| By Ben Adler - Jun 26th, 2007 at 5:07 pm EDT |
| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
I'm sitting at the media credential table at the Campus Progress annual student conference. Over 1,000 attendees, have heard speeches from Sen. Russ Feingold, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Keith Ellison and been to multiple breakout sessions. Highlights include our bosses David Halperin and John Podesta's rousing calls to arms, Feingold's strong statement in favor of redeployment from Iraq, Pelosi's plea that our generation take up combatting global climate change as a primary issue, and Ellison's admonition that the college students in the audience not forget their peers in community colleges and trade schools.
The best panel discussion thus far has been "Breaking Ballot Barriers." OK, you caught me, it happens to be the one I organized. But it did rock. We heard from two student activists: Henry Beck, a city councilman in Waterville, ME, where he attends Colby College, who successfully led a fight against a proposal in the Maine legislature to disenfranchise out of state college students and Andres Idarraga, a former felon in who attends Brown University and worked on the successful campaign to restore the right to vote to former felons in Rhode Island, as well as three nationally known experts on electoral reform.
Dana moderated a panel on feminism that was also extremely entertaining and informative. Her panel focused on how women can improve their representation in politics, and how feminism can be embedded in the larger progressive economic and cultural agenda. It was good to see that there were some very engaged men in the audience.
Soon we'll get to hear from some Iraq veterans on how their experience has shaped their anti-war views. WOO!
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Hey cap intern, sorry you feel that way. I actually spend a lot of time in my book talking about intersectionality, the racist (and classist, homophobic, etc) history of the feminist movement, and the amazing work being headed up by woc (esp young woc). But I'm always open to suggestions--feel free to email me if you think there's something Feministing (or I) could be doing better. Thanks!
a young woman stood up and basically went on a two-minute diatribe about social and economic injustices. she gave some personal anecdotes of instances where she felt she was wronged (e.g. she gets a job and her government benefits get cut). she never really asked a question but she seemed so angry, so passionate, so riled up that the audience gave her a nice round of applause. but to be honest, her rant didnt seem to have much substance to it. she happened to be african-american, which is why, i think, the predominantly white crowd got on their feet. as superduperficial loves to write, white liberal guilt.
Yes, what effrontery. How dare a community organizer who doesn't speak Standard White English at all times, and who lacks formal university training, purport to offer valuable knowledge before an audience of bright young college students? And at a panel on poverty and classism, of all places. Imagine.
In all seriousness, though, don't you think that the people who live with the consequences of policy decisions ought to play a large role in shaping them? I'm not saying M-1 is poor, but for poverty-related policy especially, most of the folks affected aren't formally educated. Does that make them less qualified to participate in the dialogue? If anything, shouldn't they be steering it?