Take Back the Capitol aims to get the attention of representatives
Community Contributor | 12-7-2011 |
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By Esperanza Arrizon
On the second day of “Take Back the Capitol,” despite rainy weather, constituents from all over the country flooded the capitol to track down their congressional representatives.People at the camp were grouped according to region and then marched to the representative’s office. The plan was for people to ask to speak to their representative, share their stories about how the economy has affected them, and demand that the representative commit to unemployment insurance extension and jobs not cuts.
I joined a group assigned to talk with California Representative Elton Gallegly. He is a Republican, representing CA district 24, which encompasses most of Ventura County and inland Santa Barbara County.
The door to his office was locked, and although there were people inside, no one faced us. When one of Gallegly’s staff tried to get into the locked office, they ignored the increasingly agitated crowd. There were various times when staff would sneak in or out through a second entrance. Security and police were called and we were asked to stop knocking on the congressman’s door, and to keep the noise level down.After waiting outside of the congressman’s office for almost three hours, he half ran out of his office toward the elevator, completely ignoring the crowd’s request to speak with him. Although the entire group was from California, he refused to speak to anyone who was not from his district.
Even when one of his constituents presented herself and tried to talk to him, he just kept saying “Merry Christmas.” At some point he even said: “I just donated 750 gifts to needy children, how many of you can say you did that.”
Of course no one in our group could do that for the very reason that we were trying to talk to him: unemployment and underemployment. Gallegly’s disrespectful attitude and condescending comments made it clear to the people in my group that he did not care about the concerns of people who are struggling in this economy.
Esperanza Arrizon is a Good Jobs LA youth leaders from South LA. She is part of a 22 member delegation from Los Angeles that is in Washington, D.C. for “Take Back the Capitol” week.
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