Government is human. If there’ s one thing I’ ve learned at the Councilman’ s office this summer, it’ s that. In the academic setting, we spend a lot of time on institutional structures and the rules and procedures for how change gets made. That’ s all relevant, and I wouldn’ t want anyone in a position of power to not know how a bill becomes a law, but what you can’ t learn from textbooks or papers are the people that pull the levers of our civil society. Through my time doing constituent service work and policy research especially, I’ ve had the privilege to meet and learn a whole lot from only a few of the most amazing people in Baltimore city- Flannery, Joshua, Mrym, Michael, of course Councilman Cohen, all of my intern pals on staff, and countless other agency representatives. Just by being around them, I learned that governing is just one person picking up a phone( in this case, an antiquated cord phone with actual buttons, how crazy is that) and asking the person how they’ re feeling today then talking about what to do next. Even canvassing is just walking up to random people at a bus stop and talking to them.
There are a lot of frustrations with government, and there is a( justifiable) high heat to the frustrations in Baltimore City. People complain that government is all talk and no action, but in my experience, those are one in the same. Working in the office this summer, I learned that literally the worst way to go about solving a problem is to limit how much or how many people you talk about the problem with, and that all our office’ s triumphs, no matter how great or small, came when we rounded up all of an issue’ s stakeholders and had a conversation about it. No innovative constitutional design or nifty rules bill can take the place of passionate people talking to compassionate representatives.
Councilman Cohen, during my interview in the spring semester, asked about my career aspirations. I told him, oh I’ ll go to law school and then work for nonprofit law, and he said that was all well and good, but have you ever considered government? We need smart people in government! In my head I thought, don’ t you need smart people in any workplace? But I nodded and said I would consider it and got on with the interview. I didn’ t know how right he was until around now, at the close of my internship. Government isn’ t about running numbers, it’ s not about submitting reports or filling out forms, it’ s about people.
So yes, I’ ve officially considered government, Councilman.
Community Partner: City Councilperson Zeke Cohen Intern: Sam Schatmeyer Site Supervisor: Michael Castagnola
• Answered phone calls from constituents and worked with the relevant city agencies to try to solve their problem after the traditional pathways broke down
• Prepared summary documents of important reports( like the Kirwan Commission on Education) and researched different policy stakeholders in order create a coalition
• Collected petition signatures for the affordable housing trust fund initiative in order to put the issue on the ballot for voters in November
• Briefly worked to edit and photograph content for the Councilman’ s social media platforms and mailing list
21