VAWA and Politics

Yesterday was my first meeting for the Violence Against Women Act Student Advisory Board. Basically, the role of our group is to review the ideas of the grant coordinator as they apply to the university community as well as suggesting some options that they may or may not have come up with themselves. It's a really fun group where we just hang out and it's really low-key. I was expecting it to be kinda stressful, mostly because of the subject matter, but it really really isn't, and I'm glad. I really don't need to add any stress to my life right now. Between Student Judicial Committee, Phi Alpha Theta rep. stuff, and this, I think I'll be a pretty busy gal next year (and I'll be doing grad school applications too, but that's a different story for a different time). Plus, they already have a ton of neat ideas. Since everything that happened at VT on 4/16 reporting of sexual assaults, etc. have gone down drastically. Generally, people seem to be either comparing their pain with others and thinking it's not bad enough to report, or there's some issue where they're afraid of what might happen if they get someone else into trouble. So the Women's Center, through the VAWA grant, is using poster campaigns and presentations and other programming to make sure that people know that they can report things that happen on campus and no one will get angry with them. It's hard to reach out about things like that.

On a completely different note, the 2008 presidential election is getting really heated and the primaries aren't even over yet. The DNC recently released a commercial in (I believe) North Carolina calling John McCain's candidacy into question because of his age...in addition to all the bashing that's going on between the Democratic candidates. I'm pretty clearly a McCain supporter, but I'm getting frustrated with the whole process...it seems like election after election is just a "lesser of two evils" kinda deal. I liked McCain when he was running against Bush and I often wonder how things would be different had Bush not won through the primaries. Of course, it's a fruitless mind game, but intriguing nonetheless. But I really really wish that Obama was a Republican. I mean, right now, his ideology scares me, and I'm concerned over his seeming overabundance of "Present" votes on the Senate floor. I think there's a lot that we, as voters, don't know about his beliefs. However, I really think we need a fresh face in politics, someone who hasn't been jaded by decades in national politics. It might be interesting to see what happens during the Democratic Convention because if the DNC ultimately chooses Hilary, I think we might see the partial implosion of the party...and I don't see Obama winning either -- he hasn't held the majority primary vote in any of the big states and a lot of Democrats have said that they will not vote for the other Democratic candidate if his/her choice doesn't get the nomination. No matter who wins, they'll need to spend precious time recollecting the Democrats into their fold before they can even start trying to catch the swing voters. It'll be interesting...it's my first presidential election that I'm eligible to vote in so I'm excited.

I'm also really looking forward to catching up on PA state politics. I'll be working in the Capitol complex this summer and will get to sit in on committee hearings and such. I used to be really into it, mostly because I am a HUGE supporter of Congressman Todd Platts, who started out in the PA state House of Representatives. I'm just excited to catch back up; this way, I can feel like I'm making an educated vote on our state elections too.