WASHINGTON DC Day 2,3 & 4

-- Sheri Cohen & Anna Schneider

As we slowly made our way to the bus at 8 AM, our enthusiasm form the past day in Washington DC was still apparent. We stole a few last minutes of sleep on the busride into town for our first meeting of the day. It was with Greenpeace. Greenpeace is an organization which is trying to stop environmental destruction through nonviolent direct action.

We started our visit with a tour of their offices and then heard about “Project Thin Air” a global warming initiative. After learning about this big project we discussed other issues Greenpeace is involved in. They communicated to us that each of us can make small changes to add up to a better, cleaner environment.
After wrapping up with Greenpeace, we headed to a park to have a group discussion on our views concerning the legalization of marijuana. It was obvious that we had many different opinions on the issue but now we were prepared for our meeting with NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws).

They are a lobby group that is trying to legalize safe and responsible marijuana usage in America. We were pleasantly surprised to fine that Chris, our speaker, was well dressed, intelligent and an eloquent speaker. Not what most of us expected from the pro-marijuana lobby.
After hearing the thoughts of NORML we stopped for a delicious lunch at Cosi. We quickly returned to our busy schedule as we headed to NARAL-Pro Choice America. It was interesting that exactly four weeks earlier we started our meetings by talking with Pastor John in Dallas to hear his views on pro-life and now we are ending by meeting with the pro-choice. We met with the staff that explained their beliefs and led a discussion on the pro-choice ideology. Towards the end of the meeting we were fortunate enough to have Nancy Keenan, the new President of Naral-Pro Choice America come in and speak with us.

NARAL President Nancy Keenan

We continued on to our last meeting of the journey with Billy’s friend, Jon Lerner. Jon is a political consultant who works with Republican candidates. He shared his views and articulated the views of the Republican party on any issue we wanted to discuss. It was a great opportunity to challenge the opinions we had developed throughout the journey.
After a group dinner at TGI Fridays we made our way to Kesher Israel, an Orthodox Synagogue in Georgetown. It was a great chance to experience another kind of Judaism as we do each week. After another fun yet exhausting day we rolled into bed fulfilled and eagerly awaiting the coming day.

SIGHTSEEING ON DAYS 3 & 4

At the National Archieves


The World War II Memorial

Reading Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial

Vietnam Memorial

Speaking with protesters in front of the White House

WASHINGTON DC - Day 1

-- Micah Chervin

Today, Thursday July 28th, began with an early wake up to catch the Metro in time to make it to Capitol Hill. We met with Senators Barak Obama and Dick Durbin from Illinois. We went to their weekly coffee where they answer any questions. Senator Obama