Two Whidbey Island residents got in a little grassroots action this week.

They joined about a dozen other members of the political action group MoveOn on Wednesday afternoon at the office doorstep of Democratic Congressman Rick Larsen in Everett.

It was one of more than 200 coordinated MoveOn meetings across the nation with Congressional representatives on the same day.

“I thought it was a very good meeting,” said Dorothy Parshall of Langley.

“I thought we were listened to. I don’t know if we were heard, but we were listened to.”

“I think it was positive,” agreed Dan Freeman of Clinton. “It would be nice to see Congressman Larsen moving in a progressive direction.”

The pair were part of a group presenting Larson’s staff with a petition containing 1,131 signatures of 2nd District voters in support of the stimulus package proposed by President-elect Barack Obama.

Their emphasis was on green jobs, and programs that would benefit citizens rather than corporations. They are also on the lookout for excessive earmarks and further attempts at empire building.

Larsen was away from his office at the time of the visit, but staff members received the group, Freeman said.

“We were urging them to try and help clean up our country,” said Freeman, who described himself as an independent. “It’s going to be a long slog, a hard haul. The outgoing administration has done its level best to sack the treasury.”

He said he would urge Larsen to look homeward first.

“As long as we are a warrior nation, the people in this country are always going to suffer,” Freeman said. “I think it’s important to speak up as a citizen.”

“We need to invest in our own people and our own country,” he continued. “We were mainly there to advocate for the majority of citizens, rather than the minority of citizens.”

Carolyn Tamler of Greenbank, chairman of MoveOn Whidbey, said the local group currently has 180 members.

“MoveOn councils are the boots-on-the-ground groups that have been organized to expand MoveOn’s activities from just being Web-based to being active in local communities,” Tamler said.

Last Sunday, the group had a Congressional training session at the home of Robbie Cribbs in Langley, in preparation for the visit to Larsen’s office, she said

That meeting was one of 342 MoveOn training events attended by more than 8,500 people on the same day nationwide, Tamler said.

The visit to Larsen’s office was headed by Ray McKinnon of Everett, who joined the Whidbey group because he couldn’t find a local chapter on his side of the water, Tamler said.

McKinnon’s quest to Larsen’s office included people from Everett and Marysville, she said.

“Ray is really excited and wants to organize a MoveOn Council in Everett,” Tamler said. “I told him that we on Whidbey would support him.”