So I'm finally writing now that I'm back home from quite an exciting summer in Richmond and able to process it now! This summer I had an internship with the Virgina Organizing Project, a non-partisan grassroots organization working to get people more involved in their communities. Our task this summer was to go door-to-door canvassing, give workshops, go to festivals, etc. to get people registered to vote and talk about health care reform in Richmond, Petersburg, Colonial Heights and Fredericksburg. What we really focused on though was the registration of ex-felons because in Virginia your right to vote, serve on a jury, be a notary public or hold public office are taken away if you are incarcerated. VA and Kentucky are the only two states left in the country that do not restore these rights automatically after completion of a sentence, which is highly controversial as it displaces 377,000 people in the state, of which 208,000 are African-American. Here's a Washington Post article on the situation in VA. The application process to restore your rights is grueling (including tons of paperwork) but the work we did with the applicants was truly gratifying. To them, they served their time, want to put their past behind them and would just like to be considered an equal voice in society like you or I. It made me also realize how we often take these rights for granted- especially young adults about voting/civic engagement- so, mmm yeah. ANYWAYS this was my amazing crew at WRIR before we went on the air for an interview...
Other major highlights from the summer include volunteering at the Virginia Democratic Convention in Hampton Roads and getting the chance to announce candidates and others before their speeches: my favorites including Tim Kaine, Mark Warner, Dick Cranwell and Brian Moran. It was actually really cool to meet Kaine because he was expediting the process for our applicants...saying anyone's app that was in before Aug. 1 would be able to vote in November! Woo! And now after that whirlwind of a summer I'm home having just gone to Lollapalooza in gorgeous Grant Park, Chicago. Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine and Kanye were the headliners and it was quite the way to welcome myself home! And next week I'm shipping off to New Orleans for a week of environmental justice work with the Back Porch Energy Initiative. I wrote a lot and shall stop...I really can't wait until we come together and hear everyone's stories! I know I've grown a lot this summer and look forward to see how everyone else reflects over their experiences.
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