating in a county Democratic meeting on Thursday. HOKay, just one more thing. I have to admit; it really is hard to pass up an opportunity to let our Republican US representative know how I feel.
I sent out over 400 email notifications and printed out the petition. To my surprise, there were over 260 signatures from all around the 16th district and most of them were not the "usual" peace activists that I knew. They included some incredible and thoughtful comments like, "We can not allow this administration to compound errors and mistakes. Disaster awaits those who do not head their mistakes and make changes to prevent their re-occurrence."
I called the representative’s office. The receptionist said that they would be glad to have a representative meet with the group "Holly". I guess I am on first name basis with his staff now. ☺
Twelve hardy activists met in the icy parking lot. A pastor read his inspirational poem, we discussed what we would say, and took pictures of the group with a peace sign under our representatives sign.
We ushered the group into the entryway and jammed ourselves into the 12 by 12 foot space. As we waited, another constituent needed to squeeze by to get some government papers from the front desk. As he spoke we could detect a middle-eastern accent. They slipped his papers under the glass barrier to him. He asked why we were there and we explained that we wanted to get the message to our representative that we wanted to prevent war with Iran. His eyes lighted up and he just stood in the middle of the group to hear this for himself.
Our congressman’s PR man squeezed in from the office door to join us in the foyer. Guess there will be not comfy conference room for these uninvited guests. I always wonder why people worry about security with PEACE activists.
I read him the petition and explained that we wanted to pass on to our congressman that we did not want a war with Iran and to have him sign a bill to remove Bush’s authority to wage this war. Almost all stated their strong opinions including wasting of billions of dollars, losing thousands of lives, and resenting Bush’s fear tactics, it was hard not to wander off on Manzullo’s miserable voting record, including issues such as health care, energy and his distorted logic for saving money by eliminating human services and spending billions in Iraq. We may question if any of this does any good but it sure felt good! I handed him the 10 pages of signatures as we left.
Outside the door the extra visitor asked if he could share a word with us. He explained that what is going on in Iran is complex. Russia and China are negotiating with Iran for oil. He told us to listen to the truth teller Olbermann.
He finished by saying, "I love America and I have lived here for over 10 years. I come from Iran."
He added, "It was an experience for me to see people like you care about other people in the world. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you," and he kissed his fingers and extended them to each of us in the group.
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