Matsui to be Picketed at CSU-Sacramento

Rep. Doris Matsui will be met by pickets Monday at CSUS; they are asking her to protect troops by voting to end new funding for Iraq war

Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, will be met by pickets here Monday when she attends a ceremony at CSU-Sacramento to honor her late husband's work to achieve redress and reparations for Japanese Americans interned during World War II. The presidential order to intern them came on this date, on Feb. 19, 1942.

The picket is set at the CSUS Library (North) MONDAY at about 2:15 p.m., shortly before Rep. Matsui attends a dedication of a new digital archive focused on Robert Matsui's work when he was in Congress.

Demonstrators say they are hoping to end another war sooner and not later and are protesting Rep. Matsui's refusal to vote to end funding for the Iraq war and occupation.

The Sacramento Coalition of End the War - which marked Day 29 Friday of a "peace in" at Rep. Matsui's office last Friday - said Doris Matsui is not doing enough to protect the troops. They have held vigil in her office since Jan. 8.

Rep. Matsui - who contends the best way to protect the troops is to approve new funding for the war - will also be dogged by pickets Wednesday when she attends a campaign fundraiser later in the week.

"We would honor, on this somber day, the contribution of former Rep. Bob Matsui to correct a terrible wrong in our history, and wish to convince Rep. Doris Matsui that she should commit to cut off all new funding for the war and occupation of Iraq that is, right now, causing such misery and loss to Americans and Iraqi alike," said Cres Vellucci, a Vietnam veteran and member of Veterans for Peace.