[Student Profile]
[Prompt & Essay]
Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome? 650 max
My parents immigrated to the U.S. from Orissa, India in 1997, seeking opportunities that can be found only in America. I was born here. I consider myself a full-fledged, proud citizen. With all the turmoil I’ve witnessed recently, I wonder, is a good “patriot” someone who stands up and proves things are fine or is a “patriot” someone who stands up to say things are broken.
In 2018, I volunteered to help Teresa Tomlinson, a local politician I’ve known for years, with her U.S. Senate campaign. For almost two years I stared at spreadsheets looking for donors to help fund her primary challenge. Here’s what I learned:
Going in, I clearly had severe misconceptions of democracy in action. I assumed there’s a logical approach to fundraising most candidates would take, thinking we would appeal to the general public with our positions and hope some people would open their checkbooks (we took credit cards too). In reality, donors were laser targeted. We were instructed to review the donation histories of prospects going back a decade. If they previously donated to any current opposition candidates, we assumed they would again, so not worth our office’s effort to solicit. In many ways, fundraising was like a sales job. In a cutthroat industry.
Last year, I was working on a donor spreadsheet when a woman wearing a campaign t-shirt of a competing candidate barged into the former tire shop that was now our office and began shouting at us. (For an older woman, she really had a potty mouth.) I’m not sure how she came to this conclusion but she was convinced a victory by Teresa would mean the end of America. Being confronted by a spitting angry woman was not how we expected our day to unfold. In many ways, both candidates were identical. Both were qualified, reasonable, and in the big picture I think either could fulfill Senate duties well. Eventually she stormed out of the office. We locked the front door for the rest of the afternoon.
I’m not even upset that “my” candidate didn’t ultimately win. I believe the primary winner ran for the right reasons and I’ll support his administration. And even though I might disagree with the policies of the incumbent (from a different party) I still value that individual as a person. As the philosopher Tupac once said, “Just because you lost me as a friend doesn’t mean you gained me as an enemy.” Word.
Civil discourse is imperative to promote mutual understandings in a political sphere. In this day and age, it seems any politician who can listen to and learn from those they disagree with might actually be a superhero. While physically crossing the aisle may only require about 10 steps, too many elected officials act like it’s a trip to Mars.
Fortunately, my generation is going to Mars. I want to remind my generation the basic lessons we learned as children. Use our words. Let others have a turn. Share. Hold hands. I think this country that I love so much desperately needs a hug as well as tremendous acts of empathy, fiscal planning, and cooperation to pull ourselves out of the worst pandemic in a century.