By Diane Lawrence, www.FloridaImpeach.org

Today we managed to get eight people out to Cong. Kendrick Meek’s office. This was quite a feat for a 3:30 p.m. gathering on a weekday two days after we got ten or twelve out to confront Cong. Wasserman-Schultz. Both locations were not conveniently located for most of those who came out.

I am happy to report that we actually had a member of the press there, albeit a free newspaper with an internet blog. The publication is the Miami New Times and it is popular with progressives. It has been around Miami for many years. The reporter met us before we went up to the office and took copious notes. Her editor approved the assignment because he remembered that Cong. Meek had led a sit-in of black students in Tallahassee a few years ago. I believe the issue then was FCAT scoring (the three Rs as in No Child Left Behind) which discriminates against minorities. So, the editor felt this would be a good role reversal story featuring Meek.

I rang the bell in the reception area, noting that the reception desk had a typewriter (oh, my!) with a cover on it. A staffer came from the back of the office and greeted us. He was nonplussed, to say the least, as he had no warning of our plan. We asked for Congressman Meek and he told us that Meek was in Africa. Apparently, he continent hops quite often. Eric Oriol, his Haitian constituent and Coalition member, told us that Meek is busy making money with business connections on that continent. This would make for something a good investigative journalist could do something with, but these people are all but extinct.

The staffer was completely bent out of shape about the presence of a journalist and made it clear that she could not quote him on anything he said since he was not a legislative aide. No one in the district office was authorized to speak about legislation. That is only done out of the D.C. office.

The staffer invited us inside to discuss why we were there. We declined the invitation and explained that Eric and I had already done that in August and that the good Congressman had never gotten back to Eric on his position on impeachment despite numerous phone calls and email requests. I presented the staffer with the attached letter and enclosures, which pulls no punches as to what we think of Meek’s cowardice. He’s been hiding out and we are sure that if his constituents knew that he was not in favor of impeaching the criminals in the White House, they would probably be 90% in favor of getting rid of Meek (in addition to getting rid of Cheney and Bush).

One of our members, Simon Rose, knew the staffer from the Kerry campaign and went inside the office to reiterate our case. The staffer knows Simon to be anything but a “kook.” We proceeded to read the Articles of Impeachment and Downing Street Memo aloud in the reception area. When Simon came back out, we went downstairs and did a short but sweet Honk & Wave on busy Miami Gardens Drive. We had never done this in North Miami and we were warmly received by a mostly African American constituency. The public is always thrilled to see us out on the street since they haven’t the foggiest idea that an impeachment movement exists anywhere.