Staying well-informed and political (or trying to)

November 2, 3:27 PMPortland Twenty-Something ExaminerAli Reingold

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Getting out the vote in the early days of my time in PDX.

I have a confession to make. I am embarrassingly ignorant of current events. My knowledge (or more accurately, lack of knowledge) about the political goings-on in this world is woeful, and if it weren’t for the Daily Show and the New York Times News Alerts that are sent to my inbox, I would hardly be aware of anything. I don’t like this; I don’t like it at all. I long to be a Dorothy Parker type - literarily witty but also smart and well-informed and able to make topical jokes (I imagine myself at a cocktail party holding a martini glass, saying things like “You know what Karzai always says: You win some, you use electoral fraud and systematic governmental corruption to win some more!” to which all the debonaire men in the room laugh and clink their glasses with mine and admire me greatly. I know, I know, it wasn’t even funny, but this is my fantasy, okay? and since I’m not well-informed enough to make funny topical jokes, I have to make pretend-funny topical jokes).

What’s the deal, Ali? You’re the Portland Twenty-Something Examiner! You’re supposed to represent all the engaged young minds in this town who are hip and fun and creative and at the same time fiercely committed to justice and civics, who can argue pointedly and confidently about relevant issues, and who can name most if not all of their state representatives.

Well, folks, today as your Portland Twenty-Something, I am representing those of us who do care about justice, who do want to be enlightened, participatory citizens, who truly wish to make a difference and to enact change but who don’t necessarily read the paper every day and who, let’s face it, cannot name [all of] their state representatives.* Yes, I am ashamed of my fairly high time-making-facebook-photo-albums-to-time-reading-the-news ratio. Yes, I feel like an idiot half the time when I’m sitting mute in the middle of a heated discussion and feel unable to contribute anything interesting. Yes, it pains me that I’ve listened to hour-long episodes of This American Life that explain very simply things like the economic crisis and health care reform and still probably couldn’t tell you much about it.

The problem is, as much as I hate feeling ill-informed and as much as I tell myself I will make a serious effort to read the news and educate myself and think critically about issues instead of just aligning my opinions with whatever John Stewart/my friends/people who are generally intelligent and liberal say, I can never keep it up for an extended period of time. I might do a good job reading articles online and looking at Dolores’s Economist for a week or two, but I inevitably fall back into the normal routine: I am emailed the New York Times headlines and don’t even always read those all the way through; I watch the Daily Show, but only once in a while; and I hear about important things that are going on mostly through word of mouth. Instead of reading the news, I read my book (and when you’re reading Infinite Jest, you need to devote a serious chunk of time to it, believe me) or watch an episode of 30Rock or spend an hour or five constructing a Boggle board Halloween costume. I can’t participate in conversations because I don’t know enough to say anything worthwhile or that someone hasn’t already heard anyway.

I don’t want to be apathetic. I want to understand the complexities of the issues and be able to debate them thoughtfully. I want to be a good citizen who knows how the system works. I swear I do! I hate feeling stupid. And I hate that my ignorance is undeniably my own fault, that it is not imposed upon me by some third party, and that it is clearly up to me and only me to change it.

I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest that there are other twenty-somethings who feel the same way. Luckily for us, there are plenty of other twenty-somethings who are engaged, thoughtful, informed citizens, and they want to help the rest of us lazy turds. The Bus Project is an organization devoted to getting young people into politics. They work to mobilize volunteers and activists, and I admire their zest. Together with the Portland Mercury, they host a free event called BrewHaHa! Democracy & Drinks, where an important issue is discussed in a fun, comfortable setting. These BrewHaHas occur once every month or two, are usually MCed by the indefatigable and charming Matt Davis, and always feature a panel of eminent local experts who aim to explain the issue at hand in an understandable way. Jokes and prizes abound, and sometimes people eat lots of pudding to entice monthly donors. Dolores and I have been to several of these, on such topics as Urban Renewal, Transportation, and Health Care. The next BrewHaHa is next Tuesday, November 10th, at Backspace, and the topic is Campaign Finance. This time it’s a Wild West theme, and word has it there will be potato-gun shootouts and lassoing.

It’s one small step toward becoming informed, but it’s a step nonetheless. So I’ll see you there, and in the meantime, I’ll actually read those headlines. I promise.

Politically correct love from
Your civically-minded Portland Twenty-something

*Oregon’s state representatives are Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrader, Greg Walden, and David Wu. I knew some of them. But yes, I looked that up.