(CNSNews.com) - Activists participating in a global warming protest in front of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday criticized Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who missed the rally, and suggested that she has not been active enough in enacting liberal policies.
“Not really,” Leslie Angeline, a Code Pink Women for Peace activist, told when asked if she was disappointed that Pelosi, who had planned to speak at the rally, had not shown up. “I don’t believe in her at all. I’m a constituent. I am from San Francisco and she has failed us in every way.”
“She didn’t get us out of the war,” said Angeline. “She knew about torture before it started happening and she did nothing to stop it. I mean, the woman is a farce.”
Pelosi, who had planned to attend the rally on global warming was not there because, according to her congressional office, her flight had been delayed. Brianna Cayo Cotter, spokesman for the group that held the rally, told reporters that she had been in contact with Pelosi and that her flight had been delayed because of inclement weather.
Another activist, Jamie Henn, co-coordinator for the international environmental campaign www.350.org which was launched in 2008 by prominent environmentalist Bill McKibben, said he was disappointed that Pelosi was not there, but warned that if she does not act boldly enough, her job could be in danger.
“I think we are [disappointed that Pelosi did not make it to the protest] but we know that she knows we are out here,” said Henn. “We are in dialogue with her … Pelosi needs to know that we are behind her if she is bold but we are also willing to vote her out of office if she doesn’t take action.”
The rally, in which about 500 protesters participated, was part of the Energy Action Coalition’s Power Shift 2009 Conference, which occurred in Washington, D.C., last weekend.
The rally on Monday morning occurred after a Sunday night blizzard left the nation’s capital inundated with snow.
On the Energy Action Coalition’s Web site, under a section entitled “What We're For,” the Energy Action Coalition says: "The partners of Energy Action and the youth who are building this movement have been at the forefront of the movement for bold, just and comprehensive action to stop global warming and create a just and sustainable energy future."
The site also includes a "Youth Climate Pledge" that says, in part: "The climate crisis is the most urgent issue facing humanity today. Failure to fully and immediately confront it will condemn my generation to a transformed planet."
Pelosi’s congressional office did not reply to CNSNews.com’s requests for a response.
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