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Senator Kerry's office - mtg report
Jul/20/2006 11:11 PM Filed in:
Senator Kerry
posted by selise for RevDeb
Report on visit with JJ at Senator Kerry's Office 7/19/06
In attendance were JJ, MM, JJ's assistant, selise, Kathryn, John C. and RevDeb
JJ was extremely generous with his time. We spent over an hour and a half talking. It has been a busy time in the Senator's office the past week dealing with the Big Dig tragedy and the discovery of the construction problems. JJ has been the point person on all of that.
As promised we had a brief follow-up about the Yearly Kos Convention. Three of us had been there. We gave JJ a copy of 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Fight the Right and talked about the book and how that will be used by our Roots Project groups. It is a great tool for a long term project. RevDeb will try to make a copy of the Plame Panel broadcast to send to JJ.
We briefly talked about Net Neutrality and thanked the Senator for his strong stance and continuing support in favor of it. We also expressed our thanks that Senator Kerry signed on as a co-sponsor to the resolution to censure President Bush for his NSA warrantless spying program in violation of FISA.
We then got into a rather lengthy discussion of the crisis in the Middle East. Those present from our Roots group have been peace activists and are very discouraged over what is happening. We expressed our frustration and are looking for some leadership in regard to taking strong moral positions against killing. From there the conversation moved in a variety of directions ranging from "who are the terrorists and what should we do with them?" to again talking about what a party in the minority could do and not do. Foreign policy is under administration control. What can congress practically do? The conversation even included some "theological" language and Gandhi's take on "An eye for an eye" from Exodus 21 came up,
"An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and the whole world would soon be blind and toothless."
We talked about Senator Kerry and were asked for our impressions and individual feelings about him. For the most part, whether it be from Senator Kerry or any other of our elected officials, it is important to us that we are represented by people who do the right thing because it is the right thing to do.
an after thought to the conversation is a quote from Rev. Martin Luther King, jr.'s Letter from the Birmingham Jail:
" On some positions, cowardice asks the question is it safe, expediency asks the question is it politic, vanity asks the question is it popular, conscience asks the question is it right. And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but we must take it because conscience tells us it is right.
We also briefly brought up Senator Kerry's speech last month on energy and the environment. We gave JJ information on Rep. Waxman's bill, H.R. 5642, the Safe Climate Act. There is currently no parallel bill in the senate and perhaps Sen. Kerry could work with Rep. Waxman and sponsor it. JJ told us that Senator Kerry will be giving a major speech on healthcare Monday, July 31 at noon at Faneuil Hall.
These are the rough details of the meeting. Beyond the details we came away with a feeling that there was mutual respect among those in the room. We talked openly and honestly. This is not the kind of meeting one usually has when doing citizen lobbying with congressional aides who know it is their job to treat us politely and then go on with their business.
UPDATE (from selise): here are links to our previous reports of lobbying Senator Kerry's staff - first attempt here, second here, third here and fourth here.
Report on visit with JJ at Senator Kerry's Office 7/19/06
In attendance were JJ, MM, JJ's assistant, selise, Kathryn, John C. and RevDeb
JJ was extremely generous with his time. We spent over an hour and a half talking. It has been a busy time in the Senator's office the past week dealing with the Big Dig tragedy and the discovery of the construction problems. JJ has been the point person on all of that.
As promised we had a brief follow-up about the Yearly Kos Convention. Three of us had been there. We gave JJ a copy of 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Fight the Right and talked about the book and how that will be used by our Roots Project groups. It is a great tool for a long term project. RevDeb will try to make a copy of the Plame Panel broadcast to send to JJ.
We briefly talked about Net Neutrality and thanked the Senator for his strong stance and continuing support in favor of it. We also expressed our thanks that Senator Kerry signed on as a co-sponsor to the resolution to censure President Bush for his NSA warrantless spying program in violation of FISA.
We then got into a rather lengthy discussion of the crisis in the Middle East. Those present from our Roots group have been peace activists and are very discouraged over what is happening. We expressed our frustration and are looking for some leadership in regard to taking strong moral positions against killing. From there the conversation moved in a variety of directions ranging from "who are the terrorists and what should we do with them?" to again talking about what a party in the minority could do and not do. Foreign policy is under administration control. What can congress practically do? The conversation even included some "theological" language and Gandhi's take on "An eye for an eye" from Exodus 21 came up,
"An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and the whole world would soon be blind and toothless."
We talked about Senator Kerry and were asked for our impressions and individual feelings about him. For the most part, whether it be from Senator Kerry or any other of our elected officials, it is important to us that we are represented by people who do the right thing because it is the right thing to do.
an after thought to the conversation is a quote from Rev. Martin Luther King, jr.'s Letter from the Birmingham Jail:
" On some positions, cowardice asks the question is it safe, expediency asks the question is it politic, vanity asks the question is it popular, conscience asks the question is it right. And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but we must take it because conscience tells us it is right.
We also briefly brought up Senator Kerry's speech last month on energy and the environment. We gave JJ information on Rep. Waxman's bill, H.R. 5642, the Safe Climate Act. There is currently no parallel bill in the senate and perhaps Sen. Kerry could work with Rep. Waxman and sponsor it. JJ told us that Senator Kerry will be giving a major speech on healthcare Monday, July 31 at noon at Faneuil Hall.
These are the rough details of the meeting. Beyond the details we came away with a feeling that there was mutual respect among those in the room. We talked openly and honestly. This is not the kind of meeting one usually has when doing citizen lobbying with congressional aides who know it is their job to treat us politely and then go on with their business.
UPDATE (from selise): here are links to our previous reports of lobbying Senator Kerry's staff - first attempt here, second here, third here and fourth here.
