ACES, Balloons, and Congressmen

By: Max Lyons

            On our trip to Washington, DC we talked to the lone Vermont representative for the House, Peter Welch. We had been studying global warming, politics and renewable energy and we found a renewable energy bill that mixed all of these aspects together so we decided to study it in-depth. The American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) is a bill to curb greenhouse gas emissions. We asked Welch about ACES and how he felt about the bill. He said that he strongly supported ACES and most of the other representatives on the Energy Committee did as well. We also asked him how he felt about his original bill REAP being combined with ACES. He told us that instead of weakening REAP, he felt that he strengthened it. The last thing that we asked him was where we could hand out ACES information leaflets to representatives and people walking around. He told us that we should go to the corner of Independence Ave. (right near the Capitol’s steps) and hand them to passing representatives just coming from a vote. We misunderstood this and thought he meant stay near the steps of the Capitol so we did.

            The ACES cards had an ace on the front, with information about the bill on the back. Lloyd made and designed the leaflets, and a lot of our class helped cut them out. Many representatives were leaving the Capitol so they took the leaflets. Some did not take them, and some would take them and crumple them up or rip them. One congresswoman when handed the leaflet said: “Do you know how much this is going to cost?” and crumpled up the leaflet. Most took leaflets though. About fifteen minutes into our leaflet handout experience, security guards from the Capitol came up to us and told us that it was illegal to hand out fliers on Capitol property. We told them that it was a misunderstanding, so we left and started walking to the Mall without an argument.

            We wanted to do something at the Mall that would get our message across and be noticed from a distance. We had decided to write a message on big, colorful balloons – one letter each – so it would attract attention and be seen from far away. As soon as we were lined up with balloons reading, “Green Energy is Our Future” we walked in a line around one of the sections of the mall. Almost everyone stopped to look at the balloons for the short ten minutes that we showed the message. After that, we proceeded to hand out the balloons to anyone who wanted them and stop at street vendors to buy drinks and ice cream.

            Being an activist in DC was awkward at first, because we didn’t know what to do or how to do it, but after we started handing out leaflets and walking around with balloons, we felt more comfortable getting the message across and I think that all of us would walk around with balloons on the Mall again.