Peculiar Dreams

Happy New Year!

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted, but the last semester was such a busy semester for me. I took some time off to really focus on school work and apply for jobs. The job seeking process is a welcomed change from class work at times, but is no less stressful.

I have been working on my application for different government jobs, at the federal level, the state level (Missouri, New York, Maryland), and the local level (Washington DC, Kansas City, Baltimore, Alexandria, New York). I have even been looking in the non-profit and private sector for some jobs. It is a interesting time to be looking for employment. A lot of us are in the in between catergory where we have enough education but not enough experience. It is also still a tough climate out there. While the baby boomers are retiring, firms are still reluctant to hire. So that is fun. And by fun, I mean not at all.

This past semester I really enjoyed the classes I was enrolled in. It was the first semester where we had all elective courses and I was in all of the ones I wanted. I took a course on National Security which was fascinating as we discussed IR theory, democratization, soft power, and what US aims actually are and the methods we use to achieve them. the title of my final paper was “For God and Country: The moral imperative to remove nuclear weapons from the US National Security Strategy”. I chose this topic because I believe that there is a way for our national security to be secured and still have a strong respect for freedom and human life and not be listed as hypocritical. While securing our national interest, as well as protecting the majority of human rights, may have casualties, there are ethics and ways in which this is done and that is accepted by the global community as well as the American people. So the question that I raised was if national security is about securing the nation, does that mean that we must also secure the values that the nation believes in as well? I was working from the assumption that the answer to that question must be in the affirmative. And if that was the case, then the indiscriminate taking of human life goes against the grain of America, and therefore, nuclear weapons are inherently immoral. It was a caveat, but with an exception in the form that they could be used for deterrence but only if non-proliferation and arms control are considered as a part of deliberate policy by the United States. It was fun for me to look at the argument, and I think going to a place like Pepperdine is amazing in that my professors allowed me to bring up this prospective and use passages from the Bible to solidify my point. Private Christian education at its finest!

I also took a class on Eastern Europe. When it comes to European understanding, Americans tend to write off everything west of Germany. But there is important things that are crucial to our past, present and future. My focus in the class was on strategic engagement with the newest economic and semi political block of countries called BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China). Since there is such little literature about the topics, my final paper discussed how to engage each country individually, while taking into consideration the power of the countries combined as the BRIC. The goal was to explore the relationship with each country and how to make their connection with the US stronger, possibly making the United States very influential with the BRIC. The basis of the paper was that the United States should think of engagement with the BRIC like masonry, and every mason knows that when building with BRICs, you always want to have a cornerstone. I argued that America should strive to be the political cornerstone for as many of the BRIC countries as possible, thereby becoming the cornerstone of BRIC itself.

I also took a course on the political campaign process. Learning about a lot of the inner workings of campaigns is important for many reasons. I did not really think about how it impacts my life, but when you think about campaign ads, signs in your yard, petitions, exit polling, etc. it really involves us and takes a lot of consideration from the people who are running the campaigns. It is important from the state and local side as we are intrigued by how people run their campaigns and how scandals or misquotes can really through you off. A great example is the Meg Whitman campaign which threw a lot of money in the campaign process, but was struck hard by the immigrant nanny situation, as well as her lack of relate-ability to the general California electorate. It also is interesting on the international scale as we go over to other nations trying to democratize and we help them set up their campaigns like this. All fascinating!

The other class I took that semester was a course called Children, Families and Communities. This class, while I was not sure what it was going to be talking about, discussed how public policy plays a role in our family and our local communities. The politics that surround families (gay marriage, co-habitation, single parents, divorce, etc), to the policies that affect our communities (race, poverty, education, etc.) We had two presentations in the class. One was group based in which we talked about funding higher education for emancipated foster youth (they really are some of the most forgotten of our society) and my individual presentation was on needs-based assessment in k-12 education (which is considered to be a better standard of measuring student performance because it takes into account non-educational factors such as poverty).

All of my classes were really fun and I liked the work that I produced in each of them. I am also looking forward to the classes I am taking this coming semester (starting tomorrow! Yikes!). Tell you all more soon!

I am very frustrated right now. I know I should not give into this anger, but I find myself unable to refrain.

I am so sick of these public personalities using racial rhetoric and then apologizing the next day and everyone acting like it is all better. Calling African-Americans the n-word, “nappy headed hoes”, comparing their looks to primates, or any other racial or ethnically derogatory statements is unacceptable. 

I know it frightens you that the color of this country is shifting from White to Brown. I know you are concerned that the birth rate for your race is drastically decreasing. I know it upsets you to see a man of color defy your stereotypes and become the leader of this free nation. But that does not give you permission to act three kinds of stupid and expect everyone to be okay with it tomorrow.

So Dr. Laura, Mel Gibson, Don Imus, Michael Richards, and any other fool out there. I know you do not get it. I know you think we cancelled oppression with the election of Barack Obama. But we didn’t. Some day we will.

I truly believe that as a nation we can overcome our differences in skin color, religious upbringing, money status, and music choices. I hope it is sooner than later. Either way, I will keep trying to make myself a better person. I hope you will join me in that cause as well.

Where can I begin? There has been a whirlwind of activity this month! Well, I guess we can start with July 4th. The Fourth of July in DC was amazing! There is something about sitting on a rooftop adjacent to the Washington Monument and watching as 500,00+ people celebrate our nations independence. At the concert I got to hear Darius Rucker and Reba McEntire sing. Side bonus was David Archuletta! We then heard from the National Symphony followed by the best fireworks display I have ever seen. It was so moving. I felt so proud to be an American in that moment! To know that all around this nation, despite the negative things in our past, were people rejoicing our independence. Go America!After the fireworks, life went CRAZY! You try cramming 500,000+ people into public transportation. But we all smelled of fireworks and freedom, so it was a happy time too.

In the coming weekend, we said goodbye to Tarek as he left to go back home to Jordan and Saudi for a little while before returning to Pepperdine to finish his last year with us. We went again to the amazing crepe place I mentioned in a previous post and had good laughs with Zana and Graham. We then went and caught the new movie Despicable Me in 3D and it was full of laughs and we realized that time spent in the company of friends is irreplaceable. So after a few cleared throats and eyes dabs, we bid Tarek adieu.

The following week at work was exciting for me as I got a new assignment. This assignment is an evaluation of President Obama’s commitment to a nuclear free world, one year after his historic Prague speech. This report will feature my research and I could be listed as a co-author. How exciting is that? I have been up to my eyeballs in speeches and policy memos trying to figure out where we are on the issue. I hope that it turns out well. I will keep you posted.

That weekend though was another round of goodbyes. Zana was leaving us back for California, and so me and Graham spent the evenings hanging out with her, eating pizza and laughing it up. Again remembering that laughing uncontrollably clears the soul. Finally after that exchange, we see Zana off to LA and me and Graham head back home.

The next week I got more good news as I was selected to be an observer on a Global Zero conference in which I got to hear policy briefings by Ambassador Thomas Pickering on national perspectives and strategies for Zero, former DOE Director of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, on nuclear terrorism, Stimson Center co-founder, Dr. Barry Blechman, on issues of national and international security, and Global Zero US Chair, Ambassador Richard Burt, on the Global Zero Action Plan for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons. After all was said and done I was lucky to receive some books from Dr. Blechman inviting me to get even more invested on the topic, and receive a personal invitation from Rolf Mowatt-Larssen to contact him anytime at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. In addition to my work as an observer at the conference, I have been listed as a contributor on two updates on Iran on my internships website. You can find links to them here and here. Also during this week, me and a few other Pepperdine students made it to a House Government Oversight Sub-Committee Hearing on Domestic Policy in which our very own Dr. Angela Hawken was a witness. Her testimony was amazing and she was referred to many times by the chair Rep. Dennis Kucinich as a public policy expert.!So it was a very exciting week!

The next weekend was roommate bonding time as Graham, Roy and I spent most of our time chatting in the apartment. Me and Graham went as saw the much talked about film Inception and while I liked it, I was not as bowled over as many have claimed to be. We also got the chance to see the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. It actually wasn’t too bad!

 This weekend has been boring in comparison, but has been exceptionally busy for me still. I have been going over testimony on the New START treaty for this Prague speech update and have had my eyes glaze over while reviewing taxonomies to continue to do more research! But I am so excited for this project as I am really experiencing what a researcher does and I am hoping that the fruits of my labor pay off in a published document that will help me career wise as well as continue to make my parents proud. But this week is finally come to a close and I am forced to do more goodbyes.

Today, Graham is leaving and heading back home to Ohio after a quick stop off to visit a friend in Pittsburgh. It will be interesting not having him around as I have gotten used to making the most of my DC time with him in tow. But he has completed his internship and is going to spend some time with family before heading back to California as well. And the separation is not as bad because we are all seeing each other in a month, and really that time will just fly by!

I get vacation from my job this coming week and I am hoping to check out a few things that I have yet to do here in DC. I plan on going on a tour of the Smithsonian. I am going to the Spy museum. I think I will wander along the waterfront in Alexandria, Georgetown and DC proper. I will picnic on the lawn and I might actually try to schedule a tour of the Pentagon. Who knows! I’ve got three more weeks left here in DC. I think I should make the most of my time left. Don’t you think?

In a previous post I discussed how I see aspects of Public Policy in everything. The other day I found myself watching the Star Wars film Revenge of the Sith. It was then that I realized that the premise of this film is a continuation of the age old battle between good and evil. The classic story line is that in which there are incentives or opportunities that present themselves to the characters in ways which resemble evil and lust for power. Such connections are noticeable through the many film techniques with music, blocking, screen shots, etc.

In a way, I believe that Anakin is everyone in the political field. Just like Anakin, we are influenced by our deeper inhibitions. We are tested each moment of our lives and are judged on our ability to surpass evil. We realize that most people are not inherently evil, but turn that way usually out of the want to do “good”. Even when we have guidance of trusted friends, as Anakin had Obi-Wan, our passions and sometimes our arrogance turns our moral into something corrupt.  This process is slow and yet it penetrates deep. Anakin’s decent into evil was out of concern for someone close to him, but it led him to disobey the decisions of the Jedi Council and be readily manipulated by the Sith Palpatine.  When we consider some of the cases we’ve studies of politicians giving into “evil” we have mainly seen that it was not out of a desire to harm (except for maybe Jack Abramoff) but usually about doing good with something important to them. Jesse Jackson Jr., just wanted to help his wife’s campaign. Charlie Rangel after growing up in a difficult childhood just wanted to enjoy some simple things in life. But these decisions came at the expense of their morality and the general public.

The important thing to remember is that we need people to help keep us grounded. We need to think, would my mother approve of this decision, or would I want my child to know I did this? For Anakin, that person was Obi-Wan. He was the voice of reason. We need to keep these people around us to keep the manipulators, like Palpatine at bay. We can’t succumb to a Palpatine-like call to darkness. As political managers, it could be our boss, or our constituents, or even our own families. We must remember that our work is for the public and to cross over to the dark side for them is not acceptable.

It was easy to see that it was Anakin’s love for Padmé that pushed him toward Palpatine, but the power corrupted him. It did so to the point that he came to inflict harm on himself and others, including his own beloved, Padmé. 

While this film is set in a world of war and chaos, I think it can apply to the fast and often warlike and chaotic times we live in. The ways in which I think that this movie can apply to my life and the lives of other political mangers is to recognize that we have to do things the right way always. When we don’t we notice how quickly we can end up on a slippery slope. People often surprise us by doing “evil” things that we never expected them to do. I see that Anakin believed that he needed to sacrifice whoever he needed to save Padmé, but this is where he went wrong. To sacrifice ones self can be noble, but to do it at the expense of others is wrong. Any type of taking advantage of others under your watch or protection is evil. Tax evasion from the general public is taking money from society because you have power and privilege to circumvent the system. Getting a contract relocated because it will get you better donors is potentially taking those jobs and resources away from a community that could really use it. The lessons that I can gather from this movie is that we need to surround ourselves with upstanding and trustworthy people. We need to remember that sacrifice is about you as an individual and no one else can pay that cost. We must always focus on the greater good, and not the quick fix. We must honor our commitments and believe in ourselves. Because when we do, ultimately everything will work out.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel with friends to New York City. So Graham, Zana and I all boarded a $35 roundtrip Bolt Bus and hit the road. I was so excited to go! I have never been to New York, so I was extremely giddy on the ride there. Zana and I spent the entire trip laughing and making grand plans on what we would do, where we would eat, etc. And we were having a blast! Much to the chagrin of the others on the bus I am sure, but all the same we were enjoying ourselves. When we arrived in New York, I was really surprised to see how dirty and smelly it was! I mean, I know it is a big city, and people have always talked about the stench of New York, but I was honestly blown away!

Well, we made our way to the underground trains and let me tell you, they are confusing! There are 24 lines, 468 stations and all of them are in the center of the earth. As we walked down to one station, I was certain we are going to meet Dante doing research for Inferno II! We finally get on the line that will take us to Omar’s (Zana’s brother) house in Queens. After getting off of the Metro we had just missed the bus that took us right by Omar’s apartment so we hailed a taxi. Now this taxi driver apparently saw all of us and thought to himself ”how easily deceived!”. Little did he know that Zana is extremely NY street wise. A five-minute taxi ride ad he tried to charge us $20. Zana told him no. Gave him and $10 and we got out of the taxi. I was impressed and appalled at the same time. Not sure if we had cheated the man, or if he had cheated us. I learned the next day (when we took another taxi) that to get from Omar’s to the city itself was only $25. So the man really did try to cheat us! New Yorker’s were not rising in my book.

Well, the next day was my day to be a tourist as both Zana and Graham had saw the sights before. So they took me to Time Square. I have been to Piccadilly Circus and was told it was the Time Square of London, so imagine my excitement to see the real thing! It is beyond words! So many people, so many lights. SO MANY PEOPLE! It was amazing and claustrophobic at the same time. Broadway shows, and street performers, department stores, everything! The only thing that marred the view is all of the cameras posted around. I am truly saddened that terrorism has pushed us to this. I think one of my true joys in life is travelling and seeing the world. I think it is awful that bad, misguided and hate minded people do not understand that they have created a world of fear and pain. God, by any name, would not want this. I did not mean to take this somber tone, but it just burns me up thinking about how terrible people can be sometimes.

Well after Time Square we got ready to go out and enjoy the NY nightlife! Such a fun night! Amazing music, a hilarious group of Germans, Mac & Cheese balls! Which of course I did not have because I am lactose intolerant. But the fries were amazing in the retro diner in the Meat Packing District.

The next day, I met up with my friend Jarrett and Chris and had brunch. Then me and Jarrett went off and I saw the city. So much walking, but covered a lot of New York too! Great time!

That night was Omar’s birthday so I left Jarrett and picked up a cake at a small bakery and headed back to Queens. We met Omar’s girlfriend who is from Trinidad and Tobago. She brought a bunch of he Caribbean friends and I spent most of the night having them teach me some Creole and singing with them! A great night and again, happy birthday to Omar.

The next day was the journey home and while I enjoyed New York, I was so excited to be back in DC. The familiarity I have with this city has let me know that one day I can make it home.

So when people say, “how did you come to like DC?” I will tell them: It could only happen in New York!

As mentioned previously in the blog, I am working at a think tank as a researcher on nuclear issues. I came into the role not very informed on the issues, but eager to learn. In all honesty, the thought of nuclear weapons intimidated me because of the sheer size of the issue. Today, I find myself easily discussing percentages of uranium enrichment and understanding the joke that you can’t have your yellow cake and use it too. Since I have gotten involved in this research, I have noticed that my opinion is changing.

Now call me a flip-flop, or fickle, or whatever, but I am okay with changing my mind. I believe that when you learn something new, or find out that you were misinformed, it is your duty to look at the facts and reevaluate your position. This makes me think of the Bible verse in I Corinthians 13:11 – “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.”  As the world is constantly changing, I can not afford to allow my ideas to be unchanging. So I have allowed my views to become better informed.

With that, I was speaking with a new friend the other day and when I mentioned what I was doing for the summer, he said (in reference to nuclear weapons) “I just don’t understand why it is okay for us to have them, and not them”. Now, before starting this internship, I did not want Iran to have the nuclear weapons, but was not overly concerned if they got it. I felt that even though Ahmadinejad has a lot of crazy rhetoric, that the Supreme Leader (who is the real leader of Iran) was a rational actor, and that the principle of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) would keep them in check. If Iran acquired the bomb, then Israel would acknowledge their nuclear weapon. They would point their respective arsenals at each other, and then both would say “hey, we are getting ready to turn Tehran/Tel Aviv into a parking lot. Maybe we should rethink this!”. The situation would de-escalate, and all would be well. I don’t exactly feel this way anymore.

I still stand by my beliefs that Ahmadinejad is not a threat because he holds no real power, and the person who does, the Ayatollah, is a rational thinker and would not use a nuclear weapon in a hissy fit. But more and more reports are suggesting that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps are taking over more and more power. I do not think these people are rational thinkers. Not at all. I think majority of the violence in Iran is done by these folks and the Ayatollah is not wanting all of this, but he does not want to be seen as caving to Western influence, so he doesn’t reprimand his guard. But by not harnessing his power, he has turned more of it over to the IRGC. If Iran were to acquire a nuclear weapon, I think these people would not think in terms of, “oh gosh, if we bomb them, they’ll bomb back”. I think they would be happy to sacrifice themselves as well as the innocent Iranian people to the ideology that they hold. The only real power that Ahmadinejad has is that he is basically a spokesperson for the IRGC. He is their unofficial mouthpiece. 

So again, I am not worried about the rhetoric of this one man, but I am becoming increasingly worried about whether that rhetoric is reflective of a military unit who might just pull a coup d’état. And the IRGC with a nuclear weapon is scary. And we have to use every “weapon” in our arsenal to make sure this does not happen. Sanctions are not enough.

But here is where I am a bit different from most people who share this view. I think we must engage diplomatically with Iran. I think we need to hire more people who are interested and learned on not only the doctrine of the Shiites but the infrastructure of the Islamic Republic. We need to understand Persian history. We need to acknowledge Western failings to the Persian people with our continued support of the Shah. The proverb of “better the Devil you know, than the Devil you don’t” is especially true in this case. We have people who have looked carefully at the Islamic Republic. In fact, Robert Baer wrote a book about dealing with the Islamic Republic’s government. He even titled it after that particular proverb.

There is so much work we could be doing if we were engaged and if we understood. I recognize that the thinking might be different. But we said the same thing about Soviet Russia during the Cold War, and the Japanese during WWII. We can understand different thinking. We have experts who do just this sort of thing. Game theory is not just a game, but a chance to think like the “other”. I am hoping that President Obama will begin this process and that it will be supported by all of Congress and continued under subsequent presidents. I pray for this to happen, because if it doesn’t I don’ know where we are headed as a people.

I figured I would just give a few pictures to allow you to see the fun I am having in DC!

I seem to have a knack for getting lost in DC. This morning I got up and put on a suit because I was going to a Senate hearing. I left out in plenty of time knowing that I would be able to stop off at my office, drop of my lunch and look up what room the meeting was in and walk across the street to the hearing room. Well, I decided to give myself a little extra time by taking a line that requires me to transfer but should cut about 10 minutes off my time. So I did it. Not only did I proceed to go the wrong direction when I transferred, but when I got back going the right way, I got off one stop too early, had to wait on another one and then literally run to my office to just drop off my lunch. No time to look up the meeting. I run into the Senate building, and when I get to the room where it should be, there is another hearing taking place on a completely different topic. I head back into my office and look up the meeting, and of course it is tomorrow. Not today. Great.
 
That’s my life. Will share more if there is more to share later!

Well, I will start off with something truly American. I am currently planning my 4th of July celebration. We are planning on heading to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for a day trip to celebrate in the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Then coming back that evening to or Nation’s Capitol and seeing the fireworks displays. I will be singing the Star Spangled Banner and at Midnight, I will call my Pepperdine roommate Tom and sing This Land is Your Land, while he is in California! I feel that we can not be more American than that in that moment!

No one in DC offers any hospitality! Even if you are clearly lost, people just walk around you and one guy even barged into me! Grr!

This reminds me of a funny story! When our friend Zana got in town on Thursday, she needs to go shopping for groceries. I went with her to help her along. Her roommate had offered us her car but it was so close and Zana said she only needed a few items. So we headed out. Pretty much as soon as we got to the front of her complex, it started sprinkling rain. We decided to grab the car, just in case. Well, we get to the grocery store and Zana does her shopping. 45 minutes later, we have like 140 bags of groceries and like two cases of water and Snapple Peach Tea. So we head out to the car, and of course, it is a torrential downpour. Zana called it a hurricane. I called it living in DC. Well, after getting all of the groceries in the car, we are soaked. Well, this day only continues to get better.

 After it finishes raining, we decide to go to see the Laker’s game in Georgetown. We head out and meet up with Graham and they go see the game, while I go and meet some other friends that are around the corner. Well, Zana told me the game would be over at 11pm. I was like okay, because I knew the Metro stops running at 12pm, so I was like we have plenty of time to get back. Well, the game did not end until 11:50pm. I convinced the others to go at 11:45 and we ran to the Metro station where we discovered the last train headed the way we needed to go had already left. So in a last minute decision I say jump on this other train going in another direction and we will try to catch our train from another station. I run and jump on the train and whirl around the pole to see Graham staring at the door laughing. Graham and I have made it on the train and the doors have closed Zana out on the other side. I thought this only happened in movies! Well, Zana is texting me trying to figure out what to do, and I am trying to give instructions as best as I can because we keep losing signal in the tunnels. Finally, I tell Graham, we have to go back for her! So we hop off the train and head to another one that will take us right back to Zana. Well, we get Zana finally and after having the entire train hear about or antics and they are in hysterics, we discover that at the very next station, we can grab a train that goes right where we needed to go in the first place. So it all worked out, but it was by far one of my most exciting days in DC.

 Also, I can’t stop eating at this one Chinese restaurant right by me and Graham’s place. They know when I come in that I get an entree and like 50 spring rolls! They think it is so funny!

 Work for me is going slowly, but I am enjoying it! I have fit right in and they seem to like me, so bully for me! Most of my days are still research, but sometimes I get something out of the ordinary like a conference or something and that is fun. I’ve made friends around DC that are outside of my school and work friends and I think this is good.

The other day I was at the Lincoln Memorial (sunset there is amazing), and I am going to the Smithsonian soon.

 I am also feeling more at home in my rented neighborhood of Del Ray Alexandria. It has a cute farmers market and a couple of quaint shops. And then just a sort bus ride away is Old Town Alexandria where Zana is close by.

I guess that is all for right now!

I got to meet my Senator, Claire McCaskill from Missouri!