Our trip coming to DC and talking to our legislators like Congressman Mike Kelly has been really interesting so far. Some of the representatives we talked to were full of blame – blame for the Democrats who they said stopped the passage of bills that could help working people, blame on too much spending on programs they claim they are trying to improve and blame on too much regulation on preventing the creation of jobs. But we don’t understand why additional burden is being placed on small businesses to create jobs when corporations should be asked to step up to the plate. Instead they are laying off people and shipping our jobs overseas. Many, many people out there don’t have jobs and therefore can’t support small businesses. There is not a person here who doesn’t know someone who hasn’t lost their job.
But we also thanked lawmakers like Congressman Mike Doyle and Yoder for extending the unemployment benefits for people that have lost their jobs. While we were walking and chanting “We are the 99%,” a small child of about 3 or 4 starting chanting with us. And also, there a tourist who had specifically changed her plans just so she could join up with the 99% activists. The look on her face was pure excitement.
With all this rain, we are not disappointed we did not end up in tents and are happy with having a roof over our heads.
In all, it was a long trip but we are definitely enjoying it. We think our politicians have gotten our message. While we were entering our representatives’ office building, we started chanting “Whose House? Our House!” It echoed all throughout the halls and everyone started opening the doors to see our Pittsburgh crew.