Updates and a local mindfulness program!

So, I have been doing a LOT of things lately.

I've started volunteering for Betsy Dennigan's campaign.  I've now spoken with her twice, and I feel as though she definitely needs to represent the state of Rhode Island in Congress.  She has really comprehensive plans concerning healthcare, education, stimulating the economy with new jobs and rejuvenating a dying fishing industry.  She is pro-choice, she is an emergency nurse, she has been doing policy for 12 years, and now it is time to send her to Washington, where she can actually effectively implement change and fix this tiny state with high illiteracy and unemployment rates.  The best part about working so closely with her campaign is that I can discuss real policy issues that affect the lives of myself and my friends and have them be addressed one-on-one and can even push them to a place of importance within her campaign on college campuses.  It's also pretty fun to get to march in St. Patrick's Day parades.

Yesterday (Tuesday), I went to the State House with other members of RI NOW to testify in favor of 3 bills that were being heard and against another bill under the House Judiciary Committee.  I couldn't stay the whole time, unfortunately, because they started the hearing far later than I had expected, but it was very interesting to actually sit in on one.  Mostly, I got to speak with some important people on the pro-choice side, including a representative from Planned Parenthood and Susan Sweet.

Other than that, the LSAT studying is still in the works.  Did you know that it costs $136 to register for the LSAT?  And that LSAC asks you not only for your ethnicity and whether you are left- or right-handed, but also for your sexual orientation?  Granted, this is asked through LSAC for the Candidate Referral Service, which finds law schools to recruit you based on your preferences, but I hardly feel that sexual orientation is necessary to inquire of applicants.  Also, they lump all "other" sexualities (read: non-heteronormative; yes, I am a Brown student at heart) in one category.  There is a check box in front of the statement that reads, "Check to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender."  I don't think that who a person loves should determine their ability to be a lawyer, but I suppose my beliefs are relatively progressive compared to the vast majority of the law school admissions population.  When I tried to find more complaints about this requirement online, I could only find this document, "The ABA 2009 Presidential Diversity Summit's State of Diversity in the Legal Profession Selected Survey Summaries."  On page 14, there's a really poignant quote from a female lawyer:

"Diversity is important to the legal profession. In order for laws, statutes, rules, and regulations, to be created and applied, without bias for the rule of law to have proper meaning, our profession must be charged with fully including the vast variety of backgrounds so that bias, prejudice, and
bigotry are minimized, or, at best, eliminated...

... In my professional life, I have seen local bar associations that discriminated based on religion, race, sex, and sexual orientation and gender identity. Some of that has abated through education. Some has abated by those that discriminated knowing someone in the class or status of the discriminated. My local bar still discriminates based on gender identity and sexual orientation (we have the most "liberal" bench and bar in the state, yet the bench of over 30 judges and masters does not have a single representative from that group, though the citizens they judge comprise about 20%.)"

So, all you law schools that claim not to discriminate based on these criteria, I hope you keep your word.  It'll be a heck of a lot easier for qualified candidates to get into these discriminatory bar associations if they can at least get into law school.

 For a complete change of topic, I found a great local mindfulness resource!  The Providence Library is holding a mindfulness program series until May.  This is awesome for the greater Providence area, because it is a really cheap or free way to learn Yoga and about meditation, sleep, even Reiki.  While some Brown students take for granted free meditation and yoga sessions here, if the general public were made aware that Yoga is $5 per person per session, they would be less intimidated by committing to expensive per month or per year yoga programs.  I am going to ask about it the next time I go there (which will hopefully be soon, I definitely need to find a new LSAT study spot) and if they have fliers, I'll take a bunch and distribute around my job on Fed Hill and around Betsy's campaign headquarters on Broad Street.  Using the library as a public resource and center for interaction is a really key part of Betsy's campaign, and I completely agree with that concept.

So, to recap:

• Betsy Dennigan is an awesome Congressional candidate
• LSAT and CRS registration can lead to some upsetting discriminatory practices
• Learn about mindfulness at the Providence Public Library!

Take care.

Hobbying Lobbying

I went to RI NOW's annual lobbyist training session tonight.  Its purpose was to prepare us, as a Political Action Committee, to approach representatives at the State House and speak with them about bills that need to be acknowledged, supported, or shot down.  Here is a brief, bulleted list of what I thought of it.


Things that were cool:

• Awesome lobbyist Susan Sweet, of Sweet and Associates, was really up front and honest about the lobbying process.  She also assuaged my fears that professional lobbyists are generally evil.  She is really awesome, truly believes in what she advocates, and is a seasoned, down-to-earth veteran of what it means to wheel and deal with state representatives.

• Awesome awesome Betsy Dennigan, nurse/attorney running for Congress to replace James Langevin, spoke to us about the power of lobbying, the ability of anyone to run for office, and was generally inspiring with her views.  She told us a great story about a debate that was happening on the floor over abortion.  The room was filled with mostly men, arguing about partial abortion.  Betsy whipped out her OB/GYN textbook and started going over the technical definitions of what they were actually talking about.  It is wonderful that someone who has experience treating people is going to support not only women's reproductive rights, but also effective healthcare bills that can actually work with existing hospital management and financial structures.

• Then we participated in a roleplaying game to put us in the situation of meeting with legislators of varying opinions on passing a marriage equality bill.  My group was placed with a republican representative who was co-sponsoring a bill that proposed to limit marriage to be defined as between a man and a woman.  This man, Representative Savage (that is his real name!), actually exists, and is the representative of East Providence and the Deputy Minority Leader in the House.  Needless to say, the game was fun.

Things that were not so cool:
It makes sense for them to give this advice, but both Susan and Betsy said to just stay away from opponents when lobbying.  But this means that the opposition won't hear the actual, shifting opinion of their constituents. There's no dialogue there, so how can ideas be exchanged?  This then, emphasizes the importance of stressing to legislators with similar political beliefs to stick to their guns, to push for certain bills, to understand that [X] issue is what is important to you, a constituent, or a concerned citizen, or as someone who was touched by this issue for one reason or another.

Here are the most important lessons I've learned tonight:

You do not need to be a professional lobbyist to lobby.  You do not need to be a professional lobbyist to get your ideas across to your representatives.  And you do not need to be perfect to run for office.  Anyone with concern for a certain bill can arrange a meeting with the people who represent you in your state government.  You just need to be prepared, with the number of the bill in question and what the bill is addressing.  No one in state office has read every single line of every single bill, but if their constituents come up to them with compelling cases, requesting support for a certain bill, they will be sure to show up for that bill's hearing and vote.

One of the notes on which Betsy left us was that only 15% of Congressional seats are held by women.  Whenever she gives speeches at colleges or schools, she calls up a random male and female to the front, and asks them both if they had ever considered running for office.  She says on the first try, the female will always say "no," and with further prompting will say, "well, maybe if I did a lot of research, and educated myself on all the issues and became more familiar with the law, then maybe I'd consider myself ready to run."  The guys, she said, generally reply, "yeah, sure, I can do that."  Betsy wanted us to understand that literally anyone under the age of 18, as long as they haven't committed a felony, can run for any office, and if you think you can do a better job than the person who is currently in office, you should run.  It was so inspiring; tonight was the first time since I was in 10th grade that I've considered running for office at some point in the future.  For right now, though, I'll stick to getting through LSAT studying.

Here is Betsy Dennigan's website.  I am definitely volunteering with her campaign.

http://betsydenniganforcongress.com/

That's all for now.

Take care.