Day 3

Today was the third day of College Convention. We woke up and headed to breakfast, and decided to go to some of the sessions at 1pm. I was really excited for this session, because it was about service and politics. There was also one about the ONE Campaign, which I also wanted to go to, but Amy and Sarah went to it, and I thought the service and politics session would be better. This session was about how young people played critical roles in service and voting. They also talked about getting candidates to come out with a national service plan. A few candidates already have, including Chris Dodd (D), 1 million people in Americorps, and twice as many people in the Peace Corps. This really made me think about doing service myself. I would really like to serve somehow, especially in the Peace Corps, but wanting to go to law school right after college and starting my career is probably going to stop that. I would really like to maybe somehow do shorter service, like for a few months during the summer or something. They also discussed how to bring students beyond service, which was really valuable if I ever did service in higher education, or with students. It would have been great to use that during my work on Community Connections.

After this, we went straight to Rep. Tom Tancredo from Colorado (R). Rep. Tancredo discussed how he feels he stands for true conservatism, less government, etc. and how maybe the Republican party has strayed from this. Rep. Tancredo also talked a lot about immigration, and how he wants to cap immigration and really be much stronger on not allowing illegal immigrants in. He also pressed for assimilation. Rep. Tancredo’s speech was very jumpy, and seemed to bounce from issue to issue, and there was hardly any structure. I also really did not agree with pretty much everything he was saying. In addition, a girl asked about global warming, and what he thought about it. He claimed it was debatable, which really angered me since I think so strongly about it, and it is pretty much irrefutable that is is occurring and humans are at fault. He also stated that he would be for reducing carbon emissions, but for the reason of no longer relying on foreign oil. Overall, I did not like Rep. Tancredo’s speech, not only was it disorganized but it just did not match my views. Here is a photo of Rep. Tancredo during his talk.

After Tancredo’s speech we walked around a bit, and then headed to dinner at a great sports bar right across from the hotel. We are going to be bed early, tomorrow we have to get up pretty early, Ron Paul is speaking at 9am, and then Bay Buchanan and Mike Huckabee. I am really looking forward to it!