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Dear CODEPINKer,
Senator
Joe Lieberman is waving his sword again. On Sunday, he told
CBS "I
think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military
action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans
in Iraq."
Upon
hearing these words, our own Leslie Angeline, a CODEPINK
member who recently returned from a peace
delegation to Iran, decided to go on a hunger strike
until Senator Lieberman agreed to meet with us. "Seventy
percent of the Iranian population is under the age of 30--the
age of my son. Iran is a country of warm, kind, and generous
people and their children. We cannot start bombing these kids,"
Leslie told us.
After
first denying her request, Lieberman agreed to meet with us
and CODEPINK in his Washington,
DC office this Thursday at 4:30 pm EST. But just hours before
the meeting, he abruptly cancelled.
Appalled,
and unwavering in our determination to reach the senator,
sixty of us showed up at the Senator's office at the original
meeting time. We were a beautiful group of peace-loving people,
including leaders from the Iranian community. But Lieberman
was nowhere to be found.
Instead,
his office called the police, who threatened to arrest us
all. Finally, after hearing Leslie's heartfelt plea and seeing
her tears, she and two others were allowed in to meet with
Lieberman's chief of staff, legislative director, and aide
on the Middle East. The rest of us organized a teach-in on
Iran in the Senate Hart Building hallway.
Our
peace delegation emerged from Lieberman's office an hour and
half later. Leslie told our group, "We
gave them good arguments, but what most encouraged me was
that the staff kept looking at the photos of the Iranian children
that I had brought with me and spread on the table. I feel
we touched their hearts, and brought the humanity of the Iranian
people into Lieberman's office today."
The
senator needs to keep hearing our voices. So please call and
email Lieberman's office to demand that he retract his reckless
call for military action in Iran and call for more diplomacy,
not war! Call (202) 224-4041 and ask to speak to the chief
of staff or legislative aide Vance Serchuck, or click
here to send Senator Lieberman an email along with this picture
of our action outside his office. We are holding
photos taken from Leslie's recent trip to Iran. Tell Lieberman
not to attack these beautiful people, this beautiful place.
(See more action photos here.)
Stopping
the next war now,
Dana, Desiree, Ena, Farida, Gael, Gayle,
Jodie, Karin, Leslie, Libby, Medea, Nancy, Patricia, Rae and
Samantha
P.S.
Our website has been nominated for a Progressive Source
Award for Best Home Page!
We are so blessed to have Farida Sheralam as our webmistress--she
makes our website rock and makes taking action online so easy!
Thanks to Farida, we are up against heavy hitters with deep
pockets such as the ACLU and the Natural Resources Defense
Council. Please help us get the CODEPINK
word out by voting
here.
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