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Amendment I of the Bill of Rights: As Virginia celebrates the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, it seems that a certain public official in Virginia is trying to reenact the role of arbitrary colonial governor. Recently, the progressive activist group MoveOn.org launched a letter-writing campaign inviting concerned Americans to write their representatives to stop the escalation of the war in Iraq. Delegates then delivered these letters to hundreds of local congressional offices this past Thursday, February 22, that is, except in the Virginia Beach, Virginia office of Congresswoman Thelma Drake, Republican, 2nd District. A rather strange occurrence transpired when the local delegation attempted to deliver their letters. Thelma Drake is, for those of you who don't know, a hard-core backer of President Bush's war policies, including the new "Surge Strategy", and a true believer in the War on Terror. Her views are rather Manichean and ideological, apparently reducing her position toward the Middle East to that of the self-righteous Bush Administration versus archetypal evil. But to continue with our story: Eight to ten citizens assembled around noon on the 22nd for a brief gathering in the parking lot adjacent to Drake's office in a strip mall, sporting a few signs such as "Iraq Escalation-Wrong Way", rather bland stuff overall. There were at least two veterans and the mother of an active duty Marine recently returned from Iraq among them. One of them, Army veteran Tom Palumbo, a member of Veterans for Peace, would soon find out how Thelma's office responds to those who have served their country to defend our freedoms, but who don't kowtow to the White House Weltanschauung, for ironically, he was about to be arrested for trespassing. According to a news article by Steve Stone in the Virginian-Pilot published the next day, this is what transpired as they reached Thelma Drake's office entrance: ["Palumbo said he and the others had planned to deliver letters "asking her to take a stand against the escalation of the war" in Iraq. Instead, they found that staff members inside had locked the doors. Margie Long, a police spokeswoman, said "these protesters were basically scaring them by their demeanor, their vocalizations." She said a staff member called the management of the building, in the 4700 block of Euclid Road. "The owner showed up and asked the people to get off the property," Long said. Police officers arrived and ordered the protesters to leave. All but one did. Long said Palumbo sat down in front of the door to Drake's office and told officers, "If you want me to leave, you're going to have to arrest me." They did...."] (http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=120001&ran=72057 )  Tom Palumbo Being Arrested Outside Thelma Drake's Office Photo by Lyle Sanders Now this is a very interesting development when a Congressional office can be frightened out of their wits by a handful of activists trying to deliver mail from its own constituents. Has the pervasive paranoia of the so-called War on Terror affected Thelma's staff so much that they are seeing the Enemy behind every placard? After all, Bush has said you're either with us or you're against us. Does that also mean it's time to start denying those on the "wrong" side their constitutional rights, a la the old Soviet Union or present-day Burma? Of course, the staff might also be floating the fear scenario as a canard to justify dispersing these "undesirables". Now let's here the other side of the story. Here is an eyewitness account by Ann Williams, another member of the embattled contingent: "10 of us assembled peacefully in the parking lot several yards away from the office before 12 noon. No one in the office could possibly have seen our 'demeanor' from that distance, which was peaceful. A man claiming to be the landlord was there in a flash, blocking part of the lot with his big Mercedes even before we could all walk across the lot to the door, as though he was waiting for us...." Another participant, Lyle Sanders, adds, "It should be noted that the man claiming to own the property, Ernest Hudson, arrived within a couple of minutes after the first of our group. We were planning to meet at noon, and (we) got there about 11:50 am. Mr. Hudson got there about 11:55 am. That was while about 4 or 5 of us were standing on the far side of the parking lot from Drake's office, just talking and getting a couple of signs out. Because Mr. Hudson arrived within minutes, and before the noon meeting time, I think Drake or her staff called him in advance of our arrival. But to answer your question, no one did anything before or after Mr. Hudson's arrival that could reasonably be construed as a verbal or physical threat."
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