Walking the Walk

I want to thank the voters of Massachusetts third district. You are represented by one of the most principled members of Congress I've ever known -- James P. McGovern. You can call him Jim. I've known and worked with him since I became a public interest advocate twenty years ago.

As a legislative aide to Boston's late great Joe Moakley, Jim led the congressional investigation into the brutal murders of the six Jesuit priests and two lay women at the University of Central America in El Salvador. His persistence and dedication helped break the cycle of impunity and make a political settlement of the war possible.

Elected to Congress in 1996, Jim has continued to be a human rights defender. If you want to renew your sense of hope, you should check out Jim's speeches on the floor of the House. But he doesn't just talk the talk, he walks the walk. That's why he protested the genocide in Darfur by committing civil disobedience at the Sudanese embassy in April 2006 and why he traveled with his staff to the Chad refugee camps in February 2007.

This week, Jim is walking the walk to better understand a domestic human right -- freedom from hunger. He and his wife Lisa have joined Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Tim Ryan (R-Ohio) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) for the Food Stamp Challenge, an initiative that calls on public officials to live one week on a food stamps budget of $3 per day. Check out the blog of their experience.

Some will say this is just a one-week stunt . . . well, in some ways it is. But it's a stunt that helps shine a light on a hidden problem in our country, one that rarely gets discussed in the media. When this week is over, I can guarantee that Jim will mobilize his colleagues to translate their experience into better public policy to combat hunger and address human rights issues around the world.