For immediate release               
Info:  Cele Meyer, 758-0796

Dear Editor   


Local Residents Barred from Hastert’s Office


Congressman Dennis Hastert may be home during a Congressional recess, but neither he nor his staff were available to speak with a dozen of his constituents who visited his Batavia office Wednesday morning. In fact,  several members of the Batavia Police Department spent the morning on guard to insure that none of us  entered the premises, even  to present the petition we carried.   Previous requests for an appointment with Hastert or a member of his staff had been repeatedly refused.

The visit to Hastert’s regional office was part of a nationwide effort sponsored by Move on and True Majority to enable constituents to visit their members of Congress while home on recess.  The purpose of the visits was to petition Congress to pressure President Bush to fire Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.  Some sixty appointments were successfully arranged at regional offices in members’ home districts. Unlike our group, those constituents were allowed to share their feelings that Rumsfeld should be fired for his mistakes in the war in Iraq, leading most recently to the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison and subsequent worldwide loss of respect for our country.


Peter Barick of DeKalb, the first to arrive at Hastert’s office, was surprised to find himself barred from entering by Batavia Police Detective Kevin Bretz.  On this, his first visit to the Congressman’s office, Barick said he had understood that in a democracy it was a citizen’s right to speak to our Representative or at least a member of his staff.  Batavia police Commander Gregory Thrun later explained to our group of would-be visitors gathering across the street that the police were there to protect public safety, citing previous occasions when protestors had tapped on the glass windows at the front of the office building with their keys or entered in wheelchairs and refused to leave until allowed to speak to the Speaker.  (Apparently the Speaker speaks but doesn't listen.) 


Dr. Jan Bach of St. Charles pointed out that, as taxpayers, “we paid for the office, the Representative, and the staff, and therefore should be allowed to enter.”  Lisa Mayse-Lillig of DeKalb, leader of the group, assured Commander Thrun that we were not there to rally nor protest but merely to present a petition and hopefully to speak with the Representative or a member of his staff about a matter of deep concern.  Diana Skipworth of Geneva contrasted the shut out at Hastert’s office with  the courteous, responsive treatment she experienced in an earlier visit to Representative Henry Hyde’s office.   "How can anyone expect the citizens of Iraq to have a voice in their government," she wondered, "when Americans are denied a voice by ours?



Along with three from DeKalb, the group attempting to visit Hastert Wednesday included constituents from Sleepy Hollow, Elgin, St. Charles, Geneva, and Aurora.  Mayse-Lillig promised that she would continue efforts to secure an appointment with the Representative.  "The situation is very seious,  with the safety and honor of all Americans threaened by the arrogant disegard of international standards exhitibted by Mr. Rumsfeld and his associaes," she said, "and we feel it is our citizens' duty to make our concerns known."


Cele Meyer,
 739 W. Hillcrest Drive
DeKalb IL 60115
815/758-0796