It’s Getting Hot In Here

On a cool April evening at the Carver-Price Cultural Center in Appomattox Virginia, my hope in this fight was restored.

Organizing meetings, traveling endlessly, conference calls like crazy- sometimes its easy to loose sight of why we organize. Well, last night at a Town Hall Meeting, Ridge Schuyler, District Director for Tom Perriello (VA-5)- as well as more than 30 residents of Appomattox, VA- affirmed this for me.

Heather Riggleman, senior at Sweet Briar College and lifetime resident of Appomattox, organized the meeting as a first step in creating a town dialogue on climate change and local solutions in her new role as Climate Precinct Captain in Appomattox, as a part of Focus the Nation 2009.

Heather opened the program with a presentation on the urgency of climate change, why it matters to Virginians, and gave an overview of the principles of Cap and Trade and a Carbon Tax.

Following Heather, I gave a presentation on local solutions and how citizens can be involved in the federal legislative process.

Finally, Ridge Schuyler, District Director for Rep. Perriello spoke. Schuyler, a 10 year veteran of The Hill and former employee of The nature Conservancy, was wonderful. He spoke on Perriello’s desire to re-energize Virginia and his interest in making Virginia a “leader” in a new energy economy.

The best part, though, was when he spoke about civic engagement. He stated that Americans are more civically engaged than he has ever seen, and more than once he mentioned that Washington needs to hear from voters…And Mr. Schuyler knows that voters matter. If 772 people hadn’t voted on November 4^th, Mr. Perriello wouldn’t be in Washington- Mr. Schuyler reiterated that if representatives don’t hear from constituents, they won’t know how to vote; he called on people to call, to write letters, and to visit as often as possible. He askd us to keep the pressure on!

When asked about the climate bills on the table, he said Perriello hasn’t determined a position on Waxman-Markey or Van Hollens’ bills. As a first term congressman who won by a margin slimmer than you can imagine, obviously he is careful to be a champion on anything yet, but given his past service with PIRG and Greencorps and his vision for Virginia, I think if the 5^th district speaks loud enough, we’ll have another southern environmental steward in congress!

But, you heard it from them first…he can only be a champion if he continues to hear that is what his constituents want! Washington knows we voted, we are putting the pressure on…we can’t stop now!

Cheers to continuing the Powershift!