Climate Leadership Now National Day of Action: On Tuesday, November 18, volunteers gathered all over the country, organized by 1Sky, the Energy Action Coalition and 350.org, to welcome the President-elect and the new Congress, and called on them to make climate an immediate priority in 2009. As part of the welcome, volunteers delivered greeting cards representing the thousands of people who voted on climate.

San Francisco, November 18, 2008

To plan delivery of the Climate Leadership Now cards as part of the 1Sky national action, I called Congresswoman Pelosi's office and was directed to come up to her 14th floor office in the Federal Building. Next I called Senator Feinstein's office and was told to leave packages with the doorman on the first floor at 1 Post St. When I called called Senator Barbara Boxer's office and got voicemail. Next morning I called Senator Boxer's office and I was told I need an appointment to get into the office, but I may slip something under her office door. Based on my phone conversations with staff, I decided to deliver one card to Congresswoman Pelosi and the other to Senator Boxer. I made arrangements with Carol Crooks to accompany me. On November 18th we met at the SF Main Library and plotted our trip before taking off for the Federal Building, four blocks away.

At the Federal Building we showed our photo IDs and made it through the metal detector and proceeded to the elevator. We exited on the 14th floor and followed the signs to Congresswoman Pelosi's office, passing numerous open doors along the way. The atmosphere felt relaxed. When we came to a door labeled 'office of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi" we entered and put the card on the desk. No one was present. We were in the act of shooting photos when a woman walked in and told us photos are not permitted in the building. She claimed there was a sign prohibiting photos in front of the building.

We apologized, pleaded ignorance, and left. On our way out Carol asked the guard about the sign banning cameras, and he pointed one out to her that warned against shooting photos for commercial purposes. Since we weren't planning to sell the photos, we felt vindicated and shot some more photos as we left.

Two muni rides later we were at the San Francisco office of Senator Boxer. We took the elevator to the second floor, followed the signs, and rang the doorbell. A female voice answered and asked what we wanted. We told her we had a card for the Senator and were told to slip it under the door. We shot a few more photographs and were done.

We are happy we participated in Climate Leadership Now.

Sincerely,

Mari Eliza and Carol Crooks