Angry Protestors March to Congressman Lewis' Office

On Wednesday, Bobbi Jo Chavarria and about 40 people made it clear: they’ve had enough congressional nonsense.

Residents across the Inland Empire are suffering, yet they see their conservative representative taken no real action, said Chavarria, a longtime peace activist.

The protest was led by the local MoveOn.org council as part of the national MoveOn effort encouraging Americans around the country gather at congressional offices to ask their elected officials, “Where are the Jobs?"

Members of the Democratic Club and Citizens Action for Peace joined MoveOn members at the intersection of Brookside Avenue and San Mateo Street near Congressman Jerry Lewis’ Redlands office.

For just over an hour, they waved signs, chanted and cheered as vehicles honked. Members spoke and then the group delivered a jobs contract with a list of demands for the congressman that included: Invest in the country’s infrastructure, offer Medicare for all, and fix Social Security.

The congressman was not at his office on Wednesday.

“I think we need to make this town bluer,” Chavarria told the crowd during her short address. “I think we need to make this area bluer so that folks like Jerry Lewis who have been riding the public (gravy) train for a long time, does not get to do that anymore. So that he doesn’t become a millionaire on the back of the hard working people in our community.”

Chavarria pleaded for the group stay involved. She pleaded they get out, talk to neighbors and get them out the vote.

MoveOn.org Council Coordinator for Redlands, Zoe Lane, said the idea for the contract was partially inspired by those used by Republican legislators.

Moderates and progressives around the country approved the contract, Lane said.

“I want Representative Lewis to clearly understand that I want a job,” protestor Ande Spencer said. “I expect him and his colleagues on the hill to return to Washington in September with ideas to put my fellow Americans back to work.”

“And should Mr. Lewis continue to shirk his responsibilities to his constituents, I assure him that the unemployment woes he will face will surely be his own,” said said.