(no subject)
Jan. 30th, 2007 04:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
novapsycheI have returned from Washington, D.C.!
Thursday, I was running a bit short on time. I thought I'd have the entire afternoon to pack, but it turned out that Manpower needed me to come back in and fill out paperwork. When I got back home, I wound up packing what seems, in retrospect, to be about half of my belongings.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
netmouse transported me to the train station (thanks for everything, netmouse!), where I actually boarded a bus. The bus took me to Toledo, where I was to transfer to the train to D.C.
However, the train was running late. We were supposed to board at 12:15 a.m.; the train didn't arrive until 2:15 a.m. Amtrak apparently shares the same rails as those owned by CSX. This proved to be a problem, as we were constantly delayed by freight trains ahead of us. One time, the conductor actually had to exit the train to manually change the tracks! We arrived in D.C. five hours later than scheduled. (Part of me thinks this was part of a ploy to get as many people to visit the dining car as possible.)
I got into Union Station, where I was greeted bymartian_spider's boyfriend, A. He helped lug my stuff the five blocks to martian_spider's apartment. We went back to her workplace to meet up after her shift, then we headed to a Mexican restaurant (I don't remember the name!) and had several bites to eat. After that, we caught the Metro back to the apartment and settled in for the night.
Saturday was the day of the march. We left fairly early, especially considering thatmartian_spider lives very close to the Capitol. I searched for the MoveOn.org table (they'd instructed me via email to sign in), but despite at least five sweeps of the Mall, we weren't able to find it. A. was concerned that not that many people were there in the morning, but there was to be a rally before the march started, and I was hopeful that more people would arrive. There were all sorts of signs freely offered to marchers; I had one I carried by hand ("Impeach Cheney, then Bush") and one on a cardboard pole (another sign that advocated impeaching Bush). There were people there hawking stickers, pins, bumper stickers, Socialist newspapers, T-shirts, hats and scarves. One guy walked through the crowd offering $5 pretzels. Some people took him up on his offer, too!
We met up with K., a mutual friend ofmartian_spider and A., while waiting for the rally to start. It began around 1:30, I think, but we weren't in a spot where we could see the speakers. While I was aware at the time that it was Jane Fonda speaking when she was at the microphone, I could only guess that Jesse Jackson was there (with his trademarked "Keep hope alive"), and I didn't know that Susan Sarandon was present until I saw coverage of the march on the local news. Dennis Kucinich was also there, and people moved through the crowd distributing Kucinich 2008 signs and business cards. John Conyers also spoke, and even though he represents the district next to mine, I as a Michigan resident am still very proud of and excited by him. The word "impeach" was mentioned several times during the rally; whenever it did, it got a whooping response.
Finally, after 3:00, the march got started. A. tried climbing a tree to see how many people were there; he said there were people as far as the eye could see. The national news (including NBC and the NYT) reported "tens of thousands"; the people organizing the march (United for Peace and Justice [UFPJ]) said afterwards that 500,000 people were there. I'm willing to split the middle and say that somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 people were in the streets that day. In fact, there were enough people that we ringed the entire Capitol, something that apparently had never been done.
Along one part of the route were the anti-anti-war protesters (which I don't understand: how can you be against the idea of peace??). A. thought that the national news would undercount the peace protesters and overcount the anti-march protesters, and he turned out to be right: the local NBC affiliate said that 50 anti-peace protesters were there, but we counted that maybe 25 were there. One memorable sign said "Hippies Smell." I turned to K., breathed deeply through my nose, and said, "Yes, I do smell." She laughed and did the same. Another sign called the peace protesters appeasers of Al-Qaida. Another, very disturbing sign had a picture of Saddam Hussein with his head in a noose. Considering how many children were marching with their parents, I thought that sign was in horribly poor taste.
At one point, the four of us stopped off in a nearby park to take a short rest. Talk arose about skipping the rest of the march, but I brought up the fact that I had traveled from Ann Arbor to be a part of this, so we all got up and entered the throng of people again. All in all, we walked about four miles, not to mention all of the walking we'd done earlier that morning looking for the MoveOn.org table. I knew I would be sore the next morning (and in fact my muscles complained even through Monday).
After the march, we headed toward the direction of food; I bought a hot dog from a street vendor, while everyone else waited until we got to Union Station where they got quick/fast food. Around 6:00, we split up to go to our respective homes, and I hung out withmartian_spider for the rest of the evening.
I had to get up early, as UFPJ had workshops scheduled for those of us interested in lobbying our Senators and Congresspersons as citizen lobbyists. I took the Metro all by myself and made it to Bethesda Chevy-Chase High School more or less on time. The first workshop I attended, "Talking to Your Rep. About Iraq's Oil, U.S. Contractors and Reconstruction in Iraq," was packed by the time I got there. Antonia Juhasz, the speaker, was very knowledgable, but I left before it was over because I basically grew tired of people coming in and standing right in front of me.
The second workshop I went to was "Investigation: Impeachment on the Table." Ms. Juhasz was again a speaker, along with David Swanson, John Nichols and Tim Carpenter. The room, again, was filled; there were even people standing in the hall listening. The talk was a very good one, good enough that I wished that we could have eaten in the room and had a longer Q&A session.
The second half of the afternoon was spent in the auditorium, where we had more speakers in a "plenary session" who gave more tips on how to effectively lobby our Senators and Congresspersons. The speakers had to basically shout, because no one was able to locate a microphone. We had people complain that they couldn't hear, and the organizers pointed out to them that there were plenty of empty seats near the front of the stage. They were even encouraged to join the speakers on the stage.
For the most part, we were all very respectful and encouraging of the speakers, but at one point (as someone who had somewhat lost her voice earlier in the week was speaking) a guy jumped up--with a bullhorn!--and started talking about 9/11 for Truth. Some of us recognized this guy, because he'd brought up the same topic in the impeachment workshop. People began telling him to shut up, to be respectful of the person trying to speak, and soon he was surrounded by people urging him more directly. Another guy on the other side of the auditorium tried to say something (what I couldn't tell), and apparently someone said something to him, which made him reply, "No, you shut the fuck up!" Then when people started making disapproving noises, he went on about how the group was United for Peace and Justice, United; how he had marched with Cindy Sheehan; etc. He also clarified that he wasn't with the guy with the bullhorn. Ultimately, people started raising their hands in the peace sign. It was hard to believe we weren't in middle or high school (maybe the locale had affected some people's demeanor).
After the plenary session, we broke up by state to talk about scheduling and strategy. Perhaps it was just me, but I didn't think our state coordinator was very coordinated. I didn't feel that we really discussed strategy; he just told us what Congressional district we were in and what time the meetings for the Senators were scheduled. Apparently it had been our responsibility to contact our Representatives to schedule an appointment; this irked me, because I'd contacted the state coordinator by email a week before I traveled to D.C., and I never had a reply, let alone one that instructed me to try to arrange for my own appointment. I gave him my phone number, because he lived in Conyers' district and I had indicated on UFPJ's Lobby Day form that I was interested in speaking with him; I asked the guy to call me if he was successful in getting an appointment so I could join him. He never called; I had a feeling he wouldn't.
That session concluded the day of workshops. Walking back to the Metro station, I was approached by a guy who began hitting on me. After getting my name, he handed me his "card" (which was really just some information printed on lined paper). Before his name reads "Veteran who has been wronged by:" and lists organizations such as USPS, EEOC, DOJ and the U.S. Court of Appeals. He really wanted me to email him, but I don't think I can bring myself to do it. It was nice to have the requisite hitting-on, though.
I got to the Metro station and gavexiombarg a call, as he lives in MD and it had been years since we'd seen each other. He came to fetch me instead of having me travel the subway, and we went to his place where I met his roommate and his roommate's girlfriend. I also met his two cats, one of which is notoriously standoffish but was being "unprecedentedly" affectionate that night. She even let me pet her, which amazed xiombarg, who swore that no woman had ever done such a thing. Maybe I succeeded because I wasn't really trying; I just held up my hand so that she could get a better sense of who I was. xiombarg's roommate (whose name I cannot remember *sigh*) made dinner for all of us, which consisted of chicken apple sausages ("Those three nouns should not be in the same phrase," I insisted), couscous, and mangoes. For dessert he made butternut squash casserole? custard? with vanilla ice cream; whatever it was called, it was really tasty. After several hours of chatting, xiombarg returned me to the Metro, and I found my way back to martian_spider's place without incident. We watched Futurama until we both fell asleep, which was very late (after 1:00 a.m.).
The phone rang around 7:00 a.m.; it wasmartian_spider's coworker, T. She had agreed to use part of her lunch hour to provide us with a ride to Union Station, so I wouldn't have to walk all of my luggage back to the train station. (I have a feeling this would have been impossible.) However, she wanted us to have my luggage ready to put into her car that morning, so that when lunchtime came around, we wouldn't have to worry about it. I was a little grumpy, because if I'd known this was going to go down, I would have gotten my stuff together the night before. But I got up and got the great majority of this done before she arrived.
I spent the rest of the morning watching the news, particularly the weather. Apparently the wind was vicious, despite how nice and bright it seemed. This made me want to stay inside, and in fact I did, way longer than I should have if I wanted to make it to the appointment with Senator Carl Levin. Once I was on my way, I realized I was going to be horribly late, so I detoured to a McDonald's to get some food on my stomach before hitting the train.martian_spider and T. met me there and spirited me away to the station. Once there, I hugged martian_spider and thanked her several times for letting me stay at her place. (And I'll say it once more: Thanks again!)
The train was on time. However, it was crowded. I had a seatmate, and we chatted for a while, but as many of you know, I'm not really a talker (the length of this post to the contrary!). So I escaped to the observation car, where I mostly read. Once I returned to my seat, my seatmate took off to another part of the train. I'd expected her to return, but she never did. (If I'd known that, I would have stretched out over both seats in order to sleep. *sigh*) What annoyed me about the ride was that we passengers had been strictly instructed to observe quiet time after 10 p.m.; the lights would go down, electronic devices had to be shut off unless earphones were used, and we were told if we wanted to keep engaging in conversation to go down to the cafe car. But no, two passengers had to keep chatting at normal tones of voice. This really began to piss me off, because I would drift off to sleep only to be awakened five minutes later. After about the fourth time this happened, I got out of my seat, went over to where they were, and said, "Excuse me? Would you gentlemen mind whispering?" One guy went, "What?" and the other guy said, "She says we're being too loud." My request changed their behavior for about 30 minutes.
After 1:00 a.m., though, everyone basically settled in for Zs. It was a good thing I'd asked the conductor when we were getting into Toledo, though, because I think otherwise I would have missed it. We were running somewhat late by then, but we got to the station in time for me to make the bus back to Ann Arbor. It sucks going straight from the train to the bus, because it makes you realize how much worse it is to take the bus, how little room you have to stretch out.
The bus was late getting into the station, solameautarch had to wait about a half an hour longer than we'd planned. But I made it in, he picked me up, and he treated me to breakfast. I told him just about all of these details about the trip, and we talked about politics in general. Then he took me home, where I decompressed by unpacking; doing some laundry; and writing this LJ entry, which I began at 2:23 p.m.
Thursday, I was running a bit short on time. I thought I'd have the entire afternoon to pack, but it turned out that Manpower needed me to come back in and fill out paperwork. When I got back home, I wound up packing what seems, in retrospect, to be about half of my belongings.
netmouse transported me to the train station (thanks for everything, netmouse!), where I actually boarded a bus. The bus took me to Toledo, where I was to transfer to the train to D.C.However, the train was running late. We were supposed to board at 12:15 a.m.; the train didn't arrive until 2:15 a.m. Amtrak apparently shares the same rails as those owned by CSX. This proved to be a problem, as we were constantly delayed by freight trains ahead of us. One time, the conductor actually had to exit the train to manually change the tracks! We arrived in D.C. five hours later than scheduled. (Part of me thinks this was part of a ploy to get as many people to visit the dining car as possible.)
I got into Union Station, where I was greeted by
martian_spider's boyfriend, A. He helped lug my stuff the five blocks to martian_spider's apartment. We went back to her workplace to meet up after her shift, then we headed to a Mexican restaurant (I don't remember the name!) and had several bites to eat. After that, we caught the Metro back to the apartment and settled in for the night. Saturday was the day of the march. We left fairly early, especially considering that
martian_spider lives very close to the Capitol. I searched for the MoveOn.org table (they'd instructed me via email to sign in), but despite at least five sweeps of the Mall, we weren't able to find it. A. was concerned that not that many people were there in the morning, but there was to be a rally before the march started, and I was hopeful that more people would arrive. There were all sorts of signs freely offered to marchers; I had one I carried by hand ("Impeach Cheney, then Bush") and one on a cardboard pole (another sign that advocated impeaching Bush). There were people there hawking stickers, pins, bumper stickers, Socialist newspapers, T-shirts, hats and scarves. One guy walked through the crowd offering $5 pretzels. Some people took him up on his offer, too!We met up with K., a mutual friend of
martian_spider and A., while waiting for the rally to start. It began around 1:30, I think, but we weren't in a spot where we could see the speakers. While I was aware at the time that it was Jane Fonda speaking when she was at the microphone, I could only guess that Jesse Jackson was there (with his trademarked "Keep hope alive"), and I didn't know that Susan Sarandon was present until I saw coverage of the march on the local news. Dennis Kucinich was also there, and people moved through the crowd distributing Kucinich 2008 signs and business cards. John Conyers also spoke, and even though he represents the district next to mine, I as a Michigan resident am still very proud of and excited by him. The word "impeach" was mentioned several times during the rally; whenever it did, it got a whooping response.Finally, after 3:00, the march got started. A. tried climbing a tree to see how many people were there; he said there were people as far as the eye could see. The national news (including NBC and the NYT) reported "tens of thousands"; the people organizing the march (United for Peace and Justice [UFPJ]) said afterwards that 500,000 people were there. I'm willing to split the middle and say that somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 people were in the streets that day. In fact, there were enough people that we ringed the entire Capitol, something that apparently had never been done.
Along one part of the route were the anti-anti-war protesters (which I don't understand: how can you be against the idea of peace??). A. thought that the national news would undercount the peace protesters and overcount the anti-march protesters, and he turned out to be right: the local NBC affiliate said that 50 anti-peace protesters were there, but we counted that maybe 25 were there. One memorable sign said "Hippies Smell." I turned to K., breathed deeply through my nose, and said, "Yes, I do smell." She laughed and did the same. Another sign called the peace protesters appeasers of Al-Qaida. Another, very disturbing sign had a picture of Saddam Hussein with his head in a noose. Considering how many children were marching with their parents, I thought that sign was in horribly poor taste.
At one point, the four of us stopped off in a nearby park to take a short rest. Talk arose about skipping the rest of the march, but I brought up the fact that I had traveled from Ann Arbor to be a part of this, so we all got up and entered the throng of people again. All in all, we walked about four miles, not to mention all of the walking we'd done earlier that morning looking for the MoveOn.org table. I knew I would be sore the next morning (and in fact my muscles complained even through Monday).
After the march, we headed toward the direction of food; I bought a hot dog from a street vendor, while everyone else waited until we got to Union Station where they got quick/fast food. Around 6:00, we split up to go to our respective homes, and I hung out with
martian_spider for the rest of the evening.I had to get up early, as UFPJ had workshops scheduled for those of us interested in lobbying our Senators and Congresspersons as citizen lobbyists. I took the Metro all by myself and made it to Bethesda Chevy-Chase High School more or less on time. The first workshop I attended, "Talking to Your Rep. About Iraq's Oil, U.S. Contractors and Reconstruction in Iraq," was packed by the time I got there. Antonia Juhasz, the speaker, was very knowledgable, but I left before it was over because I basically grew tired of people coming in and standing right in front of me.
The second workshop I went to was "Investigation: Impeachment on the Table." Ms. Juhasz was again a speaker, along with David Swanson, John Nichols and Tim Carpenter. The room, again, was filled; there were even people standing in the hall listening. The talk was a very good one, good enough that I wished that we could have eaten in the room and had a longer Q&A session.
The second half of the afternoon was spent in the auditorium, where we had more speakers in a "plenary session" who gave more tips on how to effectively lobby our Senators and Congresspersons. The speakers had to basically shout, because no one was able to locate a microphone. We had people complain that they couldn't hear, and the organizers pointed out to them that there were plenty of empty seats near the front of the stage. They were even encouraged to join the speakers on the stage.
For the most part, we were all very respectful and encouraging of the speakers, but at one point (as someone who had somewhat lost her voice earlier in the week was speaking) a guy jumped up--with a bullhorn!--and started talking about 9/11 for Truth. Some of us recognized this guy, because he'd brought up the same topic in the impeachment workshop. People began telling him to shut up, to be respectful of the person trying to speak, and soon he was surrounded by people urging him more directly. Another guy on the other side of the auditorium tried to say something (what I couldn't tell), and apparently someone said something to him, which made him reply, "No, you shut the fuck up!" Then when people started making disapproving noises, he went on about how the group was United for Peace and Justice, United; how he had marched with Cindy Sheehan; etc. He also clarified that he wasn't with the guy with the bullhorn. Ultimately, people started raising their hands in the peace sign. It was hard to believe we weren't in middle or high school (maybe the locale had affected some people's demeanor).
After the plenary session, we broke up by state to talk about scheduling and strategy. Perhaps it was just me, but I didn't think our state coordinator was very coordinated. I didn't feel that we really discussed strategy; he just told us what Congressional district we were in and what time the meetings for the Senators were scheduled. Apparently it had been our responsibility to contact our Representatives to schedule an appointment; this irked me, because I'd contacted the state coordinator by email a week before I traveled to D.C., and I never had a reply, let alone one that instructed me to try to arrange for my own appointment. I gave him my phone number, because he lived in Conyers' district and I had indicated on UFPJ's Lobby Day form that I was interested in speaking with him; I asked the guy to call me if he was successful in getting an appointment so I could join him. He never called; I had a feeling he wouldn't.
That session concluded the day of workshops. Walking back to the Metro station, I was approached by a guy who began hitting on me. After getting my name, he handed me his "card" (which was really just some information printed on lined paper). Before his name reads "Veteran who has been wronged by:" and lists organizations such as USPS, EEOC, DOJ and the U.S. Court of Appeals. He really wanted me to email him, but I don't think I can bring myself to do it. It was nice to have the requisite hitting-on, though.
I got to the Metro station and gave
xiombarg a call, as he lives in MD and it had been years since we'd seen each other. He came to fetch me instead of having me travel the subway, and we went to his place where I met his roommate and his roommate's girlfriend. I also met his two cats, one of which is notoriously standoffish but was being "unprecedentedly" affectionate that night. She even let me pet her, which amazed xiombarg, who swore that no woman had ever done such a thing. Maybe I succeeded because I wasn't really trying; I just held up my hand so that she could get a better sense of who I was. xiombarg's roommate (whose name I cannot remember *sigh*) made dinner for all of us, which consisted of chicken apple sausages ("Those three nouns should not be in the same phrase," I insisted), couscous, and mangoes. For dessert he made butternut squash casserole? custard? with vanilla ice cream; whatever it was called, it was really tasty. After several hours of chatting, xiombarg returned me to the Metro, and I found my way back to martian_spider's place without incident. We watched Futurama until we both fell asleep, which was very late (after 1:00 a.m.).The phone rang around 7:00 a.m.; it was
martian_spider's coworker, T. She had agreed to use part of her lunch hour to provide us with a ride to Union Station, so I wouldn't have to walk all of my luggage back to the train station. (I have a feeling this would have been impossible.) However, she wanted us to have my luggage ready to put into her car that morning, so that when lunchtime came around, we wouldn't have to worry about it. I was a little grumpy, because if I'd known this was going to go down, I would have gotten my stuff together the night before. But I got up and got the great majority of this done before she arrived.I spent the rest of the morning watching the news, particularly the weather. Apparently the wind was vicious, despite how nice and bright it seemed. This made me want to stay inside, and in fact I did, way longer than I should have if I wanted to make it to the appointment with Senator Carl Levin. Once I was on my way, I realized I was going to be horribly late, so I detoured to a McDonald's to get some food on my stomach before hitting the train.
martian_spider and T. met me there and spirited me away to the station. Once there, I hugged martian_spider and thanked her several times for letting me stay at her place. (And I'll say it once more: Thanks again!)The train was on time. However, it was crowded. I had a seatmate, and we chatted for a while, but as many of you know, I'm not really a talker (the length of this post to the contrary!). So I escaped to the observation car, where I mostly read. Once I returned to my seat, my seatmate took off to another part of the train. I'd expected her to return, but she never did. (If I'd known that, I would have stretched out over both seats in order to sleep. *sigh*) What annoyed me about the ride was that we passengers had been strictly instructed to observe quiet time after 10 p.m.; the lights would go down, electronic devices had to be shut off unless earphones were used, and we were told if we wanted to keep engaging in conversation to go down to the cafe car. But no, two passengers had to keep chatting at normal tones of voice. This really began to piss me off, because I would drift off to sleep only to be awakened five minutes later. After about the fourth time this happened, I got out of my seat, went over to where they were, and said, "Excuse me? Would you gentlemen mind whispering?" One guy went, "What?" and the other guy said, "She says we're being too loud." My request changed their behavior for about 30 minutes.
After 1:00 a.m., though, everyone basically settled in for Zs. It was a good thing I'd asked the conductor when we were getting into Toledo, though, because I think otherwise I would have missed it. We were running somewhat late by then, but we got to the station in time for me to make the bus back to Ann Arbor. It sucks going straight from the train to the bus, because it makes you realize how much worse it is to take the bus, how little room you have to stretch out.
The bus was late getting into the station, so
lameautarch had to wait about a half an hour longer than we'd planned. But I made it in, he picked me up, and he treated me to breakfast. I told him just about all of these details about the trip, and we talked about politics in general. Then he took me home, where I decompressed by unpacking; doing some laundry; and writing this LJ entry, which I began at 2:23 p.m.![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-30 10:15 pm (UTC)*hug*
I'm glad the trip generally went well and that so many people marched for peace. I'm really not sure what the point of the calls for impeachment are about, since I can't imagine them really moving forward into congressional action at this point in time. Can you tell me what the point is?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-31 03:51 am (UTC)During the Vietnam War, Nixon was poised to continue the politics of escalation until members of Congress threatened to use the tool of impeachment. It was only then that Nixon contacted Congressmen to let it be known that he was willing to draw down the number of forces in the region. UFPJ's main goal is to return American troops to U.S. shores, but also right now it is focused on making sure that the troop surge is not condoned by Congress. Impeachment is a tool by which Congress can apply pressure to ensure the safe return of American troops during Bush's tenure. It is hard to imagine what one other action would persuade Bush that a sharp reversal of his policy is needed before he hands off the Presidency to his successor.
Also, impeachment sends a clear message to future holders of the office of President that certain actions will not be countenanced (for example, Bush's use of signing statements to grant his office the right to examine first-class postal mail without a warrant). Impeachment, the speakers of the workshops were plain to point out, clarify the office of the President and does not represent an attack on any one particular person who happens to occupy that office. Impeachment informs all future generations that certain actions, such as breaking FISA and conducting warrantless searches of phone records and emails, will not be tolerated by this President or any other.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-31 04:54 pm (UTC)Also, one of the speakers quoted, I believe, Thomas Jefferson, who said that a republic without the possibility of impeachment was really constitutional despotism.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-31 07:09 pm (UTC)I'm quite angry with the Democratic leadership, which right now means Nancy Pelosi. The president, vp, and all of his cronies need a huge wake up call. Both of our top officials have broken many of this country's laws. They need to be held accountable for their actions.
Impeaching them sends a strong message that Congress won't tolerate rogue presidents who think they can do whatever they want, simply because they are an elected leader.
Bush is still an idiot, and a dangerous one. Cheney comes as close to a cartoon villian as I could ever have imagined. His face has become synonymous with the worse type of politician.
Neither of these people care anything for the laws of this country, or its citizens. They're happy to send more of this country's military personnel into the living hell that Iraq has become.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-31 03:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-31 03:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-31 04:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-31 05:04 pm (UTC)