Durbin Spotted in ONE Shirt in Nashua

Jul 30th, 2007 12:14 PM UTC
By Matthew Bartlett

On Friday night I was stopping at a red light in Nashua, NH, when I noticed someone in a ONE shirt on the corner. I always get excited to see people in ONE bands and ONE shirts as it is a simple way to show support for the ONE Campaign and the world’s poorest people. So I rolled down the window and yelled to him and gave him the thumbs up. He laughed and waved.

Then I looked at him again and asked, “Are you Senator Durbin”?, and he very surprisingly and excitedly said “Yes”! I tried to get a photo, but the light turned green, so I quickly parked my car and tried to find out where he, and the person he was with, were going.

As I hit Main Street in Nashua, I spotted the senator walking into an Irish pub down the street. I was about to enter the pub when I ran into a ONE member named Al Kitomari in his ONE shirt. Al is a college student who is originally from Tanzania.

I asked Al if he was wearing his ONE shirt for a specific reason (as if he was going to meet Sen. Durbin), but he told me that he always wears his ONE shirt with pride. I told Al about Sen. Durbin being inside the pub so we quickly went in for a picture of Al and Sen. Durbin in their identical ONE shirts.

Sen. Durbin was very warm and graciously took the photo. He was in New Hampshire to help campaign for Sen. Obama’s presidential bid. He asked Al and me to sit down and have dinner with him and the Obama staffer he was with. Al was going to meet a few friends, but I sat down and over dinner we discussed ONE and ONE Vote ’08 (noting Obama sporting the ONE band in state and Sen. Daschle as national chair).

Sen. Durbin told me how he would partner with Republican senators like Sen. Brownback and Sen. DeWine, to offer amendments that would help fully fund US efforts to fight global AIDS and extreme poverty. I told him how, as a ONE volunteer, I clearly remember as I have called the Senate many times to ask my own senators to support these amendments with his name on it.

We talked about the Global Fund, MCC, and PEPFAR and even mentioned the Clean Water event that he attended in Chicago a few months ago. Sen. Durbin was very responsive and we even discussed the need to reform the Farm Bill to allow poor African farmers an opportunity to trade their way out of poverty.

It was an incredible chance meeting that shows no matter where you are – DC or Main Street in NH, and no matter who you are – a US Senator or an African student, the ONE Campaign is bringing people together across the political divide, and across the ocean, to unite as ONE and make poverty history!

TAGS: New Hampshire, ONE Vote 08, Sen. Richard Durbin