memoriesfromwashington
Back to DC
Ash. They/them. QU Poli Sci 2020, GWU PMGT 2023.
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So…it’s been a while.
Since you saw me last:
- I tried to go to the inauguration, had a panic attack, and went home.
- I helped save $4.3 billion of construction projects in 2018.
- I helped secure a blue wave in CT in 2018.
- I wrote a thesis on the impact universal healthcare has on a pandemic.
- I graduated cum laude from Quinnipiac with a BA in Political Science and minors in Journalism and Women’s and Gender Studies in the middle of said pandemic.
- I started working outside of politics and found my calling in vetmed. Two years later, I’m still there.
- I took a gap year before starting a Master’s in Political Management at George Washington University.
- I started to officially consider myself disabled.
- I moved out of my parents’ house. My cat and I have a lovely one bedroom in the center of my hometown.
- I ran a semi-successful fake campaign about affordable housing.
- I realized halfway through my Master’s program that I don’t want to work directly in politics and that the idea of leaving my workplace makes me really sad. I decided instead to stay in vetmed and start a nonprofit with a coworker on the side. Details TBD.
So yeah. A lot of things have happened.
I will be going to DC in about a week or so for school, so I figured it was time to revamp this account to document that.
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Here’s my first article for Odyssey at Quinnipiac!
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Day 8
Just going to summarize again because it’s very late.
Today’s morning seminar was on the budget, which involved a lot of concepts and terminology that flew right over my head. However, the site visit this afternoon had to do with US-China relations, and I realized afterwards that the situation that the panel of experts described concerning China and Taiwan is very very similar to the situation in Korea directly preceding the Korean Conflict, with two governments trying to stand as the only legitimate government in the country, despite occupying very different areas. Although I certainly hope that the situation doesn’t fall to conflict like it did in Korea, I am very interested in what experts suspect would happen if it did and how similar the outcome would be to the Korean Conflict. Would history repeat itself or are the current circumstances too different?
No pictures today, sorry!
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Some Portuguese style chicken and garlic bread from Nando's that we had tonight. Very yummy, if a bit spicy for my taste.
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Shots from over the balcony at the Air and Space Museum, a very impressive ad on the Metro (men can be sexually assaulted too), and the yummy pretzels and cocoa!
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Natural History Museum! including a giant whale, a rather funny looking fox, the winner of the National Geographic Photography Contest (and another polar bear entry for my mom), the echidna (who I suspect was the inspiration for Newt Scamander's niffler @cae-herondale), and of course the sign outside.
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Our speaker this morning was none other than Frank Sesnos! I tried to ask him a question but wasn't able to before I had to go. Here's some shots of the Capitol and Supreme Court!
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Day 7
(all caught up! i’m going to post my entire journal from today because i’m very very proud of it. also very drenched. it rained a lot today.)
Truth be told, I am not quite sure how to feel about today’s first speaker. On one hand, everyone at the seminar seems to be raving about his speech and his points on certain topics, but on the other hand, I had too many contentions with some parts of his speech to be fully comfortable. As Jacqueline mentioned this morning, there were some facts that he spouted that were just completely wrong. For me, however, the most disturbing part of his speech was his immediate dismissal of environmental solutions to the methane problem that comes with the beef and dairy industries, deferring instead to a completely ineffective form of protest.
Mr. Deans stated that the majority of the methane that enters our atmosphere comes from the beef industry, which is true (but also includes the dairy industry). When asked how he would deal with the problem, he suggested a personal protest by choosing vegetarian options. Not only would this not do a single thing for the atmosphere, it also would likely never grow to a size that would cause farmers to slow or cease production, and if it did, all the protest would do would be to hurt people who already have a very low income. It really surprised me that Deans suggested this dismissive version of protest rather than methods that increase sustainability like a methane digester.
Pine Island Farm in Sheffield, MA, and Freund’s Farm in East Canaan, CT, both commercial family-owned dairy farms, both have sustainability programs involving anaerobic methane digesters, which take methane gas from manure and turn it into biogas, a fuel that can be used for heat and electricity in place of fossil fuels. Pine Island, owned by the Aragi family, also uses the byproducts of the process in their daily functions. The dry solids, which no longer smell and are relatively soft, are used for animal bedding, and the liquids, which also no longer have an odor and no longer burn crops, are used for year-round fertilization that does not bother their neighbors. They use the biogas to heat their home and farm facilities, as well as it for electricity. They are also able to supply electricity to part of the town of Sheffield. Freund’s Farm also uses the solid byproducts in a biodegradable planting pot known as the CowPot. Invented by owners Matt and Ben Freund, the CowPot takes the dry, solid, odorless waste from the digester, along with recycled cardboard provided by Freund’s Farm Market and Bakery, an attached business run by farm matriarch Theresa Freund (Matt’s wife), and create pots that are 100% biodegradable and provide their own fertilization. The Freund family also promotes sustainability by powering their facilities off of a field of 535 solar panels and using a greenhouse structure both in the growing of their own plants and vegetables and in their milking parlor, which allows heat to escape and keep the cows cool.
Laurelbrook Farm, also in East Canaan, CT, just a mile east of Freund’s Farm and owned by the prolific Jacquier family, is also known for their use of manure in sustainable resources. While they do not have a digester of their own, they do use manure in the production of compost. Since the manure is turned and the solids and liquids are separated, it breaks down aerobically, which eliminates the production of methane gas. This is different from the Aragi and Freund families, who do not separate the solids and liquids and instead allow the manure to break down anaerobically in a contained space and create the methane that they then repurpose into a liquid for heating and electricity. Both methods prevent methane from reaching the atmosphere and causing damage. Laurelbrook Natural Resources, a subsidy of Laurelbrook Farm, mixes the broken down manure with wood chips and sells it commercially in the area as compost. In addition, they are also able to use some of the plain dried solids as bedding for their cows. Laurelbrook, which boasts roughly twice the head of Pine Island, sends manure to Sheffield every week to introduce different bacteria into the mixture, which leads to better liquid fertilizer and helps keep their own manure levels from overflowing before they are able to utilize it.
Having known this information beforehand (all three farms are in my area, I have worked at Freund’s Farm Market, and my father has worked at Laurelbrook), it left me very surprised that Mr. Deans was able to dismiss what should have been a very good in for programs like this, which are unfortunately very new and not very popularized. Obviously, methane digesters and manure-based compost are both excellent ways of promoting sustainability while keeping the amount of methane entering the atmosphere relatively low. I cannot speak for beef farms, but these dairy farms are doing it right and it makes me angry that Washington is not acknowledging that as they should be.
http://www.pineislandfarmdigester.com
http://www.nativeenergy.com/laurelbrook-farm-compost-project.html#jumb
http://www.registercitizen.com/general-news/20150512/freunds-farm-awarded-for-sustainability-efforts
(if anyone is more educated on this topic than i, feel free to comment. my info comes from the three links at the bottom.)
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Day 6 - MLK Day of Service
I was actually pretty excited for the Day of Service, despite it being very very chilly, and was surprisingly let down. I was assigned to the Student Conservation Association’s cleanup of the Anacostia River bike path, which sounds like a fantastic initiative - 500 people even showed up to help! However, it seemed like the SCA had too many volunteers and not enough places to clean. Despite the dreary day and the drab winter appearance of the area, it was actually very clean, which I suspect may be attributed to the homeless population in the area keeping it that way to avoid being ejected from their camp along the riverside (hidden from the view of the path), so we cut down a few invasive trees (not sure if this was the right way to take care of that issue) and told that was it. All in all, I think the intentions of the SCA were good, but they could have been better placed near the Anacostia Metro Station rather than the River Path, because that area was much much dirtier.
#inauguration 2017#i'm also not quite sure how river cleanup exactly furthers the ideals of MLK but i guess its the idea of service in general
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The Weekend!
Saturday: very overcast and rainy day. I ended up going to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and exploring. I especially enjoyed the exhibit on deep sea exploration, as well as the new exhibit on ancient Korean art forms and how that carries over to current Korean culture. Ended the day with pizza at Pizzeria Uno in Union Station with my new friends Sarah (a roommate!), Riley, and Nick.
Sunday: Air and Space Museum! Fortunately, the day was much nicer than Saturday, so I was able to do a bit of exploring on my own. I took the Metro to Eastern Market, looked through some of the shops, then took a walk through the southeastern quadrant to a highly recommended pretzel shop, The Pretzel Factory, at 15th and C Streets SE. A little chilly but very, very worth it. I got a “Hotella” - that is, nutella hot chocolate - and it’s probably the best thing I’ve ever had. 10/10 would recommend. Hopefully, I’ll be able to make it back before I have to leave!
Pictures to come!
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Day 5
(still a summary)
My journal for the day consisted on my thoughts on Donald Trump’s and Bernie Sanders’s use of social media during their campaign and how that helped or disadvantaged them. Today’s visit was to the Capitol for a tour! I have pictures that I will post separately, since they’re on my phone and I’m currently on my laptop.
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Day 4
(another summary)
Today’s second speaker, Dr. Lawrence Korb, was very efficient in laying out the five greatest threats to our national security and how we should address them, and I chose in my essay to focus on North Korea, which Dr. Korb suggested could be mitigated by finally ending the Korean Conflict, an answer that I wholeheartedly agree with. I have always been of the opinion that the Korean Conflict was largely the fault of the US and Russia more than it was the fault of either of the Koreas. We also visited the Holocaust Museum today, which prompted some of my thinking on the Korean Conflict, since its cause was directly rooted in the Second World War.
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Day 3
(this is a very short redacted form of my essay from day)
Topic of the day: foreign policy! immigration!
Site visit: Cato Institute (libertarian think-tank)
Thoughts: I was so absolutely impressed by this organization that I’m considering applying for an internship here. The speaker, David Bier, proposed an idea of an open border/revolving door policy on immigration, because their statistics show that it will be more profitable for every country including our own. I didn’t have business cards at the time, but I’m definitely going back to leave one when I get the chance this week.
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I haven’t been posting my daily updates for a few days, so get ready for a quick succession of posts!
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And of course, ending the day by watching the rerun of the Russian hacking forum and making...observations about the interns in the background, all with my new friends.
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Day 2
In my opinion, the most intriguing perspective from today’s activities was panelist Ruy Teixiera’s statement that, despite his rhetoric, President-elect Donald Trump ran an absolutely incredible campaign. Looking back on it, I can definitely say that I agree.
Many democratic pundits are of the opinion that Trump’s hateful rhetoric should have automatically kept him from winning the election, and I am usually inclined to agree. As a woman and a member of the LGBT community, I found Trump’s remarks, especially those about grabbing and objectifying women, to be absolutely horrifying. I would often find myself wondering if this was really the example that we wanted to set not only for our own next generation but for the rest of the world, because no matter how much you try to deny it, the United States is a major world power and has the ability to influence other developing nations. Do we really want to be known as the country whose leader molests women and thinks all Muslims are terrorists? I certainly do not. However, Mr. Teixeira made an excellent point when he said that Trump’s campaign, although controversial, adversarial, and at times downright violent, was in fact very well thought out and executed, a fact that I think can be attributed to his background in business and marketing.
Mr. Teixiera started the panel off by showing that, while he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by roughly three million votes, the voters that truly caused his campaign to ultimately come out on top were the non-college-educated blue collar white Americans, a demographic that makes up a majority of voters. I believe that this group was so influential because of the startling lack of political efficacy, especially among people without a college education. Donald Trump is much smarter than many liberal pundits give him credit and, once his initial practice of shouting and making wild promises actually started to gain him voters, most definitely realized that he was most likely to win if he just kept going. Too many people are under the impression that the President holds a key to some sort of unlimited power, most likely including Trump himself, and that anything the elected official promised to do during the campaign would immediately get done the second he or she took office. Unfortunately for them, this is not quite how it works. Things simply do not get done quickly in the American government, whose two party system of checks and balances is more concerned with blocking the other party than actually working to better our society. For the past year or so, Republican members of Congress have been routinely blocking every single Supreme Court nominee that President Obama has put forth, leading to a standstill in the court and, quite frankly, a standstill in the legislature too, since they’ve been attempting to block every single Democratic bill since the 2010 midterm election, when they took control of Congress. How did we get to this point where we’ve allowed our government to become so completely ineffective? To make the matter worse, Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is now responding to rumors of Democrats intending to follow the same strategy by accusing them of being unconstitutional without even seeming to realize his own hypocrisy. I digress.
Donald Trump’s presidency will be the first time that Republicans will hold control of all four major parts of government (Senate, House, presidency, and Supreme Court) since the 1928 election of Herbert Hoover. It is also the first time that neither the president nor the majority of his cabinet members have any prior political experience. In today’s small group meeting, we discussed the idea that Trump’s apparent lack of knowledge about the president’s abilities stems from this lack of experience. As a founder and CEO, he is more than used to getting his way and getting it immediately. He is not accustomed to jumping through all of the hoops that come with our system of government, and neither are most of his cabinet picks. The Huffington Post identified a list of Trump’s attributes that “trumped” Clinton’s, including the outsider trumping the insider. Between the two of them, Clinton was certainly the insider. With all of her knowledge of how to navigate the political minefield, it isn’t an inaccurate representation. However, it seems surprising that constituents would want someone completely inexperienced to take office instead, but, as Huff Post says, “the establishment and elitist baggage [Clinton] collected later in her career prevented them from embracing her candidacy” (Crego).
Trump’s use of social media as a major campaigning is also an unprecedented move. The development of the internet is a fairly recent trend and one that other candidates, with the exception of Bernie Sanders, have yet to fully utilize. The Washington Post went through Trump’s posts on Twitter between June and December 2015 (the start of his candidacy and the publishing date of the article) and found that, out of 6,348 tweets, eleven percent, or roughly seven hundred, were insults directed toward his opponents, the media, and various powerful women, while the other eighty-nine percent were focused on promoting himself (Schwartzmann and Johnson). While a simple Twitter campaign can’t sway the results of such a major election, it certainly had an impact on internet-savvy voters and is definitely one of the reasons that Trump secured the presidency.
In conclusion, it was a combination of three things that secured Trump’s win in November: a national lack of political efficacy among the largest voting demographic, the jaded opinion on insider politicians, and Trump’s unprecedented use of Twitter as a campaigning platform. Despite the overwhelmingly violent rhetoric and overzealous promises, the campaign was run on a very specific and very cunning strategy.
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