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July 08, 2009
Campus Progress National Conference
I'm really glad that I found out about this conference. It's put on by the student branch of the Center for American Progress, Campus Progress. Our intern director Chris recommended that we check out this conference, and all nine of us ended up going.
The main theme of the event was basically this: The American political system is YOUR system. Now let's get in there and bring about the changes we've been waiting for. (A variation on the favorite of the president of my organization: We are the leaders we have been waiting for.)
Just some highlights:
There were several prominent speakers and two breakouts.
Nancy Pelosi: Talked about the three main issues that she is passionately pushing for: education, health care, and global warming. Had to run to the floor of the House.
Bill Clinton: The highlight of highlights. A sort of drawn-out memoir and speech of fatherly advice that lasted for at least an hour. He mentioned things that America does well and went into some history, and then mentioned three problems: inherent global independence and instability; extreme inequality; climate change. He said that we need to not focus, as the media often does, on the what and how much, but rather the HOW. To exemplify this, he told us of a creative recycling project in Haiti where garbage in the streets combined with discarded sawdust is used to make an alternative to coal. A creative solution to global warming, poverty (lots of jobs subsidized by gov't, and the product is about one cent to buy), and dirty, uninhabited streets, which was leading to crime. Not exactly a perfect analogy, but you get the point: to turn ideas into action, to be "in the NOW business." The fact that he was holding the thing there just after he got off the plane from Haiti was pretty cool. A funny quote he had: "America works when we're all sort of stumbling forward in the right direction." As a corollary, he brought up Churchill's quote: "America always does the right thing - after it exhausts all other options." He went on to advocate a public option in the forthcoming heath care bill, carbon neutral campuses, pell grants and government funding for colleges, and non-partisan politics: "We should be able to show our side without having to refute the other."
John Podesta: President of Center for American Progress
Staceyann Chin: Jamaican spoken word artist. She was on fire. She offered some lewd and uncomfortable imagery (for example, her detailed description of her first period) which served to get the audience out of their everyday shell and see things through her eyes. Here is her recent book.
Joel Madden: from the rock band Good Charlotte, he attempts to channel America's obsession with stars into human rights awareness in Africa (such as acknowledging that the purchase of our cell phones is perpetuating war in the DRC). It's a cool initiative of the Center for American progress called the Enough Project.
Kathleen Sebelius: Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Talking head.
Van Jones: Yale-educated lawyer who serves as Special Advisor for Green Jobs, White House Council on Environmental Quality. Talking head. But a good one. Very good.
John Oliver: "Correspondent" on The Daily Show with John Stewart. From witty to hilarious. Also very candid and able to talk openly about the show "behind the scenes." Here is a Huffington Post article where he "rips Limbaugh, Beck, Blitzer and (possibly) Olbermann." (A clip of Clinton speaking about the innovative recycling project in Haiti is at the bottom of the link.)
The two workshops I attended were:
1) Labor Rights - "How can we secure fair working conditions for everyone?"
In the panel were VP of the AFL-CIO; Meyerson, a Washington Post editor and labor advocate; coordinator of Student Labor Action Project.
We discussed in groups ways that we can spread awareness of labor rights issues on our campuses. It was a consensus that people need to be educated about labor unions and what they do.
2) Media Unleashed - "How independent media outlets can change the future of journalism - and what obstacles they face"
In the panel were the editor of Racialicious.com, the founder of Narco News, the director of ProPublica, and the director of Free Press. There were a variety of opinions expressed about the role of independent media.
One good quote on what good journalism should do: "Afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted." I'm sold.
Posted by dmbenn at July 8, 2009 11:32 PM