The following was written by Ron Kurowski of MoveOn.org.

“Please tell him, we need good jobs in Joliet. This is the community he represents." That was the message Monica Morales of Joliet wanted U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s (R) aides to relay to the 11th congressional district congressman. Monica, who spoke passionately about the difficulty of finding good, well paying jobs and living on a minimum wage income, has been unemployed for over two years.

Steven Hausun has also been unemployed for over two years and is losing his house. He wants those “who ruined the economy to be held accountable”. His voice rising in anger, he said “Wall Street needs to go to jail”. For him, “the American Dream is over”.

Monica and Steven were with a group of about 25 residents of Joliet and nearby communities who gathered Thursday afternoon at the congressman’s Joliet office to petition their representative to work for jobs, not cuts.

Sue Myers, from the South Suburban MoveOn Council, the group that organized the demonstration, told the gathering that if Congress passed President Obama’s American Jobs Act, Illinois would see over 20,700 jobs created to fix our crumbling infrastructure, over 14,500 new teachers hired, and over 14,000 jobs created for the rebuilding of schools. She explained how the GOP didn’t even allow a vote on the American Jobs Act in the Senate. And now Republicans are refusing to bring the bill up in the House of Representatives. Today, instead of talking about creating jobs, she said, “they are talking about abortion”.

The group also dropped off a petition signed by over 500 Kinzinger constituents demanding that he rescind his pledge to Washington lobbyist Grover Norquist to never raise taxes and called on the congressman to support the Buffet Rule, which would raise revenue needed to rebuild America’s infrastructure.

Here's a look at the happenings as the group prepared to turn in the petition:

As they left Kinzinger's office, the group promised to return as often as necessary to get good jobs in their community.

Ron Kurowski is a media coordinator for MoveOn.org.

Images: MoveOn.org