Last week I wrote about the Representative Jan Schakowsky letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in support of the U.S. pledging $375 million over the next three years to the Global Partnership for Education. I have some new information about the letter and a couple confessions.
The new information is the Rep. George Miller did sign onto the letter. The letter was originally supposed to close on October 21, but apparently Rep. Schakowsky’s office was hearing a lot of representatives wanted to sign onto to it, so they extended the close date to 11:00 AM October 27. As of last Thursday morning the list numbered 62, but an additional seven representatives signed on at almost the last second and Rep. Miller was among them.
I was on a conference call last Monday with the RESULTS field leadership for the global groups. In the call, I learned that unlike previous “sign-on letters” that RESULTS had supported in the past, for the Schakowsky letter, only RESULTS volunteers were contacting their representatives. Also interesting, to me anyway, was that there were more representatives who signed onto this letter than the GAVI letter RESULTS groups worked on a few months ago with other NGOs.
Last week I wrote how RESULTS is bipartisan. During the call Monday night, I pointed out that at the final tally, 69 Democrats signed onto the Rep. Schakowsky letter, but zero Republicans had. To me, that indicates RESULTS needs to think about how we volunteers can better make the case for this kind of foreign aid.
One of the RESULTS leaders on the call last Monday was Heide Craig. She is a Regional Coordinator in South Carolina. A Regional Coordinator is a RESULTS volunteer who has a weekly conference call with the leaders of several RESULTS groups. Heide talked about trying to get three different Republicans on the letter, two of which she said were Tea Party elected. None of the three support the Education for All Act of 2011 (H.R. 2705), but despite that fact, Heide and the groups she leads asked all three representatives to sign onto the Rep. Schakowsky letter.
Here is one of my confessions. I didn’t ask Rep. McClintock to sign onto the letter. When I heard from his office that he didn’t believe the U.S. government should support any overseas education programs, I figured why should I bother to try. He doesn’t support a bill that has no dollar amounts in it and simply redirects U.S. foreign aid education policy to support more effective programs. There is zero chance he will support a letter that requests a pledge of $350 million to an international program focused on education.
I’m pretty sure the three Republican representatives that Heide’s groups cover share similar beliefs with Rep. McClintock. But, the RESULTS volunteers in South Carolina still asked their representatives.
Heide wrote that she’s been a RESULTS volunteer for 25 years. Her number one piece of advice for me in working with Republicans was “Stop beating yourself up!” So, I’m heeding her advice and not berating myself for failing to contact Rep. McClintock. I do, however, draw inspiration from Heide’s dreaming the impossible dream as Don Quixote might say.
What inspires Heide?
She told me one of her Congressmen during her 25 years of volunteering was Rep. Bob Inglis. Rep. Inglis was a conservative Republican which one RESULTS group met with with several times. Over time, a close and supportive relationship was built to the point that prior to being voted out of office, he spoke at a RESULTS International Conference. Heide wrote to say that “When I see him now, he always asks, ‘Are you still doing your work in RESULTS?’ and my answer is always yes. He says, ‘Don’t stop, it’s very important!’ ”
Rep. Inglis lost his reelection bid to Rep. Trey Gowdy in in the Republican primary of 2010. The RESULTS group in his district has met with his office five times since January–four of those visits were with the representative himself. He has never signed onto any legislation that RESULTS supports. But, I’d bet my last dollar that Rep. Inglis also didn’t support any of the legislation that the RESULTS group in his district first brought him.
What makes RESULTS unique, I think, is that RESULTS volunteers build relationships with the members of Congress that represent them, they educate those members by bringing them new information about issues of poverty, and they keep trying.
Heide wrote me that it’s easy to get Democrats to support our legislation, but that new Republicans take longer. She pointed out that one of the problems is that new Republicans don’t want to step outside their party’s dictates.
Heide is inspired by her past relationship with a former conservative Republican representative, so she continues to educate new Republicans in the hope that eventually, they too, will step outside the party line.
I’m inspired by Heide and so tomorrow morning I’m going to do something I’ve not done for the last couple days (that’s my second confession): call my two Democrat senators and urge them to vote against any legislation that cuts foreign aid spending. RESULTS staff said the Senate will be begin voting on foreign aid amendments Thursday. Given that it’s already Thursday evening as I write this, I’m already late.
In my defense, my senators are Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and unlike the members of Congress that Heide’s RESULTS groups cover, I don’t have to educate them. Both Californian senators are already supporters of foreign aid. They understand the importance of foreign aid to our national security, to our nation’s economic well-being, and to our moral values.
All that makes it easy for me so say, I don’t need to call them. I’m free to indulge my reluctance to pick up the phone, call to DC, shuffle through the answering service maze, and eventually either talk to a human being or leave a message. I’m a busy person, I don’t have time for that.
But I do have time and the real reason for not calling the last couple days is that I sometimes have an irrational fear of verbally expressing my opinion. I have very little problem with expressing my opinions on paper. I enjoy that. I can buttress my position with facts and I have the time to research what I don’t remember. When it comes to talking with someone, even someone who will only record my opinion and not judge it, a bizarre aversion sometimes rears up and stops me in my tracks like an ogre guarding a bridge. I sometimes get tongue-tied and supporting facts escape like shadows under a clouding sky.
Tomorrow, though, I’m going to think of Heide jousting with Republican ignorance. I’m going to think of the long-term security and prosperity needs of the U.S. and of the world. I’m going to think of the impoverished for whom foreign aid cuts don’t mean doing without comfort, they mean dying.
Yes, the U.S. has a great national debt problem, but to cut foreign aid would mean it has an even greater priority problem. Great Britain also has enormous debt and its government is also cutting back on spending, except in foreign aid. In that one area, Great Britain is increasing funding.
My senators need to hear that they have constituents who would support their voting against amendments that reduce foreign aid. Otherwise, a vocal minority tramples the life of a silent majority.