The Twisted Energy of Today.

It’s a beautiful spring weekend here in DC. Trees are blooming, daffodils are poking their heads up and folks have finally not had to deal with snow.

However in spite of that, yesterday was a dark day- a day that those of us who work in the political arena will likely remember for a long time. A day that brought the worst of the worst behavior I’ve seen in quite a while. As soon as I saw the news feed about what happened to one of my personal hero’s John Lewis, I was livid.

An entire organization came to DC with one mission, as they say “kill the bill”. So right off the bat they use the language of violence, is it any wonder the weekend then devolves to this?

Spitting on Congressman.

Calling a National Civil Rights Hero a “Nigger”.

Calling the first openly gay Congressman Barney Frank a “Faggot”.

I rode the metro up to the Capitol Hill South stop-with quite a few of the “opposition”. It’s always funny to be these classic DC mash-ups. The rookies never count on the journey to get to the protest-yeah you have to wear all that stuff on the metro! I wore an Obama button-it’s all I had at the bottom of my purse!

As I arrived at the south corner of the Cannon building facing the house-all you could hear was the chant “Kill the Bill” with all the emphasis on Kill. I’d guess they had about 200 folks there. Their signs were home made, or as we call it “folk art”. Lots of folk art and costumes. They like their funny hats it seems.

Their tactic was to line both sides of the road to the House chamber with their chanters-forcing the Congress members to run this gauntlet when going back and forth to the chambers and their offices. It’s easy to see what happened yesterday with the haters.

I stood on the stairs near the entrance to the Cannon building, watched their tactic-anyone who they deemed a supporter got followed and chanted at with “Kill the Bill” or vote NO! I doubt very many members have ever had that experience-at least not on their own turf. The “nast-tea” crowd also had folks in the tunnels chasing folks down as well.

Once I understood the lay of the land-it was time to wade into their midst. As I was heading across, I saw that Rep. Donna Edwards was walking back and alone. I asked her if she wouldn’t mind if I walked with her-just in case. I told her I could throw and elbow and she couldn’t, she laughed and said “oh don’t do that”.. humm well fortunately none of that was necessary since they didn’t recognize her.

For most of the time I was there, I stood with a handful of Pro-Reform supporters, mostly a faith based group. After about 2 hours of this, repetition isn’t really my thing- I decided to head back.

On my way back to the metro, I had the sincere pleasure of running into Lt. Dan Choi and Robin McGehee who were arrested on Thursday for attempting to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. I thanked them for what they did, and got a really nice hug from Lt. Choi.

So all in all, weird.. I was loaded for bear when I left home and came back elated and inspired.

All in a days action here in DC I guess.

Oh yeah-and we won the vote! SUCK IT Bitches.