Let me introduce myself and my intentions. I am a senior at the University of Michigan with the desire to document my time and experiences in Washington, DC and display it for the public. My previous attempts at the blog genre were half-hearted at best, but perhaps a new environment will be fodder for a new, revived effort on my part.
This summer has been one of limbo and waiting for the next phase. For a while I filled my time writing materials for applications and such. But the vast majority of my summertime is being spent with good company, and indulging in small pleasures that will be rare in a few more weeks, like whole afternoons devoted to reading fiction and watching shark week.
Applying for internships can be a stressful process, but advice to anyone else going through it or who will is to have faith and patience. Organizations in DC do not start picking their interns until well into the summer, which leaves a Michigan student two months of summer to ponder where would be best and write compelling cover letters. At one point, I feared I would come up empty in the whole game, and started to consider places beyond the progressive think tanks I fancied myself working at in the beginning. Hence the reason why I applied to work for Rep. Dennis Kucinich.
College has only further disillusioned my ideas and attitudes towards congress and the government in general, and I initially ruled out any possibility of working "on the Hill," meaning no government organizations and especially no politicians. There are few politicians I trust or would consider devoting my energy towards furthering their careers. I discovered this during the 2004 presidential campaign with John Kerry, where I volunteered with the college Democrats. During my first and only phone banking assignment, I called strangers and tried engaging with them about how great Kerry was for the job. Through these conversations I came to the conclusion that there were no substantial differences between the Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates, and to rise to that level of power as President requires disassociation with causes and issues of most importance to me in exchange of maintaining the status quo. I became an "election-day Democrat," and lost interest in partisan politics in exchange for an undergraduate career of studies in deconstruction and varying degrees of progressive thought. The actions of our government were hopelessly rigged and merely a show to distract, an attitude shared by many idealistic but jaded peers.
Come junior year, it became clear that I needed a change of scenery, and saw a semester at DC as a way of determining whether or not I am meant for political life. I am a political science and religious studies major, because I am drawn to disaster, particularly nice theories and thoughts that go wrong in practice. I am interested in the possibilities of research and activism, including public policy, hence my interest in interning for non-profit advocacy groups and think tanks. Dennis Kucinich was a step outside of my plan, but let me explain why.
After spending my adolescence in Northeast Ohio, I have great appreciation for anyone from this Midwestern state whose political outlook is not shaped by Rush Limbaugh or televangelist preachers. This explains the initial appeal of Dennis Kucinich, one of the most progressive representatives in congress at present. My older friends from Santa Cruz began talking about him during his presidential run, and I immediately dismissed them as foolish for supporting such an obviously unelectable man. After further research I learned that, for an American elected official, Kucinich was a pretty damn amazing fellow. I will not ramble about the details here, except that he does what few others do: stand with all citizens, from the working class to minorities, and has expressed through his actions to be not just an American, but a global citizen concerned about more than maintaining US hegemony. Go here and here if you want to learn more about him as a congressman and presidential candidate, respectively.
My top choices for internships were NPR and the Brookings Institute, but I was recently offered a position with Kucinich. I have to give my word by Monday, but my interview for Brookings is the next day. At first, I was firm in holding out for Brookings, but the more I think of it, it would be quite a spectacle to be on the hill in the next few months, it being an election year and all. Perhaps its just the reality check I need, after having my head in college-town progressive activism for so long. And if I were to work for any politician, Kucinich would be the one, indeed, the only one. He is the only vegan in the whole institution, and his wife, Elizabeth, is a British redhead with a background in religious studies.
Sounds much too intriguing to pass up, for this is far from being a lark.
Hopefully, I will learn how to upload pictures and make this more aesthetically pleasing. In the meantime, I must get back to swallowing every last lazy and fulfilling moment of summer.
