On the eve of the Iowa Presidential Caucus, 10 Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia and Baltimore area peace activists visited Sen. Hillary Clinton's national headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The nonviolent protest, featuring a mock coffin and the reading of Iraqi and American names killed in the more than five years of war and military occupation in Iraq.
While our protest was going on, we learned that several of our brothers and sisters with Season of Discontent: A Presidential Occupation Project, were arrested in the Des Moines, Iowa offices of Republican candidate Mitt Romney and Democratic candidate Barack Obama. This new round of the Occupation Project has been largely organized by Voices for Creative Nonviolence (VCNV).
There were no arrests during our action. We hand-delivered two letters to Hillary, and asked politely to speak with a staff member. We were denied that meeting and the inner doors of the office building were barred to us. While we began reading names of American and Iraqis killed in the illegal and immoral war (between the inner and outer doors), security began placing large pieces of cardboard in around the inner doors, preventing many young staffers inside from seeing us and our signs pleading with Clinton to cease funding war and immediately begin withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq. After nearly an hour of this, we spoke with the police and then a staffer who spoke with us earlier. She said the letters and our verbal concerns would be conveyed to Hillary.
Needless to say, we don't think our letters will receive a response, and the use of cardboard to block our point of view was disappointing and quite revealing about the Clinton campaign. Now we will continue to resist the war machine and continue to speak truth to power!
Comments