July 15, 2009
got the conference bug: 80 million strong for american jobs and lobby day
I got the conference bug all right. After the Campus Progress National Conference last week, I couldn't help but come back for more. (Okay, I enrolled in both ahead of time, but let's not ruin the story.) These past two days, I attended the event 80 Million Strong For Young American Jobs: Summit 2009, located in the Visitor's Center of the Capitol building. The mission statement of the 80 Million Strong coalition (including the Roosvelt Insitution, Mobilize.org, and Student Association for Voter Empowerment) is as follows:
"We are the Millenial generation - 80 million strong and growing. Today we stand together to find and create new opporities for yong Americans within our current economic climate. By empowering the many voices and stories of our youth, we rise to direct a new economic future from the depths of the crisis we now face. It is our financial future at stake and we will fight to ensure its security for each of the 80 million of our Millenial generation."
The aim of the summit, where about 80 twenty-somethings convened, was to discuss the problems facing the Milennial generation - most critical of which is unemployment, something which this young generation suffers at a rate 9% higher than the national average - and to propose innovative solutions. The format of the summit was interesting: it used computer technology in an attempt to create the most democratic climate possible. We broke off into groups, based on our interests (I chose education, which I think underlies everything), and came up with several legislative proposals for combating youth unemployment. Then those proposals were put up on the main screen and the entire group, using voting pads, selected their favorites. A specialized conference facilitator...facilitated the whole process. We voted on practically everything. At the end of the first day, we voted on the top proposals overall. Those final proposals, crafted exclusively by young and ambitious liberals, were then filtered down even further, according to our representatives' areas of interest, and used to lobby these representatives the next day. While democracy is not always efficient, this was a genuine attempt. The facilitator even used his computer at times to quickly show the correlation between our votes and our demographics (e.g., votes by race, by gender - but this wasn't overdone). The room had some diversity - 14% Black, 10% mixed and 12% LGBT. The technology was also utilized to show the spread of a particular vote, that is, to show whether there was consensus on a given vote. And the people there were, in my opinion, awesome: about 50% of them categorized themselves as center-left and far-left. A few rotten apples got in, but at least they stimulated discussion.
The intensity of the conference was broken up by notable speakers. Among them were:
Jared Bernstein - Chief Economist and Economic Policy Adviser to Joe Biden - an interesting analysis of where the economy is now...basically, Keynesian stimulus needed; even if the unemployment rate doesn't go up immediately, that's not the point; the point is relief, minimizing the already dropping unemployment and ultimately stabilizing it, which is where we are going (when is the question)
Debbie Stabenow - had to cancel last-minute
James Cylburn (SC-6) - House Majority Whip - a very charming guy, had some interesting and inspiring stories - third most senior member of the House - member of the Conressional Black Caucus (CBC) - I asked him a question about special interest money hindering progress in the health care bill..."I wouldn't say it's hindering anything, but it's complicated..." was his diplomatic response
Steny Hoyer (MD-5) - House Majority Leader
Zoe Lofgren (CA-16)
Ken Salazar - Colorado Senator and Secretary of the Interior - I liked him, came off as soft-spoken and wise
Van Jones - Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation - here he comes again! - I take back my comment about his being a "talking head" but maintain that he is "good. very good." - wrote the NYT bestseller The Green Collar Economy - founder of Green For All - J.D. from Yale - communist turned capitalist, etc., etc. - I actually had the opportunity to meet him this morning as I walked through the metal detector - in his astounding speech, he outlined the differences between campaigning and governing (and in governing, "we have to move from hope to change); said that "Obama is laying the foundation for a new U.S. economy," noting that we have shifted from production to consumption, relying on environmental destruction, not ecological restoration; and that Obama's fix is clean energy - after all, "the Chinese are spending $12 million an hour on clean energy."
Tom Daschle - Senator from South Dakota, Senate Majority Leader
Kendrick Meek (FL-17) - member of the CBC - young guy, serving his third term in the House - his kid was there in the back, made sure to point him out and get in a word for his wife - very nice and funny guy, opened with "hi I'm Kendrick and I'm a virgo" - played football for Florida A&M - like many others, emphasized what politics is really about: "getting involved at the local level"
Needless to say, the speakers were pretty impressive and the event was a blast. I met a lot of really interesting people and made a lot of great connections with youth around the nation that are involved with or who have started up various nonprofits.
Today, along with four other Californians, I lobbied the legislative aide of Senator Dianne Feinstein. The group of four and I chose two aspects of the summit to focus on, ones we figured would resonate most with Dianne and/or her aide. We recommended that she move to increase green jobs (Van would have been proud!) and to open more jobs in the national defense sector, particularly young diplomacy (which would also diversify our military expenditures, a much-needed reform) and ROTC cyber training (in order to prepare youth - who are naturally more tech savvy - to meet cyber threats, like the two big ones that happened in the past couple of weeks...not really my thing but it was fun anyway). The aide seemed excited about what we are doing and wants to follow up with us. (Post-mortem: didn't happen.)
This event, like many D.C. events, was an amazing opportunity. The organizations poured lots of money and time into the event to make it possible. They flew in kids from around the nation and put them up at a Sheraton for two nights. And you don't have to be part of some exclusive group to gain access to such events, as I've learned. You merely have to follow the organization (get on their email list, or word of mouth) and be an intern or young professional in the area (yes, many of whom happen to be tomorrow's political elites, but not exclusively is my point). And it's free. Of course, the conference bug won't last forever, but I certainly enjoyed the two I've attended.
Posted by dmbenn at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)
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 11:32 PM | Comments (0)