August district actions: visiting Virginia's Senator Webb

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The following is a guest post by Annie Brown of Virginia. Annie helped organize a visit to the office of Senator Jim Webb as part of our August recess call to action [2], and then kindly agreed to write about her experience for our blog. -- Sarah

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of working with a wonderful group of people participating in 1Sky’s National Call to Action. Tommi Drum, Susan Davis, Don Davis, and I were 4 of the 1,700 people who signed up to participate in this action that encouraged constituents to have meetings with their Members of Congress to promote the 1Sky pledge [3].

1Sky recommended that we set up a meeting with Senator Webb. Tommi contacted Webb’s office and was able to get a meeting with one of his environmental aides. With the help of 1Sky, I was able to connect with other people in my district that had also signed up for the action.

To prepare for the meeting, we first called into the 1Sky nationwide conference call, which provided some very helpful pointers on lobbying and the 4 of us met a couple days before our meeting to finalize our goals and how we would accomplish them. This might seem like a lot of planning, but in reality, all this preparation only took up about 3-4 hours of my week. For something as important as climate change, giving that amount of time is not a lot to ask and accomplishes so much.

We decided to emphasize the 1Sky pledge [3] as a useful tool for the Senator to serve his constituents and prevent environmental and economic disaster. We decided the best way to achieve this goal was to make sure the Senator’s Aide realized the seriousness of the issue using emotional appeals. When I say emotional appeal, I don’t mean that our group decided to formulate sad stories, but rather, we decided we would go into the meeting and express our true and honest feelings about the issue. During our preparation meeting we did a practice run of what we would say. As we related our personal experiences and deep fears about global climate change, we realized not only the power of the human element in the need for governmental action, but also the great importance of what we were doing.

This gathering got us excited about the meeting with the Senator’s aide and the impact we were sure to make. When we all met outside of Webb’s office in DC Tuesday morning we were pumped and prepared, but still a little nervous.

Jacki Ball, Senator Webb’s aide, was very kind. Tommi started the meeting with brief introductions and then a quick run down of what we wanted to accomplish/discuss in the meeting. Tommi then talked about 1Sky and read the 1Sky pledge. Then we went around and as constituents of Senator Webb, discussed why it was personally SO important to each of us that he not only look at the pledge, but seriously consider it as a step that NEEDS to be taken in order to prevent disaster.

From left to right: Don Davis, Susan Davis, Annie Brown, Sen. Webb's environmental aide Jackie Ball, and Tommi Drum. Photo courtesy of Annie Brown.

At the end of our personal presentations, we began a Q&A session with Ms. Ball that we hoped would reveal the chances of Webb signing onto the 1Sky pledge. We were discouraged by Ms. Ball’s comment that “Senator Webb gets a lot of pledges and petitions he as to look at.” To this I replied that this is NOT just another pledge that can be put aside. Climate Change is in all seriousness a national emergency that must be prioritized. I honestly pleaded that she take this to Senator Webb and ask him to seriously consider it, because as I mentioned before, he needs to realize that many of his constituents are genuinely afraid for the future of their state, nation, and planet.

Ms. Ball was very receptive to all of our comments, but she continued to emphasize Senator Webb’s need for further analysis of the environmental situation. Feeling this vibe from her, we ended the meeting with discussions of the urgency of the issue and also Senator Webb’s opportunity to be a great leader of a necessary movement. After the meeting we took a picture with Ms. Ball and assured her that we would be in contact to follow up on the pledge (since the meeting Tommi has contacted Ms. Ball about Webb’s input and we’re waiting for a reply).

After the meeting we discussed how this was only a first step. A possible next step is building up grassroots support for the 1Sky pledge to PROVE to Senator Webb that this isn't just another piece of paper he can ignore. I think a grassroots campaign that aligns itself with existing youth environmental groups like the Environmental Action Coalition would be a great move. I am planning on bringing the 1Sky pledge to W&M, but mass college support around VA (and the rest of the nation) would be a wonderful and POWERFUL statement to officials.

Overall, this action was one of the most interesting and important things I achieved this summer. If nothing else, I know that what we did will get people to realize that this issue is not some fringe elitist cause. It’s a growing movement and one that will eventually encompass everyone on the planet. I’m confident this meeting will have a ripple effect and add to the collective push for change. I was honored to work with such a driven group of individuals and I am inspired to keep working for change.