D.C. : An Encounter With Politics

Washington, D.C. : An exciting city where your political wants and desires may come true, well, maybe. It's where change is suppose to occur and strides in our democracy are made. Many other interns are working with congressmen; old, white, men. Following them around while getting them a bagel and coffee. My position in D.C. until August is to "fight the man" or more so..."influence the man and change his mind about spending bills".

I work with a non-profit. We lobby congress and try to work them to bring about change.
I personally believe this is more effective than yelling out chants and picketing on the side-walks demanding change. Although, that's fun too.

With the global food crisis going on, it is a very exciting time to be in D.C. and working with an organization whose main focus is global poverty and hunger.

Today, I went to a congressional hearing with Senator Joe Biden presiding. It was about the global hunger crisis and they had guest speakers from Oxfam. I was very exciting to be there, although, a repeating phrase I kept hearing was "we have to remember that this is a long-term problem." In the U.S. we are accustomed to automatic results. If our internet takes more than 30 seconds to load a page, we become immediatly frustrated and start clicking impatiently. Strike that..more than 10 seconds we do this!

The global hunger crisis is so interconnected with other problems in our society that to solve it, we need to solve the energy crisis as well, as well as political reform on transportation and how we spend our money. Not only this, but we need to invest in agriculture and agricultural technology. We need programs implemented that will teach poor nations how to farm and grow their own food in the most productive way possible.

People in Haiti are eating "cookies" made out of oil, mud, and sugar just to fill themselves up. No one should ever have to resort to eating dirt to feel full. We are most certainly in the middle of a global food crisis.

It is certainly depressing when I think about all the problems that we are faced with. It doesn't help that our 3 branches take forever to make decisions. First it goes through the Senate, then the House, then process seems to repeat and then it goes to the floor. Then the president vetoes the bill. Sometimes he doesn't...

I've only been here a few days now. I hope that through working with a non-profit, I do not lose all my hope in politics and the old-white-men running our country. Minus the House Majority leader...I sure do like you Mrs. Pelosi.