Update on Camp Pelosi

According to physical therapist and long time Code Pink organizer Toby Blome, the following exchange took place Wednesday night in front of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's house in San Francisco:

Speaker Pelosi was returning home, escorted by Capitol Police, and was met by around four campers representing Code Pink. Ms. Blome greeted her with a flower-covered peace sign and asked, "Nancy, why won't you meet with us?"

Speaker Pelosi replied, "I will NEVER meet with you. Get away from my house."

Then Ms. Blome, who emanates quiet, principled integrity, said something like, "but what about the Iraqi people's homes that we invade every day?"

"Get away from my house, you NUT!" Pelosi spat back, as she went inside.

As you know from my previous post, I've been fasting and (mostly) camping out with Code Pink over the last week. We were at Senator Dianne Feinstein's house to protest her vote towards funding the "surge" in the Iraq occupation, and for the last three days or so we've been in front of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's house to try to get her to meet with us. I went with a group of about 15 peace activists (from various organizations, including the Quakers and Code Pink) on Thursday to try to set up a meeting with Representative Pelosi. We were shuttled off to a private meeting room on a different floor and essentially stonewalled by one of her aids. Though August recess is the time when representatives traditionally meet with their constituency and Pelosi hasn't held a public meeting since long before she became speaker of the house, we were told was that there was no room on Nancy's schedule for peace. That struck me as rather odd, since I doubt she would be Speaker of the House if it were not for America's desire for that very thing.

I'll admit I haven't been active with Code Pink for that long, but from what I understand we have been asking for a meeting with Speaker Pelosi for 8 months and 5 months ago we were promised a meeting within 3 months that never materialized. So the very next day Medea Benjamin, Toby Blome, a lady named Nancy and I (representing Code Pink) came back to, once again, politely ask for meeting. We were given a timed minute with the same aid (a guy named Dan) and pretty much given the brush-off. We ended up unfurling a banner and walking up and down the halls singing (to the tune of "Row, row, row your boat"):

Nancy, Nancy, you're our Rep
It's time to end the war!
Meet, meet, meet with us,
That's all were asking for!

We're moving back to Senator Feinstein's house today, so if you're in the area, please stop by and show us your support!