Why Am I Here, Anyways?

Let's face it, folks. None of you know me as a particularly politically-minded person. And in reality, I never have been. I appreciate my freedoms, love my country, and try to stay fairly informed on what's going on, but I'm no politics buff, and as one friend put it, I'm spending these 3 weeks in Andy Harris's office in a PolySci major's Disneyland.

Andy Harris doesn't look like Mickey Mouse, though. 

Well, suffice it to say that I am getting a crash course right here and right now. I've got over an hour of public transit commute time, and spend a decent amount reading papers. Then I spend 8 hours in a House of Representative's office, which I get to leave pretty often to attend Committee Hearings or Intern Forums... more metro reading on the commute back to Leesburg, then come home to an older couple that chats over the News channel after dinner. Maureen and Dan are constantly tuned in to what's going on in Washington and Maureen has often excitedly told Leslie and I some piece of recent news.

I am literally sitting in the spots the people at the bottom of this
picture are when I attend Committee hearings!

And, you know, after a few days of this, I kinda like it. I'm learning SO much and feel much more confident about my political grasp, though I probably won't soon and never have claimed to know anywhere near everything. I'm very transparent about my ignorance when I don't know something. But look out--when I return from this summer I might actually speak up a little more during political debates!!

Really though, me spending the summer here is to work for the pro-life cause, and in this case politics is something necessary to learn in order to have a clearer and more comprehensive picture of how to end abortion in our country.

I truly believe that abortion is a huge injustice, a social justice issue, that needs to be urgently addressed. I completely understand the importance of policies on all other sorts of issues, and that an informed citizen should be well-rounded in their concerns, BUT, the fact that it is currently legal in our country to kill a child in the womb, and the fact that 3,000 (a rough number) abortions occur every day, seems kinda urgent to me. What in the WORLD is going on??

The pro-life movement is a social movement. It is like other social movements before it, and like other social movements before it, it has to fight the mainstream. It's not cool to be pro-life. It's cool to be pro-environment, or pro-woman, or pro-hunger relief, but it is not cool to stand up in front of a bunch of politically minded individuals and tell them that what you really want to see is a respect for life.

I overheard a guy in the Longworth Cafeteria say today: "...and all this guy cares about is pro-life stuff, and I'm like 'Shut up! We're trying to focus on jobs'..." His attitude, unfortunately, is like the attitudes of a lot of people in our country right now. 3,000 lives take the back-burner each day so that we can focus on 'more important' issues.

I am here this summer to do my part to help end abortion, and to end the need for abortion in our country. Women deserve better than abortion. And the solution does not end with the ending of abortion; that is where it begins. Politics in DC, campus organizing with SFLA, and then direct service with CareNet (pregnancy resource center)--this internship rocks.

Feel free to comment on any of my posts, friends!!