Sure is nice to be home!

Got home close to midnight last night (2 a.m. Washington time), driving through the cold Colorado night. Thankfully, it wasn't snowing.

Yesterday, of course, on the day I was leaving, it was sunny in D.C., so I got a few outside images. I was amazed that, in mid-November, so many plants were blooming and green and the leaves hadn't really changed much. The bottom picture of the Martin Luther statue was taken at Lutherplace, just across the street from the Washington Plaza Hotel, where most of the annual meeting of the general committee of Friends Committee on National Legislation was held.

I loved the scene of the mother and child sharing a quiet moment on Sunday morning by the closed pool. The city lies beyond, but you can't see the cars, the buses, the people.

National City Christian Church was a gleaming white edifice in the morning sun. Beyond, to the west, I was amazed to see the size of the trees growing on the tops of apartment buildings in the area.

The U.S. Capitol looks so much nicer in the sunny aerial view than it did when we were hoofing around Capitol Hill in the rain on Thursday.

The Washington Monument also stood out clear and bright as we were flying over after taking off from National. (I know, it got renamed for Reagan, but the building still reads "National Airport." Comparatively, the skyscrapers of Chicago's downtown area looked so small from the air.

The annual meeting was kind of an immersion experience in FCNL matters. On the one hand, it was an opportunity to meet the staff, on whom we rely for close-to-the-source updates on issues of national concern. Tightened budgets have reduced the staff size hugely, but they plug on, still the oldest (and largest) faith-based lobbying group on the Hill.

The other opportunity was the in-depth coverage of lobbying as an activity and of the issues of concern to Friends nationally.

On lobbying, I was reminded forcefully of something I'd heard before ... a written letter, sent through the U.S. Postal Service, may take three to four weeks to get to the member of Congress, because of the security procedures the mail has to go through. So, if you have an urgent message to get to a Representative or Senator about a current issue, mail isn't the way to go!

Heavy emphasis was placed on establishing a personal relationship with the legislator and his/her staff people. While there's a certain amount of tallying pros and cons, known credible sources may have more influence. A staffer for Sen. Lugar said an editorial in the Fort Wayne, IN, newspaper is way more important than one in the Washington Post. Another tip was that letters to the editor should include the name of the Rep. or Sen. you want to influence; their clipping services will automatically bring it to the legislator's inbox, if it is published. tv