Those Zany Activists

It started out as a pretty funny hit-and-run video of direct action .  A cross-section of anti-poverty-anti-hunger activists stormed the office of US Representative Paul Ryan on Tuesday, December 10 to insist on a budget for the poor, homeless and hungry to be funded by a 50% cut in military spending. This was the day of the less-than-historic announcement of a bi-partisan budget deal by Ryan and Senator Patty Murray. The hand-held camera followed demonstrator Cheri Honkola as she invited her train of fellow travelers into the office: “Come on in everyone.  Come on in, everyone.”  A staffer quickly approached and pointed out “We don’t allow any photography … ” and another  “no, we don’t have room… we don’t have room … we can meet outside, we can meet outside please” as the unscheduled visit deteriorated into a spectacle of cat-herding.  The scene was apparently repeated with another crew at Murray’s office.

I certainly recognized two of the participants in the activities of that day - Cheri Honkola and Jill Stein.  Honkola is achieving mythic proportions in a long career.  If you have to pick a date it all started, it must have been about 24 years ago - that’s using the math from the best origins story about her when she and her 9-year old son were freezing out on the street.  Summarized in Wikipedia:

After living in an apartment in Minnesota, Honkala and her young son were forced to move out and live out of their white Camaro. She and her son became homeless after the Camaro was demolished by a drunk driver. Honkala could not find a shelter that would allow them to remain together that winter. To stay together and keep from freezing, Honkala decided to move into an abandoned Housing and Urban Development (HUD) home. She would later comment, "I chose to live, and I chose to keep my son alive." She called a press conference, in which she said, according to her, "This is me, this is my nine-year-old son, and we're not leaving until somebody can tell us where we can live and not freeze to death."

This has become a pretty reliable tactical model.  Philadelphia has tens of thousands of vacant properties - many or most of which are owned by the city.  Cheri guides homeless clients on how to takeover carefully targeted individual properties, how to navigate vagaries in the law and employ the harsh glare of public opinion to successfully settle-in these pioneer families as squatters.

Cheri’s bonafides are many and varied.  She is co-founder of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union;  co-founder of “P-perk”, Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign.   I’ve heard that Cheri’s enterprises don’t bother to apply for non-profit status because the gray-area legality of some of her modes of operation might pose a sticking point in the application process or hinder their organization’s effectiveness.  Cheri has run for Sheriff on a platform of not carrying out evictions.  During the last presidential campaign, Cheri was vice presidential candidate for the Green Party on the ticket with Jill Stein as candidate for President.  Apparently Cheri has spoken to UN delegates about poverty.  According to the Philadelphia Weekly she has been arrested over 200 times - usually being released within hours.  (Another source said she’s only ever been convicted three times, but that was by 1999.)

Other documented perps of the action are listed by opednews (first link):  

At a press conference before the office visits, speakers representing a Budget for People, Peace and the planet spoke to the media. Speakers at the news conference included the following: Jill Stein, Green Shadow Cabinet; Cheri Honkala, Liz Ortiz, and Glen Davis of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign; David Swanson, Roots Action; Mark Dunlea, Hunger Action Network of New York State; Dr. David Schwartzman, Professor Emeritus Howard University and community activist.

Why do these adults participate in these self-indulgent and theatrical charades?  Again, I think opednews sums it up just fine, this from the narration of the video:

Now, because this broad coalition included over a hundred peace, anti-hunger, anti-poverty, environmental and community groups it is almost universally ignored within the walls of Congress.