Report from a Congressional District
August 15th, 2002
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This report was sent to the Campaign in mid-August 2002 by a signatory who lives in a state on the West Coast. Because this was a personal communication, names have been withheld.
I would encourage people not only to visit their representatives but also to work on candidates. We had some success here with the Democratic candidate for the Senate. A diverse group of community leaders (Jews, Muslims, Christians, and community leaders with deep pockets) met with the candidate for dinner on the Israel/Palestine conflict. He was very balanced-initially.
Two months later a member of our group asked for his position paper on Palestine/Israel. It was horrible—very Bush-esque. We sent out an e-mail alert to our over 2,000 members of the community and we had 20 priests/reverends call him. He held a second meeting with us the very next day and said he had not read the position paper, which was prepared by a staff member who also happens to be involved with a Zionist group in town. He has requested that we work with his staff on preparing a revised position paper.
Meanwhile, the Representatives and their challengers are holding many fundraising dinners and receptions from now and until the election. Our group here has been getting the dates, places, and times of the fundraising events. We have had delegations of 10 to 15 people stand vigil in front of the entrances leafleting while others go inside to raise the issue of Palestine with the Representative/candidate directly. The support from those attending the fundraisers has been really surprising and it has encouraged the Representative/candidate to feel more confident about speaking critically regarding Israel's suppression of Palestinian human rights.
All this is by way of saying that we can have an enormous impact on the candidates right now if we do just a little bit of organizing and use our listservs to show that we have the numbers, i.e., the votes, to make a difference in the election.
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