Hunger strikers in Washington D.C, from left to right: Sam Jewler, Adrian Parsons,
and Joe Gray
In Washington D.C., a group of Occupy protesters have gone on a hunger strike to call attention to their lack of representation in Congress as well as their lack of control over the District's laws and city budget. The provocation was the House of Representatives spending deal which bans "the District from funding abortions with local tax money." The protesters have now gone a full week without eating. During that week, a few of the protesters, Joe Gray, Kelly Mears, Adrian Parsons, and Sam Jewler, have visited various congressmen, including Speaker of the House John Boehner, to make their point. Their life-threatening protest has not been completely in vain. Representative Keith M. Ellison of Minnesota read the protesters' demands into the Congressional Record. Also, Washington D.C.'s non-voting member of the House of Representatives, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, announced that she would enter a tribute to the protesters in the Congressional Record. As the protesters go into their second week of not eating, they will increase their risks of serious health consequences. However, the strikers believe that the longer they hold out, the louder their message becomes. What are your thoughts about the strikers' method of protest? Do you believe that such extreme measures are necessary in order to get a point across? Or do you think that the extremeness of their method actually hurts their cause?
