Saturday, February 21, 2009

a lobbyist

i woke up at 4:45 in the morning on tuesday. i had a mission.

from 6:30 to 8:15, a member of the alice b. toklas democratic society drove me to Sacramento to help out equality california to lobby in support of tom ammiano's first act as assembly member for my district, proposing HR 5, a resolution opposing prop 8.

there was an introductory program, followed by speeches from geoff kors



and other men and women associated with the civil rights movement in california. the training was supposed to start after the welcoming, however due to the economic mess (41 billion) that california is in right now, the hearing on the matter was rushed to tuesday morning, so we were all taken across the street from the theater to the capital building, where i and others were allowed to sit in on the hearing to offer personal testimony.





i walked by this, which was so weird to see written in big, gold letters



you can actually watch what i saw in person below

(you'll see the crowd of us that took up the entire room along with the rest of the capital as well right before the first minute is up)

(im on the second floor, second row, third from the right in blue)

the testimonials come in a little later and some of them were just hard to listen to. i guess that's why the judiciary committee was mostly on their blackberry's and having side conversations when the people were speaking...it was just too hard to listen to.

or a lack of interest.

it was getting all of us on the second floor pretty angry.



moving on

IT WAS PASSED!

so what does this mean? it's a small battle won in a war that will continue its way up to june, where hopefully there will be further action taken with a senate hearing.

fingers crossed

after the hearing, we had made our way back to the rented movie theater to applaud and welcome back mr. ammiano. he gave a heartwarming speech of courage and social justice which only empowered us more to lobby in support of repealing prop 8.

well around the time that training had ended, we were broken up into groups to head back to the capital building to meet with our designated members.

out of all of the people, who do you think i got to lobby to? TOM AMMIANO. the guy who WROTE HR5. who SPOKE at the hearing... and who has basically helped launch and continue the civil rights movement since its inception in the 1970s by harvey milk.

i didn't have to do much lobbying.

instead, he gave a quick speech and only took a few questions.

who asked the last question?

moi.

getting to have an active dialogue with ammiano got me some attention. in fact, a few people had asked for my information and wondered if i wouldn't mind volunteering for their groups and causes.

networking!!!!

we drove back at three in the pouring rain, jumped back into my apartment for my school supplies and hopped on the next train to school. i got home at 1030, passed out at 2 after doing homework and completed a successful first day as a lobbyist and representative of my first california civil rights organization.

love and loyalty

...and equality

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