Blum and Gloom VI

[Week 5 / Week 6 / Week 7]

On this day, i stood again with Joe, with Becky... with Dave, Grant and Ineke. With so many others that have such a simple request.

Congressman Blumenauer... put the People before Pelosi!

Is it your new room with a view of the Capitol dome? Is it that choice chairmanship that you crave more than a promotion to the Senate? We're scratching our heads Congressman. Why did you tell your constituents that you'd have a public forum addressing their concerns... specifically on impeachment. When you decided to go back to your office and the dome and Pelosi without keeping your word... did you think we wouldn't notice? Do you think we don't care?!

• I is for Impeachment... at least get the impeachment hearings going!
• I is for irated*... the way i felt when i learned that my own Representative had lied to me.
• I is for Iraq... where 2-3 Americans die every day... every day that Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D?-OR) resists his oath to uphold and defend the Constitution.

It was a day filled with ups and downs as i biked around town from appointment to event. It was the sixth week of protests in front of Blumenauer's Portland office (no view of Capitol domes) organized by Veterans for Peace. The TV media arrived... first from channel 6, then from channel 2. They didn't come for us (only a police squad car came for us, our personal nanny). The television crews headed across the street to report on a story of the discovery of 45,000 lbs of tainted ground beef. "The public needs to be warned about this," offered one journalist. John Bradach whose nephew was killed in Iraq remarked, "450,000 lbs of soldier have come back from Iraq in flag draped coffins. The public needs to be warned about this." Maybe that's why he's been here, like so many other (otherwise ordinary) people... every Thursday, from noon-2pm... in front of Rep. Earl Blumenauer's Portland office, with no view of a dome. If only he'd do the right thing. If only he had been telling the truth when he promised to at least "talk" about impeachment.

As the sun set over Portland, i set off by bike across town to celebrate my nephew's birthday. I just followed the bike route signs, and before i knew it, i was pedaling by Grant High School. That's where Travis Bradach-Nall went to school. He graduated in 2000. That's the year my nephew was born. A Marine corporal based out of Camp Pendleton, Travis died in Iraq, in 2003, in July. I was born in July, in Camp Pendleton. My dad was a Marine... is a Marine. We watched together today the OPB special on "the Marines." Then i went to Blumenauer's office, to goad my representative into doing the right thing. (He ought to be ashamed for lying to me.) That's where i see John Bradach, whose nephew Travis was killed in Iraq. And later i rode out to my nephew's birthday party. He's 7 today.


[video h/t Joe Anybody]
*irated: a combination of feeling irate and irritated.

[Week 5 / Week 7]