My apologies to any who were disappointed with my not posting an entry last week. I’d hoped to provide an update on the relationship I’m developing with Kristen Glenn, the Legislative Director in Representative Tom McClintock‘s office, but despite repeated attempts to communicate with her, I’ve not yet heard from her. Since I’d really like to talk about my efforts to talk with her about the Educational For All Act of 2011, I’m afraid this entry will be a little unsatisfying to those who want quick results. But RESULTS is sometimes not about getting immediate results.
In fact, RESULTS is often about doing what Lynn McMullen, a former RESULTS Executive Director, referred to as “dirt work”. Dirt work is the name Lynn gave to the work that goes into educating folks about poverty issues and developing a relationship based on mutual respect and integrity. That work is difficult and often takes a long time, if ever, to bear fruit. But to grow a crop, one has to prepare the soil, plant seeds, and care for the young plants while they mature. So, right now, I figure I’m doing dirt work with Kristen Glenn, and by extension, Rep. McClintock.
So the dirt work I’ve done so far with Kristen is to send her a couple e-mails with information about the Education for All Act of 2011 and five or six phones calls over the last couple weeks to follow up with her. Last Thursday when I talked to the receptionist in Rep. McClintock’s office, I was told that Kristen would e-mail me a reply to the e-mail I’d sent her the previous week. By this last Tuesday morning, I’d still not gotten a reply, so I sent her a follow-up e-mail. I guess tomorrow I need to start calling again.
I’m trying not to take the silence from her personally. As I wrote in a Congressional Legislative Aides, I’ve a lot of respect for Congressional staff members. They have a mostly thankless job with long hours, tremendous responsibility, and challenge to be aware of issues and support their bosses. So to be fair to Kristen, I know there are a number of possible reasons why she hasn’t gotten back to me:
- Congress went on recess around August 8, shortly after the debt ceiling debate, and only ended that recess a couple days ago. That means her boss is back in DC and I assume that she has been busier than usual in meetings with him and other senior members of his staff.
- I’m not a constituent of Rep. McClintock. Kristen knows that. I made it very clear to her when I arranged my first meeting with her in the summer of 2010, that I don’t live in the Congressman’s district so we both know he doesn’t represent me.
As an aside, while I’m not a constituent, I figure I have as much right to lobby him (or her as a member of his staff) as any professional lobbyist. Perhaps more so, since I’m not only from his state, but the “special interest” I’m lobbying for are the impoverished in other countries who have no one else speaking for them. The only gain I have is the moral satisfaction of carrying out what I feel is my responsibility to help those less fortunate than me.
- Foreign aid is not something that Rep. McClintock cares about. From looking at his website, I understand one his primary interests is making the resources in his district available for commercial use. In his website, he says, “I will work hard to make sure those resources are used wisely to help restore economic prosperity to the people of our community. Too often the federal government has prevented our people from benefiting from the water, timber and mineral resources in our area, and I intend to work with local businesses and leaders to tap these assets and help create jobs and economic opportunity in these tough economic times.”
- Finally, and I hope the least likely reason for her silence, is that she is avoiding a disagreement with me. From a couple past conversations I’ve had with Kristen, I assume that Rep. McClintock will be against the use of any federal money to support the education of children in other countries. As a fiscal conservative myself, I can understand, and to some extent, even appreciate the desire in Congress to not spend federal tax dollars on any kind of foreign aid, especially when the federal debt exceeds the nation’s yearly GDP.
Those are the reasons I can immediately think of that have so far prevented Kristen from getting in touch with me. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in almost 20 years of volunteering in RESULTS, is that there is truth in the proverb, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.: So, I must try to find a balance between being a pest and a forgotten afterthought.
I’m not bothered by Rep. McClintock and his legislative director if they don’t agree with my views on foreign policy issues. They are entitled to their opinions. I remember reading that the representative’s greatest regret as a public leader was his championing term limits in California. Him publicly admitting that regret, however, gives me hope. Here is a man willing to face the results of his decisions and recognize that the results he expected did not occur and the results that did occur are worse than the original problem. I hope I can help him avoid a similar mistake in our nation’s security.
I remember thinking that setting term limits was the wrong solution to California’s dysfunctional legislature in 1990. Not supporting the federal government’s investment in a few select, cost-effective foreign aid programs like education reform would be an even graver mistake. Term limits only affected California. Opposing prudent foreign aid programs sacrifices national security and economic prosperity on both sides of the U.S. border.
Jim Driggers make a great point with respect to the deafness that is too often demonstrated by those in public office. This is one of the reasons why citizens have become disillusioned and complacent in the area of politics. C’mon Kristen, at least acknowledge Mr. Drigger’s attempts to communicate with you.
Although I strongly feel that America should address its own failings within our education system, and use more resources to bring our learning institutions back to their former greatness, I also share Mr. Drigger’s viewpoint that an educated society becomes a more self-reliant and independent society, resulting in less violence and chaos agitated by poverty and illiteracy. Therefore, I support Mr. Drigger’s efforts to discuss these issues with our representatives and to promote world education efforts.
To coin a well-quoted phrase, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. It doesn’t matter that a mind is resident in some other part of the world, because that mind may belong to a person who solves the issue of hunger and starvation or invents a vaccine that cures cancer or AIDS or Hepatitis.
So, for all the libs out there who believe that all conservatives are absent of any compassion for others in different parts of the world, this is one conservative who supports Mr. Driggers efforts to allocate monies for the education of children everywhere, who would otherwise be deprived of such education without Uncle Sam’s help.