Representative Earl Blumenauer had a telephone “town hall” last night, with hundreds of people on the phone at the same time while he answered questions about Iraq, immigration, and impeachment, and asked us questions like, “Has the cost of invading Iraq been too high?”
Of the close to 500 people (including me) who voted on that question, over 80% said, “Yes, the cost has been too high.”
Some guy who got through with a rambling question asked “But shouldn’t we support the troops?” (in a much longer version) as if it’s supporting people to initiate a civil war and then leave them there until it ends. And then Blumenauer fielded an anti-immigrant question but nicely turned it around and made clear that as someone who is himself a descendant of immigrants (as I am) he believes that we need to have a fair path to citizenship for everyone.
I wasn’t expecting Earl’s call — some weird machine called my house and I almost hung up, but now I’m glad I didn’t. I just put the phone on speakerphone and listened while I cleaned my kitchen (stopping twice to vote by pressing the number 6 or 7 on my phone). Just goes to show that if our Senators and Representatives want our feedback, they can go about getting it. Then there’s no excuse for not supporting the troop withdrawal that a majority of Americans want.
Blumenauer’s office has my phone number on file, I’m sure, because I email Representative Blumenauer with some regularity.
Take a minute to tell Representative Blumenauer that you’re against the ongoing occupation of Iraq. Maybe he’ll call you to find out what else you think.
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