Concerned citizen Penny Gharanfoli, Ash-Lee Woodward Henderson of Concerned Citizens for Justice, Brian Merritt of Occupy Chattanooga and Mercy Junction Ministry and Maggie Martin of Iraq Veterans Against the War, from left, listen while a receptionist explains EPB building security procedures and why they are not allowed upstairs as they attempt to deliver a letter against military action in Syria from their respective groups to U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, at his office on Friday. The group was later admitted but media were not permitted to record.Not again, with military action against an obscure Middle Eastern dictator.
A handful of protesters tried to say that to Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Corker on Friday, showing up at his Chattanooga office with a letter asking him to vote against American military intervention in Syria in a Senate vote next week.
Corker voted in favor of limited action during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting Thursday.
“We’re here, basically, to tell Senator Corker that we, as his constituents, as well as the American people, do not support strikes against Syria,” Maggie Martin, an Army veteran, said Friday. She did two tours in Iraq, in 2003 and 2005.
Martin was in a small group of activists mounting a grassroots effort to stop the conflict, including representatives from Iraq Veterans Against the War and Concerned Citizens for Justice.