Summer is winding down :(

This is a post by one of our WONDERFUL summer interns, Dani. We were so lucky to have such talented and dedicated young folks working with us!

So. End of my first summer at Planned Parenthood and I’m still conflicted about the experience. It was nothing like I anticipated applying or even after completing training, yet it definitely still provided me with great skills and understanding.

Coming in, we were taught all sorts of different political involvement techniques—door-to-door canvassing, phone banking, crowd canvassing, writing letters to the paper—with the understanding that we’d be placed at the bottom tier in some struggling politician’s campaign to help make a difference and get them elected. But my internship didn’t turn out that way. Our luck with candidates was legendary—we had politicians who wouldn’t return our calls or who, when we finally got involved with them, did not live up to our expectations—and so my partner Bailey and I never really landed on a campaign. We were more freelance in our political action, doing what would could from the PPWP office and from our limited city bus pass access.

I was looking forward to getting involved in a real political campaign this summer, because it seemed glamorous and complicated and important (I think I’ve watched a bit too much West Wing). In this, I guess I guess I was a bit disappointed, because now my views of them must wait to be disillusioned or confirmed, or both. But my real love and passion is sexuality, not politics, so our focus on Planned Parenthood’s issue and goals and office space really suited me just fine.

This is not to say that I haven’t still learned a lot about politics through my work here. Beyond the truly invaluable political skills of pitching an issue on the phone in such a way that the caller won’t hang up, or getting people to see the value in registering to vote, or being able to speak eloquently about issues, candidates, and the importance of voting for choice, I as well learned many more challenging, intangible lessons. I learned that politicians can be imperfect, even flawed, and still be candidates that need to be supported and advocated for because they can do important work for women and choice in office. I learned that voters really just want to feel like they are being heard and that they are important. And I think I finally grasped the true importance of the democratic process, even—perhaps especially—on the local level. Because political work really is an equal, and an equally important partner, to direct services in cases of social work, be it medical services, choice, domestic violence, or whatever. Work in the interpersonal sphere can only exist as long as there are political policies in place to safeguard it. We can continue performing abortions, or handing out EC, or advocating sex ed because down the road, people have done the hard political action to ensure those freedoms.

But I also learned that politics will probably never be for me. So much compromise and value negotiation goes into becoming a viable candidate, a candidate who can win and then do good things, and I don’t want to settle. I think I’ve learned I’m far too liberal to be tamed like that. But I do know that one day I’ll still end up inside a campaign. Because I learned through this internship, and through my supervisors and mentors at PPWP, that being the lone, loud progressive voice in a candidate’s ear can help remind them what they’re fighting for.