Day 41: Leadership El Paso- Politics and Justice

On Friday, I attended the monthly Leadership El Paso meeting with my supervisor, Rene since he is one of the volunteers that puts these meetings together. Various agencies nominate individuals to participate in this competitive year long program. The idea behind this program is to gather leaders of El Paso to learn about the many issues going on in the area so that through awareness, actions can be taken. Every month, there is a different topic that is discussed. For the month of July, the issue was Politics and Justice. I was not too enthused when I first heard that since politics really is not my thing, but I was more than content with the presenters and the places we visited regarding the topic at hand.

The day began bright and early, at 7:30 am. There was breakfast, a welcoming, and an overview of the day, which would end at 5:00 pm. The first speaker was a man named David A. Austin who is a founder and member of the Board of Directors of the Rio Grande Institute, an economic development and environmental organization. I honestly can not remember exactly what he talked about, so I will move onto the next speaker, Patrick V. Reinhart who has been working in the area of policy development for more than 14 years. I consider him a politician since he has served on the staff of two Texas elected officials. The only difference in him was that I actually enjoyed listening to him talk because he just seemed like an honest man who is genuinely concerned about the advocacy for the city of El Paso. He mentioned one point which really hit home for me. He stated that if “You don’t know the answer to a question a community member is asking, then say: I don’t know, but I will get back to you” because nobody wants to be lied to. And that’s not how you build trust within the neighborhood. It’s a simple concept to say “I don’t know,” but I feel like people, not only politicians are reluctant to use those words as if it’ll make them look inferior. He also mentioned a key tactic that a lot of lobbyists do not use: keeping in touch with people. Once an issue has been resolved or once a legislative law has been passed, lobbyists tend to loose that connection with community members and that is fatal for them because they make it that much harder to regain their vote. Patrick Reinhart just simplified politics for me and that is why he had my undivided attention. I didn’t even do my usual day dreaming.

The next speaker was a woman named Jane K. Shang, the Deputy City Manager of the City’s Mobility Portfolio, which includes: international bridges, mass transit/sun metro, aviation, and street. Her presentation was very well organized with listed budgets, percentages, and numbers for the fiscal year. One of her main points was to promote the use of transportation. As someone who does not need persuasion in relying on public transportation since that’s all I’ve really known in NYC, I thought that extending the bus hours would be a great benefit. The buses in El Paso run from 6:00 am to 8:30 pm, which I consider to be fairly early. I wanted to vocalize my opinion, but a retired police officer was very passionate about Jane’s point in cutting funding from the safety department, that my point seemed too minor to mention. The officer’s argument was that safety is priority. “If you don’t have safety, you don’t have a city.” I agree with his statement without a doubt, but 60% of the city’s funding goes into safety. Even the security guards working in the bus terminals have guns. I see the police everywhere I walk, at least 3 times as much than in NYC. I just think that if some of their budget went into other departments such as education and healthcare, the community as a whole would have better chances of prospering.

The next speaker was a professor at UTEP, Dr. Richard D. Pineda. He made several interesting points about his topic, Border Communications. The one that stood out to me was the idea of symbolism tied with politics. He mentioned how El Paso has always voted democratic. However, there was one year in which the city voted republican out of nowhere. Dr. Pineda asked his grandmother, a typical El Pasoa who is also dedicated democratic voter why she changed her stance. She replied by saying that “because I can understand him.”Dr. Pineda conducted research and realized that it was the year the republican party began to incorporate Spanish into their campaign, even if it was in tiny portions. His main point was that communication, language, and symbolism is key for politics. And it made a lot of sense. Even if the ideals do not correspond with the voter, if the voter can comprehend what the politician is saying, there is a certain level of comfort and even reassurance.

The last set of speakers were Special Agent in Charge David Cuthbertson and Field Intelligence Manage Ray Cervantes who talked about the current “drug war” occurring in Mexico. They made sure to point out that there is no sort of overspill in violence into the states, especially not El Paso (since it is after all the second safest city in the U.S).

After lunch, it was field trip time! We loaded up to visit a jail in El Paso since the topic of this month is Politics and Justice. I can officially say, I Dimple Patel, a 20 year old have been to prison. I was very excited. We visited the cells, the kitchen, and the clinic within the jail. The officers that led the tour mentioned how the kitchen is the most dangerous place because of the knives that are present. It didn’t really hit me how structured the lives of the inmates really are. They receive three hours of sunshine per week. They shower, eat, and watch television when they are given permission to and as one of the officers mentioned, “you basically take away any sense of control they have.” For some reason, I never thought about it like that, but it’s true. We passed by the laundry room and the basketball court and soon the tour was over. After understanding the fact that different inmates wear different colored uniforms, depending on the severity of the crime they committed, I felt like I had enough basic knowledge to enlighten those who have never visited prison about the fundamentals.

Our next and last stop was to a place called the Center Against Family Violence, which “provides confidential assistance, educational programs and most importantly, hope to families in need.” We toured the shelter home, walking past kids running after one another and mothers holding onto their youngest ones. We saw the closed in playground and the educational center for kids. The main part of our visit was a play performed by a couple, John and Linda King. They reenacted the life of their daughter, who died due to domestic violence. Their story was real. Their story is real. And they were telling it to anyone who wanted to listen since the message needs to be spread. Their play, “Control. Assault, Delete” made three points:
1. Point out common mistakes made by parents and friends in their attempts to help the victim escape abuse.
2. Bring to light common tactics used by abusers to trap victims into a rigidly controlled relationship.
3. Point out to abuses the pain and misery they bring to the lives of others through their actions (Control. Assault, Delete).
The play was intense, especially knowing that these parents had lost a daughter through domestic violence and continuously relive that moment by raising awareness to others. But I guess that’s what it all boils down to. You help people by any which way you can because it’s the right thing to do. For this elderly couple, telling the story of their innocent daughter helps them spread awareness and raise caution against such violent crimes. It makes you wonder, what do I want to raise awareness about and work towards? What bothers me about the way things are? And what can I do to CHANGE those things?