26 January, 2007

"Isms and ocracies. Give me facts. A rubber planter beats his labourer - all right, I'm against him. He hasn't been instructed to do it by the Minister of the Colonies. In France I expect he'd beat his wife. I've seen a priest, so poor he hasn't a change of trousers, working fifteen hours a day from hut to hut in a cholera epidemic, eating nothing but rice and salt fish, saying his Mass with an old cup - a wooden platter. I don't believe in God yet I'm for that priest. Why don't you call that colonialism?"

- Thomas Folwer from the Quiet American

12 January, 2007

Again I had comments made to me based on my ethnicity. My only offense - I was walking my dogs on my block.

Why is it that certain people cry about racism but turn around and make negative race-based comments?

PSA 308 Meeting

I attended the PSA 308 meeting at the United House of Prayer tonight. I found the meeting to be helpful and appreciate the MPD's interest in working with Shaw residents' on addressing the recent wave of shootings in the neighborhood. However, I feel like we spent too much time on the U.S. Attorney's presentation on the Youth Court and not enough time for the officers and residents to interact and discuss ways to combat the crime wave. Cary Silverman wrote a detail summary of tonight's meeting and posted on the Mt. Vernon Square neighborhood blog.

Personally I am very frustration with the violence that is taking place in Shaw. I've live in Shaw for almost six years. Despite Lt. Neal's statistical analysis on the downward trend of crime in the PSA by 24%, I feel like I'm living in more fear today than two years ago. Walking home from the Metro tonight, I found myself looking for solid objects, like cars and trees, that can shield me from incoming bullets.

According to the police, many of the crimes, including auto thefts and car breakins, are being committed by some very young felons. While I appreciate the U.S. Attorney's focus on rehabilitating the youthful offenders, I hope that the MPD will focus its resources on first stopping the crimes in the neighborhood.

11 January, 2007

More gunfire in Mt. Vernon Square

Life in Mt. Vernon Square reported more gunfire at 5th and N St. NW last night. When is this going to stop?!

Instead of becoming safer, our neighborhood is getting more gang violence every week.

10 January, 2007

Revisiting old posts

Since I am so bored at my temp job, I went back to old postings to check out what I was thinking way back. While I'm not the most cheerful boy on the block now, I was surprised at how sour I was about my life, my job, and the state of politics on the Hill back in July 2005. Granted, at the time I had served almost seven years on the Hill and was quite unhappy about being in the minority and working a job that put me in a position to accomplish absolutely nothing. I was a pretty angry person back then.

Since '05, my politics have not changed much (I'm still a moderate Democrat. I'm sure my friends in the caucus will still think of me as a DINO). But having spent a year in Los Angeles, I gladly returned to Washington, DC and now desperately want to return to work on the Hill.

I suppose there are a few factors in my change of heart and new-found desire to get back to Capitol Hill.

1) We're in the majority now! Along with an entire generation of Democratic staffers, I have never been in the majority. My fading memory of the last Democratic House majority was the sorry state of the Democratic Caucus in 1995. All we had to respond to Mr. Gingrich's Contract with America were these signs that said GOP=Get Old People. They were mildly amusing but hardly worth bragging about.

2) I got stung by my hasty move to California. More than a year ago, I picked up and moved myself, my girlfriend and our two dogs to Los Angeles. I got a lucrative job at a PR firm and thought we'd both enjoy being out of DC and back in our hometown. But I ended up hating my PR job and quit after just four months. We spent the rest of our time in LA hating our apartment, and doing and hating our telemarketing job for the Hollywood Bowl and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The only thing I like about LA was the food. The weather was even to hot for my taste (I know people will think I'm crazy to dislike summer in January).

3) I realized that I don't hate Capitol Hill or politics. I just grew out of my old job. I enjoy the friends I made on the Hill. I'm not naive and I'm sure I will have things to bitch about once I get back to the Hill. But I have found a renewed vigor for politics and desperately want to go back to the Hill. Only if I can find a LD job.

Violence in the neighborhood

It has been a violent start to 2007 for Mt. Vernon Square neighborhood. We've had two shootings in the first two weeks of the year. Both incidents are getting alarmingly close to my condo building. I emailed Commander McCoy at the 3rd Police District. I hope the situation improves. I hate to catch a bullet in the face just because some neighborhood kids are bored.

Still looking for work in DC

I was hoping that the new year would bring some good news on the job front. I still maintain that moving to Los Angeles to take that PR job was not a mistake, but how I wish this temporary setback can end and I can resume my career.

It was exciting to see a new Democratic House of Representatives. Not that I agree with everything the new majority leadership does, but because I believe we can be better than the last majority party.

However, after three hopeful job December interviews with Cantwell, Perlmutter and Sestak, I still don't have an offer on the table. I know better than to be upset. Afterall, members are still dealing with organizing their offices and working on the "6 for 2006" legislation on the House floor this week. But it is discouraging to know that I have the requisite experience to do the job, have had good interviews, yet still have nothing to show for.

In the meantime, I'm still temping. It brings in income to pay the mortgage, but I feel like doing meaningless work is sucking the soul out of me. It's terrible to spend the day disliking what you do at work.

The weather this winter has been alarmingly warm. It's nice but it's not like PEPCO is cutting me any slack. Despite barely using the heat and having energysaver bulbs in my floorlamp, my electricity bill this month is still over $100!