CodePINK and the Brown Berets join forces to END WAR NOW! to be continued
CodePINK and the Brown Berets join forces to END WAR NOW!
CodePINK joined forces this morning with the awesome women and men of the Brown Berets and what a powerful action we had!
First we stood on three busy corners of State Street right at the freeway on and off ramps, holding banners and signs. Everyone, as in everywhere around the country, was so pleased and fortified by all the positive and enthusiastic responses from the many passing commuters and tourists, bus drivers and police, young and old alike.
No one could recall one bird flipped or one response that could be interpreted as negative, let alone a blatantly negative reaction.
Then, we headed up to Congressman Matheson’s office. Rob, the office manager, was the only one of Matheson’s staff that was willing to meet with us. When he tried to explain that the District Manager was so busy, we told him we were all busy – but the rest of us are not getting paid to be in the office, like the rest of them are.
Rob could not explain Jim’s vote to fund war other than he was buying the Republican hype that keeping our troops in Iraq is somehow supporting them. Two wimmin, whose 21 year old son and brother is now on his second tour of duty in Iraq, dared Jim to don the uniform and patrol the streets in 112 degree weather with heavy backpacks and weapons over his shoulder with the soldiers before he forces them to stay in Iraq under his guise of ‘support’. They challenged him to really support the troops by bringing them home NOW.
One young womon spoke of how hard she worked to get Jim elected, because of his promises to be anti-war and for women’s rights. She said she is bitterly betrayed on both counts.
Several people spoke of Matheson’s betrayal of his constituents, let alone our own military, the Iraq people, and the rest of our country. He might think he’s in a red state, but his district is certainly progressive and anti-war.
Others asked that Jim be told he will be held as accountable as those that started war if he continues to fund this war. We spoke of the urgency, the life-threatening exigency to act now, today, to end the occupation of Iraq.
Today was another step in the process of that accountability. Rod has assured us he will contact the scheduler immediately and will try to get an appointment for us with Jim within the next week or 10 days.
He will also see if there is a town hall meeting on Iraq in the works, and if not, will see about making one happen.
Bridget has stepped forward to be the contact person for our coalition forces! If she has not heard from him, she will contact Rod in a couple of days to see how successful he has been in getting an appointment.
Most of us felt very positive about the meeting, positive yet on guard – we’ve already informed Jim we do not want words anymore, but we expect actions – the first being the meeting with him; the next the town hall meeting.
One fellow expressed his doubts whether we will get an appointment and several activists agreed that if he actually fails to make the timely appointment that this war demands, we will come to his office at 4:30p.m. on a Friday and wait for him to find the time to speak with us.
CodePINK joined forces this morning with the awesome women and men of the Brown Berets and what a powerful action we had!
First we stood on three busy corners of State Street right at the freeway on and off ramps, holding banners and signs. Everyone, as in everywhere around the country, was so pleased and fortified by all the positive and enthusiastic responses from the many passing commuters and tourists, bus drivers and police, young and old alike.
No one could recall one bird flipped or one response that could be interpreted as negative, let alone a blatantly negative reaction.
Then, we headed up to Congressman Matheson’s office. Rob, the office manager, was the only one of Matheson’s staff that was willing to meet with us. When he tried to explain that the District Manager was so busy, we told him we were all busy – but the rest of us are not getting paid to be in the office, like the rest of them are.
Rob could not explain Jim’s vote to fund war other than he was buying the Republican hype that keeping our troops in Iraq is somehow supporting them. Two wimmin, whose 21 year old son and brother is now on his second tour of duty in Iraq, dared Jim to don the uniform and patrol the streets in 112 degree weather with heavy backpacks and weapons over his shoulder with the soldiers before he forces them to stay in Iraq under his guise of ‘support’. They challenged him to really support the troops by bringing them home NOW.
One young womon spoke of how hard she worked to get Jim elected, because of his promises to be anti-war and for women’s rights. She said she is bitterly betrayed on both counts.
Several people spoke of Matheson’s betrayal of his constituents, let alone our own military, the Iraq people, and the rest of our country. He might think he’s in a red state, but his district is certainly progressive and anti-war.
Others asked that Jim be told he will be held as accountable as those that started war if he continues to fund this war. We spoke of the urgency, the life-threatening exigency to act now, today, to end the occupation of Iraq.
Today was another step in the process of that accountability. Rod has assured us he will contact the scheduler immediately and will try to get an appointment for us with Jim within the next week or 10 days.
He will also see if there is a town hall meeting on Iraq in the works, and if not, will see about making one happen.
Bridget has stepped forward to be the contact person for our coalition forces! If she has not heard from him, she will contact Rod in a couple of days to see how successful he has been in getting an appointment.
Most of us felt very positive about the meeting, positive yet on guard – we’ve already informed Jim we do not want words anymore, but we expect actions – the first being the meeting with him; the next the town hall meeting.
One fellow expressed his doubts whether we will get an appointment and several activists agreed that if he actually fails to make the timely appointment that this war demands, we will come to his office at 4:30p.m. on a Friday and wait for him to find the time to speak with us.
posted by Xan @ 1:16 PM
1 Comments:
At 5/6/07 3:34 PM,
Anonymous said…
I support the work you are doing, but frankly, this insistence on spelling "women" as "wimmin" is an affectation that does feminist and anti-war causes more harm than good. If further separates you from the people you (and I) would like to reach. Maybe it's a lesbian thing. I don't know. I just know that as a WOMAN in support of female equality and in support of stopping the war in Iraq, I find it embarrassing.
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