Virtual March Affects Senate Offices by Causing Busy Signals
By Bill Yelenak
WASHINGTON – Win Without War, an organization whose announced goal is to find alternatives to U.S. military action in Iraq, plans to organize a march on Washington – no trudging through snow involved.
The “virtual march,” as organizers have dubbed it, is slated to take place next Wednesday, when Win Without War hopes that supporters of the anti-war movement will flood the phone lines of their U.S. senators from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., according to former U.S. Rep. Tom Andrews, D-Maine, the national director of the organization.
“We were talking about ways that we could give more people an opportunity to stand up and be counted on the war, and it generated from that,” Andrews said Thursday.
Andrews could not predict how many supporters the movement would have by next Wednesday but said people have already shown tremendous support for the program.
“There’s been a large spike in people visiting the site over the last 24 hours,” Andrews said, referring to www.moveon.org, the web site where people can register. “I can say that we have tens of thousands of people registered on the first day.”
Later Thursday, a spokesman for Win Without War said that 34,000 people had registered.
The goal, according to Andrews, is to have each member of the Senate receive a phone call or a fax every minute of the day between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. The organization also hopes to deluge phone lines at the White House with their message.
“Each member has many, many phone lines, and we’re hoping they’ll get one phone call a minute, which will give them plenty of opportunity to do their other business,” Andrews said. “But we think if they could dedicate a significant part of their day to listening to their constituents on this issue, it would be a wonderful thing.”
Andrews said that if, when he was in Congress, his office had received the volume of calls he hopes most politicians will receive on Wednesday, it would have made him “stand up and take notice.”
“It would give me an idea of not only the numbers of people in my state who care about this, but it would also indicate to me how deeply they feel,” he said. “It’s one thing to have an opinion about an issue; it’s another thing to do something about it.”
Andrews said he hopes the diversity of those signed up to call would also make a difference in the way the virtual march was seen.
“I would notice that these calls and those who feel this way are not just coming from one demographic of the district or one political party or point of view. It’s very diverse,” Andrews said.
He said politicians should listen to the citizens, who are “well ahead of the politicians” on the issue of war in Iraq.
“If there was ever an issue for Washington to listen to America, it’s this issue,” he said.
The offices of Connecticut’s two Democratic senators were not sure what impact the virtual march would have. Adam Kovacevich, a spokesman for Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, said he was unsure how it would affect the office.
“Depending on how many people participate, it may affect our call volume,” Kovacevich said. “We certainly respect people’s right to express themselves and respect their right to voice their concerns.”
Kovacevich said he didn’t expect the protest to affect the other constituents who needed to reach the office for any reason.
“People call our office for any number of reasons, both to express their concern on different issues and to request assistance with casework,” he said. “I would expect that we will continue to get all kinds of calls that day.”
Marvin Fast, a spokesman for Sen. Christopher Dodd, said the virtual protest “was an important issue.”
“We commend people who take the time to participate in our democracy,” Fast said.
Bill Yelenak, a Boston University student, works at the Boston University Washington News Service in Washington, D.C. His telephone number is 202-756-2860 ext: 114 and his email is byelenak@newbritainherald.com.
Published in The New Britain Herald, in Connecticut.
