[Seac] Call to action - any takers?

[David Barnhill <barnhill@uwosh.edu>]

My name is Anna Weidemann and I'm with WISPIRG (Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group) at UW-Madison. I am working on the PIRG's national campaign to prevent drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. As you most likely know, this issue has been brought up quite often in the past, and is currently up for discussion once again. 

The Madison chapter of the PIRG's is targeting Representative Tom Petri--who is the Representative from Congressional District 6, of which Oshkosh is a part--with letters and phone calls from his constituents voicing concern about this issue. Petri has a fairly good environmental track record and is currently finishing his final term as a Congressional Representative, thus alleviating pressure to vote along his party's lines; because of these facts we think we have a great chance of gaining his support to prevent drilling in the Arctic. 

We need to create enough of a public outcry that he won't be able to ignore our voice!  We are hoping to organize a Day of Action on the Oshkosh campus to generate phone calls to Rep. Petri to let him know we appreciate his support on this issue in the past and that we have faith that he'll vote the right way when the time comes. We have some ideas for how to go about this, but if it is at all possible, we would like to work with/through people who are already in Oshkosh, as this would be much simpler for us not to have to make a trip out there. 

-Anna Weidemann