the beginning

With the end of the election and the beginning of the 111th Congress, my real work at my internship begins. Tomorrow starts an aggressive campaign of the newly elected Congress and Senate  to get the human rights of non-criminal asylum seekers on the legislative agenda as soon as the 111th starts.

An obscure topic? Yes. But human rights are human rights and this is a group of people whose human rights are being trampled by a herd of elephants (no pun intended) known as America.

It doesn’t look like any of the incumbents will lose. There are only two districts out of the thirteen in Jersey in which the sitting Congressman is vacating his seat. So there won’t be too much new ideologies entering the scene. Which is good because it means I have less work to do introducing the issues. It is also bad because it is stale to the incumbents who know our organization and are comfortable with their positions and the issues they have chosen to pursue.

My entire internship up until now has been one long, frustrating waiting game. Of course, now I get to take out my frustration with the Congress at their (or perhaps just their staff’s) lack of response to constituent concerns. I am going to make them listen to me. Whether they agree or take action is their perogative, but it is their god damn job to listen to the concerns of their constituents.

They work for us! Which is something I think the people of the United States and the government forget. They deserve our respect because they worked hard to get where they are, but we deserve their respect because we put them there. If they think I am going to let them get away with ignoring the concerns of their voters, they better damn well think again!

Watch out Congress…here I come.