They Make a Difference

If you thought people-hater and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor looked a wee bit wan and chastened as he listened to the president's speech Thursday night, it was probably because he was still smarting from the whipping he got at Recess.  

Of course, he'd  not held any public town halls in August, and made sure to call the cops whenever constituents came to ask him a question.  He even has hired thugs at Holiday Inns for the sole purpose of ejecting activists. (see "Eric the Dread").

But he more than met his match when a busload of National Nurses United (NNU) members converged on his Richmond office last week to demand that he pay attention to the suffering people in his district and in the whole country for a change.

 A friend who blogs under the name DreamsAmelia was part of the contingent bused in from Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C. and confronted not by the congressman -- but by the usual squadron of police officers.  But this time, Cantor's chief of staff relented and met with the group rather than run the risk of appearing foolish by handcuffing a bunch of nurses rallying in behalf of poor people. The Cantor Squad is, it seems, capable of feeling shame.  Actually, since the nurses were actually blockading the office, it was probably more that the "Can'tOrWon'ts" were simply protecting their own skins. Bullies are invariably cowards.

The Cantor protest was just one of scores across the nation on September 1, as part of the nurses' ongoing campaign to tax Wall Street and save Main Street.  They're calling for a half-percent federal tax on Wall Street transactions, which the union says could generate up to $350 billion a year.  They set up soup kitchens outside congressional offices, including those of Michele Bachmann and Nancy Pelosi, to highlight the devastation wrought by Wall Street greed and malfeasance.



Trouble Comes to Cantorville (photo by "DreamsAmelia", R.N.)



DreamsAmelia sends the following published account of the Cantor extravaganza:

In Richmond, VA, 120 RNs and allies descended on the office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and were greeted by a squadron of police. The RNs responded with singing and a large picket line.  Cantor's office invited a delegation to meet with his chief of staff.  Fifteen constituents lead by NNU nurses held the meeting.. Cantor's staff heard moving testimony and said the congressman would "respond." The local CBS and NBC stations filmed outside, as they were not allowed in.  A "Lady Liberty" character greeted the delegation on Cantor's office lawn as it exited the meeting, and heard stories of the pain caused on Main Street by Wall Street.

"America's nurses every day see broad declines in health and living standards that are a direct result of patients and families struggling with lack of jobs, un-payable medical bills, hunger and homelessness. We know where to find the resources to bring them hope and real solutions," said NNU Co-president Karen Higgins, RN, outside Cantor's office. (PR Wire).

 DreamsAmelia explains why activism works:

I think the thing to remember when we study history is that most of the movements and people we study are small in number relative to the societies they lived in.  How pathetic did the seamstresses union feel before the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire?  The wealthy matrons of Manhattan joined their cause, and the seamstresses sold copies of The New York Times to make ends meet while on strike.  But they resumed work under grueling conditions, doors and stairways and exits locked, despite the full approval of the NYC fire marshall at the time, who had declared it  a "fireproof" building.  That is, when the exit doors weren't locked. 

Only 3 days of New Yorkers gawking at the unrecognizable bodies lined up in coffins on the fisherman's wharves finally goaded the community and politicians into action, aided by the still relatively newly minted technology of newspaper photography, which helped produce the concept of the front-page sensationalized news story.  But I don't think the response would have been as strong had they not previously been out protesting the conditions and demanding better ones in their supposedly "failed" strikes.  (Really great to see all these stories  in the archived Times, which I get through my local library free online with my library card).