A House Call on Rep Bean, (D) IL 8th

On Sunday August 27, MFSO-Chicago paid a House Call on Congresswoman Melissa Bean at a local political event called BlueFest, Rally for Democracy.

Operation House Call began on June 22nd in Washington, DC in response to the “limited debate” allowed by the Republican Majority on the merits of the ongoing occupation of Iraq and the House Resolution that was passed following that “debate.” Bean failed to support a Democratic sponsored resolution calling for an open debate on the issue of Iraq – something that has not occurred since 2003. Bean also voted in favor of House Resolution 861 which among other things identified Iraq as a “central front on the war on terror”, called it a “noble cause”, and supported the Bush Administration’s “stay the course” pseudo-policy. Bean’s record on Iraq made a House Call necessary.

According to the Waukegan News Sun, Bean along with Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky was scheduled to “headline” the event. Congresswoman Schakowsky intended to introduce Bean and both intended to address the crowd. The same article published the fact that MFSO-Chicago planned to attend the event in protest of Congresswoman Bean’s record on Iraq.

Supported by peace activists from the Lake County community, three 8th District MFSO members decided to attend BlueFest and deliver flowers to Congresswoman Bean – one for every Illinois Service Member who has died in Iraq since she took office in 2005. In response to inquiries from peace people all over the district, Bean carefully points out that she was not in Congress when the decision to invade Iraq was made. I believe we already knew that.

We set up in a community park with signs, a pair of boots, several dozen flowers and our best smiles early Sunday morning. Good thing we got there early. Alerted by a reporter, the Bean campaign knew we would be there. The reporter from the paper expressed doubt that she would come. He told me that her campaign “freaked out” when they were called for comment on the MFSO press release. She did come, 15 minutes ahead of the start of Bluefest and 45 minutes ahead of Operation House Call to “make an appearance.” Since I am my own “staff”…and had forgotten something, I briefly left and came back to find her…arms full of flowers preparing to leave the event at about 11:45 just minutes into her scheduled event. Her aide kept tapping his watch telling us she “had somewhere else to be” and we assumed that she would return to speak. She did not. Congresswoman Schakowsky spoke. Several local Democratic candidates spoke. Bean was a no-show on the speaking engagement. We can only surmise that the 8 of us with our signs, boots, and smiles were too scary for her.

This response is typical of Congresswoman Bean. When she is asked to be accountable for her voting record by the people who it most profoundly impacts - she is all about “cut and run.” That point was very evident to her supporters, her constituents and the military families in attendance.

Throughout our time there, various people stopped by from Bluefest, including Congresswoman Schakowsky. Most were quite nice although they were pretty adamant about the need to “vote Democratic” in the upcoming election. A few were a bit upset because we were “showing the split” among the Democrats and even if Bean was a “weak” Democrat we needed to “hold our nose” and cast a vote to get the Democrats in the majority. That was funny since I am not a Democrat…or Republican for that matter. I am an Independent who takes a look at issues when casting a vote or supporting a candidate. But in a spirit of peace and harmony, we were able to co-exist with the “Party” people while making our point: Supporting the Troops is much more than a yellow bumper sticker: True support for the troops is to Bring Them Home Now and Take Care of Them When They Get Here. And that is a scary message, indeed.