Today was a big day in terms of meeting important women for me. I met Nancy Rafi and Gina Raimondo within the last four hours.

Nancy came into the Center today to speak with the interns as a personal favor to Megan about the important work she does in trying to end violence against women. Nancy is not only close friends with Megan (she helped fight the city of Pawtucket when they almost didn't let the Center open), she is also close friends with Eve Ensler, the creator of The Vagina Monologues. Nancy has also started her own nonprofit, the Rhode Island Crisis Assistance Center. It does amazing, immediate work for women to help deal with details in crisis situations, like providing clothing to women after going to the hospital for a rape kit, because the hospital will take clothing away as evidence and leave women to go back home in a hospital gown. Its next fundraiser will be in September, and it is an awesome concept. Called "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes," it is a walk in which men raise money to help prevent and raise awareness of domestic violence by walking a mile in bright red high heels. I fully intend to get the guys in my fraternity, including my boyfriend, involved. The interns at the Center will also have a team, and it's going to be a lot of fun.

After being thoroughly impressed with Nancy and the wonderful efforts she's made to help direct attention to relationship abuse, I attended Gina Raimondo's first "Money School" lecture in Cranston. Gina is running for Treasurer of Rhode Island, but is taking the position to the people by offering financial resources and lessons to Rhode Islanders for free. She covered basic information about savings, credit, and debt that, judging from the reactions of the people around me, were really helpful. I picked up a few tips, also, which is great, but mostly I learned about different resources for college funding that I hadn't known about. There are a lot of small organizations within the government that loan and help very specific circumstances, but are never used or known about and therefore aren't helping people. Rhode Island's unemployment rate is still ridiculously high and the cost of living is constantly increasing. Gina is trying to bring the Treasurer's office to the forefront of helping people directly, which is what the state desperately needs. She will hold banks accountable for taking advantage of their customers by holding control over the state's available bank fund, negotiating distributions of money among banks by requiring service to RI in return. I think her plans are great, and I sure as hell hope she wins the election.

This past week has also been full of candidate interviews and deciding endorsements for the upcoming primary. I think that I will talk more about that after the RI NOW PAC has come to a decision about all of its endorsements, but they are pretty exciting. We received over 30 returned questionnaires and have been choosing our candidates quite carefully. Once we announce our decisions, I will talk about meetings that I have had with specific candidates, and how lucky I am to have the opportunity to speak directly with the people who will be shaping the future of RI's policies. Also, the other women in NOW are amazing, and I'm super lucky to get to work with them so closely.

That's all for now. Take care.

Metta, Megan, Much-Needed Meditation

Hello, hello.

Now that I've had the chance to catch my breath (read: crash on my bed after work), let me tell you more about what's going on in my world.

First, I wanted to give you some more mindfulness practice by showing you some information on Metta, also known as lovingkindness.  I am currently reading the book LovingKindness by Sharon Salzberg, which my friend Josh, a practicing Zen Buddhist and Contemplative Psychology major, lent to me after we went to a meditation retreat/Q&A session with Salzberg herself.  What is lovingkindness?  It is an attitude, an approach to life that entails wishing peace and happiness toward everyone you encounter.  Simply through thinking positively about other people, it improves your own mood and perspective on life.  I think it is a very useful philosophy to keep in mind when interacting with people so as to keep tempers in check and smiles on faces. 

I also wanted to talk more about the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health, as that is the internship I am most actively involved in on a personal level as well as a time-commitment basis.  I am working on a lot of the PR aspects of the CSPH, which is great because it's what I do best, and because it is an unpaid and small internship, I have the freedom to do what I want with it, which is awesome.  I am also learning a lot more about how many legal loopholes there are when it comes to sexual education, and how poorly sex ed is taught in high schools.  I find it upsetting that people are supposed to know everything they need to know about sex once they leave high school, but usually that process is an awkward and confusing one, at best, and a dangerous and painful one at worst.  Yesterday, I witnessed a health educator from Planned Parenthood and the New England Institute for Sexual Health answer high school students' questions about sex.  The range of questions was insane, with everything from "how are babies made?" to fairly specific questions about certain acts.  This woman was very competent, answered questions straightforwardly, and did not bat an eye.  She told the truth, which is a refreshing change from awkwardly working around questions to try to direct high schoolers toward abstinence, which is what happened in my health class a lot of the time.  The problem with abstinence-only education is that kids will never eventually learn about how actually to deal with sexual issues if they aren't taught explicitly or learn lessons through practice.  This is bad when there are scenarios like relationship abuse, which can be an isolating, confusing, and almost impossible to navigate experience for a young person.  When someone's index card was pulled out that asked, "What if he just won't take no for an answer?", my stomach did somersaults.  No teenager should have to deal with that situation, and this health educator said so outright, saying leaving was a far better option, because this person obviously didn't really care about you.  This is an obvious answer to an outsider, but once someone is consumed with a harmful relationship, it is much harder for them to understand that they are being mistreated and often very difficult to leave and seek help.

I'm glad about the work that I've been doing at the Center.  I think Megan can use as much help as she can get, considering she doesn't make any money from having the Center open and she gets so much flack for doing what she does every day.  She is pretty inspiring, and I hope to have even half the impact that she has had on the landscape of sexuality in Rhode Island.

On a completely different note, working three steady internships and a few random jobs all summer is starting to wear me out, but I've luckily begun my workout routine again, so I've been getting a bit more energy.  These days, my day starts around 8 AM and ends at between 1 and 2 AM.  I'm waiting to get the platform questionnaires back from the candidates for RI NOW, so that we can decide who we are endorsing.  Once those start coming in, my life will get slightly crazier, because I will have to make spreadsheets for every candidate and every question and compare them to RI NOW's values to see if we will be making any additional endorsements in the state primaries, which are coming up in September.  I will probably be doing more campaign work for Betsy Dennigan, as well.  I also have to start worrying about studying for the LSAT again, which I'll be retaking in October.  I started an LSAT study group that will have its first meeting tomorrow.  Also, in September, I will be running a 5K.  It's going to be insane, and I haven't even thought about that whole "school" thing, yet.

Now I need to take a nap.  It has been a long, long week.

Take care.