It is really quite pathetic how few posts I've had since I've been in DC. I was reflecting on my poor attentiveness to the blog compared to my time in Athens and I began to feel a bit embarrassed. Let me assure you, I am processing just as much here as I was during my summer in Greece, but the difference this time around is that there are 40 people (who speak English) who are all processing the same things.

But let me give you insight into what I'm thinking about lately.

It's quite easy to go through this time in DC and get a little irritated with politics, naturally. There is a constant stream of bad news (what with the economy and all) that it's difficult to figure why exactly I care about politics at all. It's all quite depressing most of the time.

Since the beginning of my experience in political academia, politics has been defined as the "struggle for power". For some, the emphasis will be on who has the most power and how does that person most effectively display said power. For others, the emphasis is on the struggle; who is struggling for power, how do we relax the oppression of the struggle, etc. My time here has proven that I am certainly an "emphasis on the struggle" type of person. This will likely not come as a shock to many of you.

While I'm in this city however, and even though I'm taking classes that focus on the demands of biblical justice, how that lies with specifically with the widow, orphan and alien (read: people) and I'm interning at a place where I can directly engage with, in many times, orphaned aliens, I still become discouraged that more often than not, politics in the United States is almost solely concerned with the emphasis of power. I can't help but feel that my passion for people exists only for the purpose of having those to which power can be exerted over.

At this point I can't help but feel that any work, while entirely good and certainly gospel-oriented, in the "sphere of people" (call it service work, call it non-profit, call it whatever you'd like) is basically like enlisting yourself in mortuary school. It's not all daisies and there are very few instances of victory.

But then, this is exactly why I'm interested in politics.

Often times at work I listen to Pandora, but today I switched things up. After getting some inspiration from President Christy's Chapel message, I realized that some of the best ways to understand this world we're living in is to hear it from the minds of those who are experiencing it at the same time, but are, perhaps, and especially in my case, a few steps ahead of the game.

So after PGC's reminder to keep running for others, I decided I was going to listen to others who have seen such injustice, love people and have successfully entered into the world of politics with this in mind. www.americanrhetoric.com Check it out. Check it out now.

I started with the Top 100 Speeches of all time. I listened to JFK's inaugural address, then Hillary Rodham Clinton, Ann Richards, Jesse Jackson, Barbara Jordan...perhaps there was a theme here, but I didn't want to waste my time, I wanted to feel inspired, right? I ended with a message from Elie Wiesel. Perfection. Obviously his experience is nothing like my own, but despite all the serious hopelessness he endured in his lifetime, he was still able to stand and share with the top political leaders because there was still affirmation in doing so. He explained that FDR was certainly a great leader, but the flaws that came with the nonacceptance of the St. Louis, a ship carrying Jewish refugees, into the United States was not okay. (Ironically, I noted in a reflection of our visit to the Holocaust Museum that the St. Louis story was what stirred the most anger inside me.) Wiesel went on to say that while there is no explanation for the indifference or carelessness among humanity towards other humans, indifference towards the belief that change is possible will only fester such evil. We must, he asserts, be seekers towards something better and be sure to point out the faults when it does not exist. We must ask the hard questions: "Does it mean that we have learned from the past? Does it mean that society has changed? Has the human being become less indifferent and more human? Have we really learned from our experiences? Are we less insensitive to the plight of victims of ethnic cleansing and other forms of injustices in places near and far?" We must be like the few Christians, those "righteous Gentiles" that intervened and welcomed their Jewish neighbors, but they were too few then, and remain too few now. If I can take a lesson from my Dutch Reformed ancestors is is that I must encourage all people to be in constant search of extraordinary hope for all through the genuine love of humanity.

And that, that is why I still do politics. That is why I still have passion. And I think it's okay to have the likes of Ann Richards and Hillary Clinton and Elie Wiesel remind me why. Progress is possible.

An Overview

I suppose now would be a good time to explain exactly what I'm doing here in Washington, D.C.

The program I'm a part of is called the American Studies Program (ASP as we all so lovingly refer to it), which is a part of the CCCU's BestSemester Program. http://www.bestsemester.com/asp/

Follow the link to find all the details. In short, we (about 40 students from CCCU schools all over the country) are living together in an apartment building just 8 blocks from the Capitol. We take classes in this building every Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon; the class structure is seminar/tutorial style, something new to most all of us. We finished up our second unit, Topics in National Affairs just this weekend. Our focus: Health Care Reform. Each of us was to pick a specific issue to examine (I chose SCHIP's reliability on the tobacco tax), conduct research (mostly by interviewing stakeholders around the city) and then write up a brief describing both sides of the argument and then your own opinion about what is the most just principle. Needless to say, it was a headache, but in the end we found ourselves chatting with some pretty important people and learning a lot about the biblical demands of justice. What's most interesting is that when you stick 40 political science/business/journalism people in the same building the learning/debating/discussing never quite ends. The classroom spans the whole experience, I'd say.

A large portion of our time here is spent at our internships. I spend Monday and Wednesday mornings and all day Tuesday and Thursday at my internship site: the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children (a section of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants). Check out the websites: http://www.refugees.org/ http://uscri.refugees.org/site/PageNavigator/Childrens%20Center/NCRIC_Home
To summarize, I am loving it and learning so much. I plan on expanding on the details of my work on another post.

With the delay of this blog as a prime example, the time here has been full. I'm very busy [which I love], but we also have plenty of time for fun...This is quite the spot for tourists after all! A few pictures to recap some of my time here. Just a taste:



We made it to a Brett Dennen concert!

I had a special visitor!!!

We eat a ton of good food! Here's some of us at the Banana Cafe with program vistors which included Dr. VanDer Werff!

There's always time to stop at the White House!

We plan to hit up every [free] museum! Here's us at the National Air and Space museum posing like the Wright brothers. :)

January 20, 2009 :: The Inauguration of the 44th President of the United States

“We are not a blue America or a red America…we are the United States of America.”

It was the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and it was then that I fell in love with a Senator from Illinois. Okay, “fell in love” might be an exaggeration, but I totally added ‘Barack Obama’ to my interests on Facebook. I then spent the next three years anxiously awaiting the Presidential election, never doubting the possibility that Obama’s name would be on the ballot.

Election ‘year’ arrived and I immersed myself in the piece of Iowa I take the most pride in- the run up to the nation’s first caucus. I met Barack Obama, volunteered at his ‘town hall meetings’, caucused for him, watched the Yes We Can music video a thousand times and proudly checked his name at the ballot box. The “possibility” ended November 4, and that evening I celebrated the future of this new Presidency and the fact that I, as a participant at ASP, would be able to witness this new beginning firsthand.

We’d only been in DC for two days, but it wasn’t difficult to find the action; one must simply get dragged by the crowds of people. The pre-Inaugural concert Sunday evening was my first exposure to the poignancy of this event. We joined tens of thousands of people in front of the Washington Monument to catch a glimpse of Bono, Garth Brooks, Usher and Beyonce [yes, please] on the jumbotrons set up nearly a mile away from the real action on the Lincoln Memorial. We sang, cheered and embraced the moment with our cold hands and violated personal spaces; genuine joy drowning out the chaos.

January 20^th arrived and we followed the same pattern as before, waking up at 6:30, hoping to find a place to stand on the Mall. Twenty blocks of sidewalk to sidewalk people, security checks and long lines left us frozen and without a view. A bit disappointed, Sarah and I ventured on to claim our seats in what we considered to be a VIP area of the parade route. Finding it necessary to take shelter from the 10 degree weather during our four-hour wait, we gathered with another crowd of people in a corner souvenir shop. We stood, eyes on the one TV, to watch the ceremony unfolding a few blocks from us. We applauded with each introduction, fawned over Sasha and Malia, joined in the Obama! Obama! chant, prayed in unison the Lord’s Prayer and giggled at the flubbing of the oath. Through my tears [I was a mess], I looked around at all of these people, strangers yet friends, black, white, Hispanic and Asian, young and old, from the North, South, East and West, and thought, dang, I am freaking happy. I am freaking happy to finally feel the meaning of unity and hope, to see such an impossibility come full circle and to be a witness of such history.

The ceremony ended and we all looked at each other in silence. Our faces said it all: Yes we did, America. Yes, we did.

Taken from a separate blog. January 17

I can see the Capitol from my house! wink!

Where: Apt. 6 ..... Washington, DC 20002
What I'm listening to: Ingrid...now Adele...
Who's around me: Sarah (who happens to be one of my roommates!), Christine from Biola and Mandi from the Ndub in St. Paul
What's in my tummy: Cheez-its...still good even on the east coast
What I see: The Capitol peeking out of my charming neighborhood in all it's lighted glory

I do plan on having a separate blog for my DC experience, but until I get my internship finalized I don't want to get it all started. No matter what however, I will have to post on Tuesday night. It's a rather big night for this city, and heck this country, wait, this world, and because I'm a mere 8 blocks from where it's all going down, there will be some fabulous pictures to post (even if they are just of his face on a jumbo-tron).

So until then, you will be the bearer of my rambling.

Our flights went down no problem...no landing in rivers, whew. The hour I got to spend with SConnolly in the Omaha airport would be the highlight, although hearing the five year-old respond to the first sight of the Washington Monument from the air as "boring" was also memorable.

Sarah's cousin picked us up from the airport and took us out to eat at this little European restaurant that we realized was open for its first evening just then. The free loaf of bread they gave us made up for the rather strange service we got. I mean, we're friendly in the Midwest, but our waiter wouldn't spend 15 minutes making small talk right after serving us our food. The quiche was good however...and all organic...maybe I'll get into that. The listing of the calories for each meal was not something I will ever be okay with. Whatevs, it was an experience.

I'm going to love being around color and ethnic food and crazy people on the metro...Oh how I've missed public transportation since my Athens days.

I hope you are doing well. I will miss Ndub dearly, as some of you have experienced already and some are going to experience with me, but I suppose this is simply just how life goes. I've been pretty surprised at how okay I've been with being away, but I think this honeymoon stage will end soon enough and I'll get teary and bitter about not being at the Hatchery to have a pitcher and cheesy fries with the girls...although it's possible that I'll be too busy discovering, exploring, learning and loving it to let it get to me....

The first post...that should have been done a week ago.

Welcome to my blog everyone!

I officially arrived in Washington, DC on January 16. That was more than a week ago now, but because it's been a whirlwind of a week, attempting to get everything oriented and a schedule created plus sightseeing, I've delayed my first posts. My apologies.

First things first. I am participating in the American Studies Program (ASP). A 'BestSemester' program through the CCCU (Council for Christian Colleges and Universities). Here's the website: http://asp.bestsemester.com/overview.asp Check it out! Basically, I'll be taking classes for three days a week while also doing an internship. [My internship isn't finalized, but it looks as though I'll be working with the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children. Cross your fingers.] We live and play and study in the same place in the Northeast quadrant of the city. It's a quaint building. There are about 8 apartments with 5 or 6 students in each. Our apartment is described by other people in the program as being the most 'kick ass'. It's two stories with the largest kitchen and living area with a sweet view of the capitol building from the couch I'm sitting on now. The bathroom is a tight squeeze for six women, but we make due.

So here's the introduction to what is likely to be one of the most memorable semesters of my life. I actually posted on our Stegenga RA blog about our first day in DC, so I will copy and paste that one next, followed by my sweet Inauguration coverage and then a post about class and what tourist spots we've hit up. I have to run now, however, we're going to see an exhibit at the National Gallery of Art.

Talk to you soon!