Adding to my post immediately below, should the House fail to act under the leadership of the most powerful woman in US history, I’ll leave it to readers to speculate the impact on the chances for women and minorities to reach the three positions more powerful. Today begins the first chance for the first thorough repudiation the president has faced in over 6 years. Contact your representative!

But in that event, there remains one more step short of the outright toppling of the federal government. Sure, millions could show up in DC, but the decentralized local approach now being advanced by United for Peace and Justice.org on the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War is the easiest way to harness the power of multiple local actions, but it’s time to start organizing that now.

As in: Today. You. Little, powerless, disorganized, hesitant YOU.

Spreading the protests from Saturday through Monday (March 17-19) is the perfect starting point, but Monday will prove key.

Here in the university liberal bastion of Eugene, Oregon, a typical protest against presidential actions has meant several hundred show up on a Saturday or Sunday to march around the Federal building or to loiter and listen to several speakers. Often that garners at least a paragraph’s mention in the local press.

But imagine what can happen over a three day effort:

Saturday: hundreds show up at the federal building. But this time the speakers are directing people to the volunteer tables. Most have lists of the dozens of area churches. People sign on to form groups of 4 or 5 who will go to a specific church. They’re given a few fliers each, and instructed to make at least 200 copies of each.

Other booths sign up people willing to offer space in their vehicles to transport people on Monday.

Sunday: The small groups show up to leaflet churchgoers, urging them to sign available petitions, urging them to ask their clergy to issue public statements to the media against the continuation of the war, and to take part in a choice of Monday actions (asking for a signed commitment to do so.)

Monday: Supportive businesses lock their doors and post signs that they’ve done so on the 4th anniversary of Shock and Awe to state their support for the Stop and Heal campaign.

Hundreds of the protestors and churchgoers show up to sitdown butt-to-butt, blocking the entrances to City Hall. Some do the same at area military recruitment centers.

Hundreds more carpool in a caravan to make the 65-mile journey to the State Capitol building in Salem. Travelling smaller distances, from Portland, Corvallis and other cities, hundreds more each join at the State Capitol to create a sitdown protest thousands strong, blocking the paths of legislators.

Multiply that across thousands of US cities and 50 state capitals, and the business of government at every level, (along with the war recruitment centers) can be seriously impeded. Just twenty thousand at each state capitol is a million strong, plus millions more blocking city and town councils.

And more important than the actual numbers? The fact that the antiwar movement has effectively gone local, making it harder for governments to counter a spreading movement. And if many refuse to move, forcing local authorities to make arrests, the entire detention and court system could be bogged down, straining manpower and resources.

One three-day event will make it clear that the country’s mad as hell and ready to participate in non-violent civil resistance actions.

To make it even more alarming, utilize every sidewalk for sit-ins that block one corporate target. Imagine the concern if thousands of Exxon stations coast to coast got blocked that way. One proxy target like Exxon, representing ALL war profiteers, would clearly sound alarms in numerous corporate boardrooms and on Wall Street.

The power of local action is far superior to any potential government response. And the promise to repeat the three day event once a month after that will be all it takes to get Congress jumping.

Imagine that: it only takes you to gather up a half dozen people in the effort, with each of them asked to gather up another half dozen each. As long as every recruit brings in two more recruits, it only takes 2-3 weeks to get your first few hundred aboard.

Already there’s 290 events listed (click on the state links) but only 34, in 19 states, are slated for the anniversary of Shock and Awe.

If YOU start TODAY, posting your planned event here, we should quickly get hundreds started, and maybe thousands.

Call upon your friends and family. Recruit the moral force of churchgoers and clergy across the country, the same force that worked well in the Civil Rights Movement and past antiwar efforts.

Surprise yourself with the actual power you can wield in a collective grassroots action.

If Congress can’t do it, we CAN.

Oh, and one more thing: leaflet it, blog it, email it, phone it AND PASS THIS MESSAGE ON.

You. Today.

Or kiss your sweet democracy goodbye.