Let Us In!

Last night, both Oregon Senators Gordon Smith (R) and Ron Wyden ("D") were at KGW station studios for a live televised "Ask Your Senator" town hall. This was an invitation only town hall meeting and apparently no one from the Peace Community was invited. We didn't think it was right that the Senators were unwilling to have a discussion with their constituents unless they were invited and their quetions pre-screened.


(we weren't supposed to enter the driveway or approach the building)

So we greeted the audience members with their Free Speech Tickets and tried to get the Senators to come out and hear us.





I apologize for the poor photographs. It was a dark and crappy night. At least 30 - 40 protestors arrived banging pots ala Molly Ivins style, members from several peace groups were there. CodePink Portland, Veterans for Peace, No War Drum Corps, Washington County Peace Vigil, Civic Resist, members of the Surge Protection Brigade, the Lone Vet and others.













Senators Smith and Wyden refused to come out. Like chickenhawks.

KGW has an employee who came out several times to tell us where we could and could not stand. He told me not to take photographs of the building as it was a private building. Then he took a photograph of me and called police. KGW should alert it's employees that they are NOT TO TOUCH PEOPLE. The man got in my face so I got back in his... with a fucking bull horn.

LET US IN!

Apparently KGW didn't find any of this newsworthy, their van drove by but didn't stop. The ticketed audience didn't seem very happy either.




(Karen being escorted from the entrance)


I got up to the entrance and windows and started taking photos...


Look at all the "happy" people inside with their free speech tickets...

I was warned twice by KGW that I would be arrested. They called the police and they arrived. I asked that they, as Peace Officers and servers of the community, to please ask the Senators to come out and talk with us. The "cop" laughed and said, "No".





No one was arrested. No one was heard.

The media and the politicians aren't going to do a damn thing about this illegal occupation and a war for greed and corporate profit and political power.



It's up to us.

Sen. Smith targets Peace Activists

Senator Smith once told greiving parents of a dead soldier basically to just wait and they'll see that Bush was right and they were wrong for protesting the illegal occupation.

He then has flip flopped and said that the war may be wrong.

Now he has changed his tune again and supports a Surge. So people were arrested for refusing to leave the lobby till Smith flip flops back again.

Tomorrow "C" and "T" of CodePink will enter again. I'm forwarding on this email from our action email.

"Happy Valentine's Day Massacre of Peace People's Lobby Rights,

You've heard the old joke that starts, "A master's student, a legal secretary and a hippie peace professor walked into a Senator's office..."

Whoops! Joke's on us. Turns out all we had to do was walk to the public elevator--never made it to the office--and we were halted by one security guard, with half-dozen more on the hoof toward us. We were going to US Senator Gordon Smith's office to offer our opinion, in person and in writing, that the Republican Senator from Oregon ought to live up to his brave proclamation for peace that he gave on the Senate floor way last December 7, when he said he was at the end of his rope with this war. Rhoda Moore, Kerry Bassett and I had only one request, that he promise to vote against the supplemental war and occupation spending bill.

Instead, we were asked to leave the 12-story office building because our presence was "a disturbance to the other tenants."

Gosh, that was our intent. Guess we succeeded.

Oh, they meant that thinking at all about the war is disturbing, I suppose. Disturbing enough to prevent those who looked suspiciously like peace people from even entering the elevator.

We talked for an hour or so. We assured the security people, and the representative from Smith's office who came down to talk with us on the brick outdoor plaza, that keeping peace messages out of Smith's sight and office environs was only going to disturb more of the tenants in the end. Since the building is on private property (PGE), one of our secondary goals is to drive a wedge between PGE and Smith by making it more costly to have him as a tenant. Smith's rep, Andrew Over, categorically denied that we were being kept out at Smith's office request and, upon further questioning, even denied that the Smith people had any input into this decision.

OK, then. This is an invitation to fax Senator Smith's office to tell them two things:

1. Tell the Senator to immediately promise to vote against any further funding for this godawful war.

2. Insist that the office be open to those who wish to be peace lobbyists. No one who has gone there has yelled (or even talked loudly), nor have we blockaded (yet), we haven't invaded any inner or private spaces, and we've been friendly to all.

I wish I could assert that we've never interrupted any of them in conversation, but we are working on our conversational skills, which are not perfect but are not illegal--or maybe they are."

Smith's office:

Phone: 503.326.3386

Fax: 503.326.2900

And if you'd like to learn more about being a part of this nonviolent civil resistance campaign, please visit the website: www.defundthewar.com

------------

This is such an outrage and I am asking that everyone flood the senator's office with faxes and phone calls demanding our right to lobby for peace. Thanks everyone!

I apologize for any errors. My computer is fritzing out. I'm trying to get this out and about because my loved ones are going in again.

Surge Protection Brigade

"Wisely, the soldiers who staff the Broadway recruiting center closed up shop and barred the windows today, girding their loins and steeling themselves against the grandmothers' bloc who took the sidewalks out front. The recruiters gave some kind of hasty excuse to explain their absence, but the truth was obvious: They simply recognized that they were outnumbered and facing superior forces. (No one but the Portland Police Bureau is usually foolish enough to mess with grandmothers.)

I spent my lunchbreak there today, with some of the coolest grandmothers I have ever met. (And some grandfathers, and even some younger folks.) (Even one of my favorite people from the Native Youth Movement was there... so it was more of a grandmother, grandfather, grandchild sort of thing. Solidarity!) It was a somewhat larger crowd than I had expected, and the signs and colorful knitted hats and scarves were visible from way down the street as I made my way toward them. There was something really, powerfully inspiring about seeing the steel awning pulled down over the exposed windows at the recruiting office, and the apologetic little sign hastily taped up on the door, informing passersby that the office was closed. It was like looking at a white flag." - Taken from a member of Portland Indy Media.

What did you do once you knew?

Resisting

The news says "hundreds gathered"...I've heard estimates from 3,000 to 5,000. Hard to tell for sure because we were in three different places over 60 acres of land or so and walking to and fro perpetually. More were arriving from all over the country.

By now you'd have to be living under an ant hill not to know who Lt. Watada is and what his stance is. It is important to keep his name in the limelight so that others can find the same support he has.

I urge you to go to couragetoresist.com so you can see the other names of the many who are counting on us to give them voices as well.

Lt. Watada is a leader in the Army. But now he is a leader of legions. His name is amongst many who have resisted. He is not the first... but I hope he'll be the last.
This photojournal will be in parts.

Part one... the turn out and signs.

The IVAW Deployed Bus - it was our shuttle.

Cristy from CPPortland spotted me right away.

It's SEAN fucking PENN!!! WHOOT!

leading up to the overpass

You can't get the full scope of how many were there. I wasn't even able to cross the overpass to get photos of the other side.

This was the exact corner me and Marianne were on last time. By ourselves.

Portland Pooches for Peace! Make Tacos! Not War.

Darrel Anderson of IVAW

Of course there were some Counter-Protesters: There was only these few. They were right next to a man whose son was killed in Iraq who was showing his support for Watada.

She's hollering at us as we pass by. She called me a "fucking bitch".

Next journal... the Puppetistas! :)