I finally arrived in Minneapolis on Sunday June 21st. Tuesday morning we climbed into a bus and headed for Washington DC for a Health Care Reform Rally with Isaiah . Wednesday morning we arrived and in DC. After a quick shower at Gallaudet University we drove down a Lutheran church a few blocks from the Capital and heard some speakers. Then we walked to our Congressperson's offices for a meeting.
My Congressman is John Kline. The organizers consider him a lost cause and did not schedule meetings with him. Instead I visited with the group from Congressman Erik Paulsen. While he is not our Representative his parents live a few blocks from us. We have seen them several times at the state capital when we have been at some progressive rally. They would be at another rally to lower taxes or other conservative agenda. We had a short meeting with Erik in the hallway outside his office. He was on his way to a committee hearing. Then a longer one with his top aide.
After the meetings with Representatives people from Faith Based Organizations from 19 different state met in a park and then marched to the US Chamber of Commerce to demonstrate against the Chambers opposition to health care for all. The security guard was not happy to see us. But what does he do when 500 people lead by a bunch of pastors show up uninvited. After a few speeches we knelt for a long prayer.
From there we walked to Freedom Plaza for more interfaith speakers telling stories on health care and encouraging us to continue to push for health care for all.
Thursday morning the 50 people from Minnesota showed up at Senator Amy Klobuchar's for her weekly Thursday morning open house for Minnesotans. This was the largest Thursday morning gathering that she has had. We 50 people in red tee shirts. Usually she gets a dozen or two of tourist. As people went up to her to get their pictures taken they told her their stories of denied insurance claims, layoffs that lead to no health insurance, and friends that died due to a lack of health care because they worked part time or for small businesses without insurance.After mobbing
Amy's Office we toured the US Capital then attended the big Health Reform Rally in Senate Park by the capital. At 1:00PM we jumped back on the bus and started the 19 hour drive back to Minnesota. Friday morning I was finally back in Minnesota.
