One Day, Three Pictures (and Three Stories)

As I’ve said elsewhere, I’m still thinking about today. But, I really want to share these three pictures that I took that say a lot about the three parts of my day. (All rights to these photos are reserved. If you are interested in using them, please let me know.) [I've also inserted the four stories at Metro Weekly -- which were preceded by this preview story -- looking at all the movement and action on Thursday and Friday of this week.]

Sens. Lieberman, Levin and McCain look at the witnesses - Jenny Kopfstein, Michael Almy and Gen. John Sheehan (Ret.) -- at the 9:45 a.m. start of the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday. Almy and Kopfstein were discharged from the Armed Forces because of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

My piece about the hearing, “Sheehan’s Stand,” covers the former general’s somewhat extraordinary comments:

Since Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) first began hearings last month on the military’s ”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy,” he’s had many witnesses voice disagreement with him. Never, though, has the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee been as plainly frustrated as he was on Thursday morning, March 18, during the testimony of retired Marine Corps Gen. John J. Sheehan.

At one point during the hearing, Levin looked directly at Sheehan and ended a line of questioning by telling the former Supreme Allied Commander of the Atlantic, ”I think the burden to maintain a discriminatory policy is on the people who maintain the policy – not on the people who want to end it.”

Lt. Dan Choi chained himself to the fence on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House at a little past 1 p.m. Thursday. James Pietrangelo, who previously challenged the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in court, also was chained to the fence, to Choi's left. Both men were later arrested and are being held overnight Thursday. Robin McGehee also was arrested, but later released, in front of the White House.

My article on the Human Rights Campaign’s rally and Choi’s protest and arrest, “Hearing, Rally and Arrests,” covers the breadth of the walk along Pennsylvania Avenue, from the Capitol to Freedom Plaza to the White House. Yusef Najafi covered the men’s arraignment on Friday.

Janine Carmona is escorted from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office by Capitol Police a little past 7 p.m. Thursday evening. She was among five people arrested as the result of a protest organized by Get Equal; they were there calling for the Speaker to commit to a floor vote this month on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act.

Finally, my first look at Get Equal and the Pelosi office protest, “Not the ENDA the Road“:

Eight activists went into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office in the Cannon House Office Building at 4 p.m. Thursday for what was described as a scheduled meeting in her office. As Samantha Ames later told the Capitol Police, however, ”We’re not leaving until we get confirmation from Nancy Pelosi that she’s going to have this bill up for a vote before the end of the month.”

”So, absent that, we’re not leaving,” Ames said. ”We’re not making any trouble, we’re not causing any damage or anything, but we’re also not going to leave.”

After an official with Pelosi’s office informed the activists that the office would be closing at 7 p.m., four of the eight remained in the office. Capitol Police informed the activists that they would be arrested if they did not leave. About 7:30 p.m. a group of nearly 10 officers entered the office and restrained Ames, Janine Carmona, Chastity Kirven and Michelle Wright. The officers led them out of the office building and into a police van.

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