On 4/13/05, I participated in the Orientation Conference Call sponsored by The Peace Alliance and facilitated by Lynn McMullen, National Campaign Coordinator. I learned more about the legislative process than I knew before. There has to be a parallel bill (not necessarily identical) introduced in the Senate; Lynn says Minnesota Senator Dayton will probably sponsor that, so propeace/Peace Alliance probably needs to be in his ear as well as in Kucinich's.

The introduction of the bill on the floor in September is not to be followed by a vote; that introduction is just to assign it to the appropriate committees (suggested in the bill). Then we have to lobby the committe members, especially the chairperson, to get it back on the floor for a vote so that it doesn't "die in committee." That is when the congressional district groups really come into play.

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So this is only the beginning. Lynn says it took 50 or 70 years for women to get the vote, for example. That helps my head as far as relieving the sense of urgency and pressure I was experiencing when I thought this September was the "deadline." Lynn says that some sense of urgency is a good thing. It doesn't HAVE to take so long; after all, Dubya got Homeland Security in a matter of weeks!

I learned about the duties of the congressional district coordinator; they are simply the titles of the other conference calls. I may or may not participate in those, depending on how expensive this call turns out to be and whether or not I can get Nancy or some future member of our group to make the calls instead and then report back to me. For each duty, there should theoretically be another person doing that job and reporting to the district coordinator. Lynn says fundraising is the LAST of the positions to fill and duties to worry about; Congressional liaison, community outreach, and media are much more important and immediate needs.

I also learned more about the "meeting" in September. I put that in quotes because Lynn seemed to shy away from my use of the word "demonstration." Nevertheless, I voiced my opinion that we should have as many warm bodies on the White House lawn as possible, "singing songs and 'a-carryin' signs" during the time of the meeting. Walter Cronkite is to be a keynote speaker, and Judy Collins will be the entertainment. (Why have such entertainment if it's not a demonstration?) That is useful to me; now I know whose website to go to to try to get my song on the songlist. I've already written to the Peter, Paul, and Mary website to ask them to volunteer. I'm sure they wouldn't mind sharing a stage with Judy Collins, and vice versa.

We also went over events coming up: the Peace Wants a Piece of the Pie action for Mother's Day (in which I hope Colleen is participating; I hope to be in Asheville at that time doing it with Rachel and being liaison for whoever wants to "get with the program" in AVL), a postcard campaign in June (by which time I hope to have more of a membership here in SC to work with), a phone-in day when the bill is actually introduced in September, and something for Thanksgiving - either it hasn't been planned yet, or I forgot what she said.

Right after the call, I volunteered to table the Williamson event and signed on at Peace Alliance as a "maybe" for the District Coordinator position for District #1 in SC. After all, I'm sort of acting coordinator right now, although there's nothing to coordinate, and we haven't done anything beyond the grass-roots, word-of-mouth stuff that I'm more comfortable with. I really don't want that much responsibility, and I don't know enough of the NAMES of the key players to feel competent with the political stuff; I think I'd make a better work-horse at that level rather than leader, especially the way I feel about appearing in public. There was a comment field on the sign-up page, and I listed five strengths (drive a truck, have the time, good with language, two others) and two weaknesses (don't do public appearances, afraid of politicians). I got an automated email response, so we'll see what happens with that.