Springfield report

courtesy of Aliya and Larissa

On Wednesday, April 22, seven members of SSN joined members of SEIU and SOUL on a bus trip to Springfield to speak with legislators about bringing green jobs and better public transit options to the Southside, as well as balancing the budget in a fair and responsible way. The day started early, with everyone on the bus by 6:15, where we were greeted with donuts, coffee and excited community organizers. Upon reaching Springfield, we hurried to meet with Hyde Park's representative and Illinois House Majority leader Barbara Flynn Currie. Our numbers were impressive, and she listened to us for a reasonable amount of time and agreed to cooperate with our objectives. After speaking with a few more legislators, many of whom seemed duplicitous and dismissive, we joined the other lobbyist groups outside for a rally that could only be described as showy, placating and generally unproductive. The subsequent lobbying was fairly chaotic and less successful than before, kind of an "every organizer for himself" situation, and few legislators even stopped to talk with representatives of our group. Ultimately, we personally left feeling confused as to what our role was exactly, but really enjoyed interacting with the people from SOUL and SEIU and getting to know other members of SSN better. We still believe that bringing legislators closer to their constituents has inherent merit, and we applaud SEIU and SOUL for the work they are doing. Overall, it was a beautiful day, and Abe Lincoln's house was damn cool.