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Meeting Our Congressman

By Stanley Campbell

The local peace group, Rockford Peace and Justice Action Committee, asked me to join them as we went to lobby our congressman. They want him to stop the war in Iraq and bring our troops home.

Yes, I know: "Fat chance." The Representative from the 16th Congressional District in Illinois, the "Honorable" Donald Manzullo, has consistently supported the President since the invasion of Iraq. He didn't support the non-binding House resolution against the surge. He may even support expanding the war to take on all the Islamics. And the worst thing he did: he refused to meet with a Gold Star Mother because he knew she was gonna give him hell. Rosemarie Slavenas' son was killed when his helicopter went down. The first thing I did was put out a media release accusing Manzullo of being a chickenhawk of the worst kind.

I reported this case to you about two or three issues ago. You folks were great. You inundated his Washington DC office with calls and letters. He met with us.

I believe we gotta try to encourage our representative to be more peaceful, even if he supports war. Maybe we could get him to agree to more specific and less "controversial" stuff: like investigate where all that money went. Hundreds of billions of dollars and Congress didn't watch for war profiteering (there's always profit to be made in war). Some of the war contracts made it to the 16th Congressional District here in northwest Illinois. Some of the war contractors have donated to the Congressman's campaign war chest (I don't see why he needs so much money – rarely has the opposition put up any candidate and his district is gerrymandered so he will remain our congressman for life). The least he can do is keep half an eye on our military money.

When we met, we came with only 20 folks, five of whom knew they were gonna speak (Rosemarie got some more Gold Star parents and got a whole hour by herself).

We asked Manzullo to keep an eye on the private contractors who are flourishing in this war. One of them, Blackwater Corporation, is operating a training facility in western Jo Davies County (part of Don's District). Having private corporations take on military jobs really crosses a line, and increasingly the military industrial complex is really complex. Or very simply: more war, more profit for Blackwater.

Our next concern the Congressman should have supported: more counseling for returning veterans. Instances of American soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan killing themselves are increasing. At least one is from Manzullo's District: a soldier shot himself instead of returning for a second tour. The military must keep adequate records to show what is happening to veterans. Counseling is a must. Officers who ignore warning signs and say "ship 'em back to the front" should be retrained and paramedics must be trained to identify stress.

Those are our demands. He said yes, but voted no. Can they lie like that?

And finally, we wanted Manzullo to vote for a resolution that will keep the President from bombing Iran. What's scary is Don may want the President to invade Iran (it's just next door and they have more oil than Iraq). I believe he thinks a war against the Muslim nation is inevitable.

I don't know what your Congressman is like. Ours is all friendly until he gets on the floor of the House, then he forgets his promises and votes like Attila the Hun. His voting record is 100 percent with both the Christian Coalition and the American Conservative Union. It is zero with the environmentalists, 7 with anti-war groups.

Some of our peace members do not want to meet with the Congressman. "Why waste the Time?" Why indeed? Because if we can get the Congressman to support a more peaceful approach, we will save lives and money. We have to learn how to lobby. We've got few options. Our representative should at least hear the other side of an issue. Has your Congressman become callous over the years? Yes, he met with the gold star mother who lost her son and she got angry about it. I don't envy him that part of his job, but he deserved every bit of it, and more.

"If looks could kill" - Gold Star Mother Rosemarie Slavenas glaring at Congressman Manzullo while one of his aides run interference