Wyden and a good Graduation Speech
So my mom sent this graduation speech to me and I really liked it. A few choice bits:
"The lesson of that history is that you must not despair, that if you are right, and you persist, things will change...My hope is that whatever you do to make a good life for yourself -- whether you become a teacher, or social worker, or business person, or lawyer, or poet, or scientist -- you will devote part of your life to making this a better world for your children, for all children. My hope is that your generation will demand an end to war, that your generation will do something that has not yet been done in history and wipe out the national boundaries that separate us from other human beings on this earth...My hope is that you will not be content just to be successful in the way that our society measures success; that you will not obey the rules, when the rules are unjust; that you will act out the courage that I know is in you...Leap for the sun -- you may not reach it, but at least you will get off the ground...By being here today, you are already standing on your toes, ready to leap. My hope for you is a good life."
I've been strangely tired all day, so this is going to be brief:
I went to Senator Wyden's Open House today...and he was 50 minutes late. It's understandable really because he had a roll call vote in the Senate at about 5:15 and a Finance Committee meeting to sweeze in after that, but it was still not a great starter...The conversation itself lasted for about 20 minutes and both I and the other single person who came (a guy about my age) didn't say anything. It was kinda a weird audience and it didn't seem fitting to ask my broad "so what do you think about politics, Congress, and partisianship?" questions in front of a larger group. The other two groups were a pair of what I might characterize as old-school liberals (the women worked in Environmental Law and I can't remember what the guy did, but he was very interested in trade balances, so my guess is he's an economist). The other group of four was two mid-teen kids and their parents. The girl placed first in Oregon's History Day competition and was in DC with her family for the nations. The mom didn't seem like she was all there, but she was definitely semi-overbearing and at one point while she was talking the daughter moved her visor off her head to cover her face...I felt a little bad for the kid. Anyhow, there wasn't a lot of conversation going back and forth and it didn't seem like the right forum for my questions...so I think I might try to talk to him one-on-one at some point...or maybe I'll try going to one of his constituent meetings again? I have to say though that I agree with Kate said, he probably does a lot of good things for Oregon, but an inspiring speaker or heavy-duty politician he is not.
I talked to one of his new staffers, who just graduated from George Washington with a degree in International Relations and interned in Wyden's office for a summer and it definitely made me less interested in a Senate internship next summer. He said that most of the issue research that he did was focused on writing letters to constituents (instead of actually briefing Wyden) - this made me somewhat less thrilled than the prospect of actually helping a Senator form his positions on things...Anyhow, I'm rambling and don't have much useful to say, so I guess I'll stop here.
"The lesson of that history is that you must not despair, that if you are right, and you persist, things will change...My hope is that whatever you do to make a good life for yourself -- whether you become a teacher, or social worker, or business person, or lawyer, or poet, or scientist -- you will devote part of your life to making this a better world for your children, for all children. My hope is that your generation will demand an end to war, that your generation will do something that has not yet been done in history and wipe out the national boundaries that separate us from other human beings on this earth...My hope is that you will not be content just to be successful in the way that our society measures success; that you will not obey the rules, when the rules are unjust; that you will act out the courage that I know is in you...Leap for the sun -- you may not reach it, but at least you will get off the ground...By being here today, you are already standing on your toes, ready to leap. My hope for you is a good life."
I've been strangely tired all day, so this is going to be brief:
I went to Senator Wyden's Open House today...and he was 50 minutes late. It's understandable really because he had a roll call vote in the Senate at about 5:15 and a Finance Committee meeting to sweeze in after that, but it was still not a great starter...The conversation itself lasted for about 20 minutes and both I and the other single person who came (a guy about my age) didn't say anything. It was kinda a weird audience and it didn't seem fitting to ask my broad "so what do you think about politics, Congress, and partisianship?" questions in front of a larger group. The other two groups were a pair of what I might characterize as old-school liberals (the women worked in Environmental Law and I can't remember what the guy did, but he was very interested in trade balances, so my guess is he's an economist). The other group of four was two mid-teen kids and their parents. The girl placed first in Oregon's History Day competition and was in DC with her family for the nations. The mom didn't seem like she was all there, but she was definitely semi-overbearing and at one point while she was talking the daughter moved her visor off her head to cover her face...I felt a little bad for the kid. Anyhow, there wasn't a lot of conversation going back and forth and it didn't seem like the right forum for my questions...so I think I might try to talk to him one-on-one at some point...or maybe I'll try going to one of his constituent meetings again? I have to say though that I agree with Kate said, he probably does a lot of good things for Oregon, but an inspiring speaker or heavy-duty politician he is not.
I talked to one of his new staffers, who just graduated from George Washington with a degree in International Relations and interned in Wyden's office for a summer and it definitely made me less interested in a Senate internship next summer. He said that most of the issue research that he did was focused on writing letters to constituents (instead of actually briefing Wyden) - this made me somewhat less thrilled than the prospect of actually helping a Senator form his positions on things...Anyhow, I'm rambling and don't have much useful to say, so I guess I'll stop here.
posted by Will at 6:17 AM
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