"On November 2nd, the day of the student walkout called "The World Can't Wait," about 22 antiwar activists met at Seattle's Federal building to lobby our senators, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray. Several of us had done it before, and intend to do it repeatedly.
We showed our ID as we entered the Federal building and passed through metal detectors. I tried to shoot a photo of the group in the lobby, but security guards stopped me. Two police escorts accompanied us up to the 32nd floor, just in case some of us decided to make a scene and needed to be quickly dragged away, I guess.
Cantwell wasn't there, but we were greeted pleasantly by members of her staff. They had filled a small conference room with chairs for us. We were given about 1¼ hour to make our presentation. One aide, "Frank," listened intently and took copious notes.
Each of us introduced ourselves. Many were members of West Seattle Neighbors for Peace & Justice (part of SNOW coalition) who demonstrate regularly. Several, like me, were also Democratic Precinct Officers; I host a DFA meetup, as well. Several Raging Grannies were among us (antiwar seniors who sing). Also present were a "retired FEMA administrator," a Vietnam vet, and several longtime peace activists. The median age was 50ish.
Most of us had written letters. We each summarized verbally with informal presentations of 1-5 minutes. Each speaker made a point or two that hadn't been expressed previously, so very little repetition. I wish I had an audio tape, because the heartfelt eloquence of the speakers made me proud."-read the whole post on Kos by dinazina here.
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