We had an absolutely phenomenal day! Congressman Brian Baird's district scheduler had told us that even though the Congressman was in town, hew was scheduled from 6a.m. to midnight and would be unavailable. The staff felt we should "donate the pie to a homeless shelter." I couldn't believe it! Who would decline a PIE?

Not to be daunted, my daughter Gabrielle and I decided to take a pie to his staff and the information and pie chart at least! At the last minute our little 4-year-old neighbor Sophie needed to join us. We got dressed up to the nines and, sporting our chocolate cream pie (with chocolate wedges for the percent divisions and pink and red sprinkles for the infamous 1% 'Piece of the Pie' and Sophie in her sparkle-purple and marabou tiara) off we went!

As luck would have it, it took us a little while to find his office in the maze of buildings at Historic Fort Vancouver. I was concerned our fru-fru pie would melt in the sun. As we opened the front door I got a glimpse of the Congressman as he was walking away up a long flight of stairs.

"Congressman Baird!" I fairly yelled cheerfully. He turned and walked down the stairs with a big smile on his face. I guess we were a pretty friendly sight--Gabri holding Sophie in her arms and me holding the pie and card and literature for him.

"Well, what have we here?" he said. I gave him the spiel about the U.S. Dept. of Peace wanting a "Piece of the Pie." He said he was only in the office for five minutes and was glad that we had caught him. He said what a wonderful gesture of Peace this campaign was and spoke of being very tired of the near-violent tactics people were using in the name of peace.

Then he invited us up to meet all of his staff. One-by-one we went into their offices. He said, "I just want my staff to see what a delightful and kind gesture this is--so different than what they are used to." His staff gathered round.

We then began the discussion in earnest. I told him about the 440 pies that were being delivered today in Washington, D.C., and all across the nation. I spoke of Mother's Day and its original intent (hence the beautiful children with me). He saw that Sophie really wanted to ring the bell on the desk but was too shy, and saying he had 3-yr-old twins of his own, he stopped mid-discussion and showed her how to ring it.

He asked me if I knew about the U.S. Institute of Peace and the fine work they were doing (yes). He found a magazine article he thought I would appreciate and had his staff person Kimberly make a copy for me. (See: National Journal, 4/26/08, the Foreign Affairs Section, entitled, "PEACE WORK.")<<http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/print_friendly.php?ID=fa_20080426_5541--I’d like to also have this linked in our Media section. Or research?>> He spoke of feeling that Dennis Kucinich was taking the concept to a level that was too "micro-managing," i.e., Baird mentioned being a vegetarian himself, but thought that Dennis went too far in including animal rights in this kind of legislation.

That was his argument against having a cabinet-level position created in a nutshell:

1. The institution already exists
   
2. Too much micro-managing would be costly.
   

I decided to come at it from a different perspective, since we are all aware of this argument (he's used it before). I spoke of the momentum growing to create a National Peace Academy, and what that would look like as a sister institution to our military academies where the most sophisticated and forward thinking strategies could be taught that would actually prevent violence at home and abroad and what that would mean for the people of America and the world.

He mentioned his gratitude for the civil way in which the Department of Peace Campaign people were going about making change on behalf of peace in the world. I told him of our firm commitment to the practice of peace and showing the way by example. I closed with asking him to revisit The Peace Alliance website and asking for his support of HR808. It was quite a long and very gratifying "five minutes."

Before we left he asked my daughter Gabrielle what grade she was in (6th) and what she liked best about school. She told him about her math, journalism, and photography interests. I told him she would be writing an article for her school paper about this, to which he replied, "Hey! Where's our digital camera? Let's get a picture for Gabrielle to use for her article!" So he and I and the girls and the pie got our picture taken and they'll be sending it to us.

Such an exciting day! One I'm sure the girls and I will long remember.

Keep up the good work Everybody...WE ARE THE CHANGE and how sweet it is!