On Wednesday, I attended Nancy Pelosi's welcome luncheon for her constituents. I tried to find a staffer who cared that we didn't get in, but apparently, by the time we got there, dozens of blue and purple ticket holders had complained, and her staff didn't have any answers. Inauguration chair Dianne Feinstein is trying to get to the bottom of what happened to the thousands of us ticketed folks who were locked out of the inauguration. NPR, CNN, Wash Post, etc reporting on it now. I'm still trying to get over it, but all over the district I keep running into fellow purple ticket holders and we're all still bitter. Anyway...
The Pelosi luncheon was elegant, with lots of California-style salads and a killer dessert bar. After a few days of standing in below freezing weather eating energy bars, this was great
Nancy Pelosi is an extremely thin, very well-dressed woman. I didn't really get to chat with her. She was mobbed most of the time.
But believe me, I am going to be pressing her hard this next few months to schedule the vote on the Filipino Veteran's Equity bill.
And then I played around with the podium.
After the luncheon, I joined a number of Filipinas/os with the National Alliance for Filipino Veteran's Equity to meet with Rep. Steve Austria, a newly elected Filipino Republican from Ohio, at the Capitol. His dad was a World War II vet, so he says he's behind the bill and will fight for it. I sincerely hope he keeps his word. Anyway, I've done a Capitol tour but have never been taken into the deep recesses of the Capitol. Because the House was voting, we had to go to the Capitol building itself (most Reps and Senators have their offices at Longworth, Cannon, or Rayburn next to the Capitol) and meet with him. We went through the underground tunnels and saw the House subway (which sadly, we couldn't take even though I begged the staffers to ride it, saying that my feet hurt).
This is us: Rosita, Lillian Galedo, Ben de Guzman, and Jon Melegrito, all of us representing national Filipino American organizations, with freshman Congressman Steve Austria in the Rayburn meeting room.
After the meeting and a quick dinner, I just collapsed in the room, completely exhausted.
I was up at 6 this morning (Thursday) to get to the National Archives at College Park, MD. I took Metro to the National Archives on the mall and then the researcher shuttle. I've been here numerous times but there were a few files I still wanted to peek at. All of the records of the American colonial government (1898-1945) in the Philippines, Record Group 350, and all the World War II records of Philippine Guerillas and Scouts are kept here. The payroll records of my dad's guerilla unit, crumbling and yellowed, and with my dad's 17-year old signatures, are here at College Park. I didn't find what I thought I'd find, found something I didn't expect (a history of my province, Capiz/Aklan), and then jumped back on the shuttle to get back to the Hill for some more lobbying.
In the afternoon, I went back to DC and met up again with organizers for the Veteran's Equity campaign. We went to Nancy Pelosi's office in the Capitol building, and told her staff that we wanted full equity -- all the benefits afforded all other WWII veterans who served under the American flag -- and we needed it to pass as soon as possible, before more veterans pass away. It's a whole new administration and a new sense of hope, right? Pelosi's staff said that we should push the Veteran's Affairs committee chair, Bob Filner, R-San Diego. He's been an ally for a long time. Our next meeting was with him.
And in our meeting, he told us to push Pelosi. Sigh. Obama was a co-sponsor of the bill, so that angle will have to be worked as well.
After the Filner meeting I popped in to see the newly renovated National Museum of American History, which as been closed for two years.
Michelle Obama was already on the wall at the First Ladies exhibit.
Afterwards, I shopped for some inauguration souvenirs, had a quiet tapas dinner with Donna and Keith at one of my favorite restaurants, Jaleo, in downtown DC, and came home early to crash.
I love the spinach at Jaleo.
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