This morning started off slightly different from the rest. Since today is our last day in Washington and we had a free day to enjoy the city before tomorrow's historical day, we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on thin ice, literally! We spent 15-25 glorious minutes on the frozen over pond nestled in our backyard (see the video in Phillip's last post). We just so happened to catch some of our fun on film, so you should check out our short but uniquely talented performance.

After an exciting day well spent on the grounds of our national monuments, we dove into the heart of the culture in Washington again with a visit to the National Archives and last evening dinner in Chinatown. Upon waiting in line to enter the National Archives, with hundreds of thousands of people I must add, we were delighted and intrigued with the presence and conversation of a former FBI agent who served during some of the nations most infamous and even grand moments in American History (through the 1960s and 1970s). After nearly an hour and a half of waiting in line, we then engaged with U.S. history's most defining and pioneering documents, including: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Magna Carta. Our evening dinner was inspired by Presidential Leader's previous trip to Washington, D.C in February to a Chinese restaurant.

This would conclude our experience in Washington as tonight we are diligently working to finish up our memos to the president, packing, and cleaning before our 4:00am train ride to the airport in the morning. As you can tell this opportunity has led us to several immaculate realizations of the presidency and the influencing factors surrounding their noble dedications to our country and world. We are so thankful for the experience to be in Washington on behalf of Kennesaw State University and therefore we cannot be more grateful for the tremendous 9 days in our beautiful nation's capitol. Thanks to you for ensuring the success of our ride to academic, personal, and professional stimulation. We look forward to being home, but will always cherish the moments we've experienced in the climax of a treasured, historical age.

~Branden

Skating On Thin Ice... Literally

Just a little goofing around on one of our days off in Washington D.C.! This was a gold medal winning performance by the way. We also went out to a few restaurants and socialized with the locals, and even saw one of our senators employees out! It was a great way to wind down the week before finishing our papers and journals and returning to Kennesaw, school work, and real life.

~Phillip

Today we visited the amazing Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue. The Newseum is a tribute to media sources and the way they have influenced our lives. I believe this was one of the most eye opening experiences I have had while here in Washington, D.C. The Newseum had amazing assortment of media that gave a broad view of the impact media has made from as early as the 1400s to the present day.

The exhibits ranged from the first amendment gallery, the 9/11 gallery to the 4 dimensional (moving seats) film on inspiring journalists. The galleries did an amazing job of showing the almost inconceivable importance of journalism to our democracy and how it affects people around the world. Exhibits tell the history of the Berlin wall and how journalists played a role in bring it down. The events of 9/11 were shown in order of reporting and really created an emotional exhibit. I never realized how important journalism really was to our daily lives. I came out of the Newseum with a greater appreciation to journalists that gave their life to tell stories of war, corruption, to famine. One of the most interesting sections of the Newseum was the Ethics Center. The Ethics Center was an interactive center that allowed you to make tough decisions about stories that defined ethical boundaries in journalism.

Durring my visit I was even able to gain a better perspective on what it was like to be a news reporter. You had the opportunity to act as a news reporter and have yourself taped and broadcast. It was harder than I thought to read that teleprompter!

The day started out with Sam Donaldson (of ABC News) giving his perspective on how Washington D.C. works. He was energetic and liked to add in bits of humor. This made his points a bit hard to follow however he was still fun to hear from. Following this was a panel of former congressmen from various states. They were all able to tell a bit about what they thought about their time as congressmen and about defining experiences from their service.
Students were able to ask questions of the congressmen that gave us some insight into the transition to Obama’s presidency as well as answering questions from budget deficits, congressional partisanship, and how media affects politics. I have now heard 2 different perspectives on C-SPAN being able to broadcast the house and senate rooms. I recall a reporter claiming that C-SPAN was great because it was able to hold congress accountable for being present and for representing legislation. The former congressmen however, made it clear that C-SPAN was a horrible idea because it hindered them from being able to represent themselves correctly to other members.Next, we had Dr. Bell finish his presentation on media and the campaign. He showed the Bias toward Obama and showed what media may have had a more liberal bias. He presented the topic of negative advertising and spoke on the abilities of the candidates. One of the most interesting points that he presented was that John McCain was really good at his town hall meetings. If you look back in the campaign, John McCain wanted Obama to join him in the town hall meetings where he was strong in giving the straight talk to the people. Obama declined knowing that he was better at giving speeches to the people and not participating in events where McCain was strongest. Unfortunately, McCain didn’t get much coverage on his ability to handle uncensored questions while Obama got coverage for making very inspiring speeches. This insight gave me a clearer picture of how campaigns use their strengths and restrain their weaknesses to try and come out on top.

TWC Inauguration Seminar - Day 5

Hey Hey Hey!

January 15, 2009 was our 5th day of the TWC program and our 6th day in Washington D.C. The high temperature today did not break the mid-20' s and the winds were 10 to 20 miles per hour! Let' s just say it doesn' t get this cold in Atlanta. Burrrr!

Today started with a lecture from Dr. Ross Baker, a Professor of Political Science from Rutgers University in New Jersey. Dr. Baker provided a detailed lecture about the inter-workings of both congressional houses. His seven characteristics of the legislative bodies (localism, segmentalism, accountability, partisanship, individualism, process, and need to compromise) gave an interesting lens by which to consider the dynamics of congressional proceedings. Members of congress are in a position unique from the president as they are much more accessible (you can stole into their office at almost anytime), have to keep in mind the interest of their local constituents and individual interests if they are concerned with re-election, but still must make compromises to serve the greater good of the nation as a whole.

Dr. Genovese followed Dr. Barker in the morning session. He continued his series of lectures on the power of the presidency, this time talking about how the presidency was born: the divine right of kings was transformed by our forefathers into the divine right of the people, the need for the consent of the governed, and the absolute necessity of the unalienable rights bestowed upon us by our creator. I am enjoying reading his book (Memo to a New President) that we received upon arriving here, although I feel slightly guilty as I should be reading more of the material for my bioethics and molecular biology courses.

The morning session continued with a lecture from Ambassador Hussein Haqqani of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He quoted Senator and future Secretary of State Clinton, "The world can' t solve its problems without the United States and the United States can' t solve its problems without the world." I feel this was an extremely accurate statement and was a fitting way to start his talk. The degree of globalization and internationalization the world has experience begs for a global approach to problem solving for all nations. One of the themes in his talk was that we must make sure that we are working with people and not trying to work for people. Ambassador Haqqani used an example of an old lady crossing the street: a young man tried to help an old lady across the street and she ended up beating him on the head with her hand bag because she did not want his help. While this example has a very obvious political message, I feel the example provides a truth: the story might have ended ended differently if the person had taken the time to see if the old lady actually wanted help, if he had attempted to understand the situation better.

However, I did object to some of Ambassador Haqqani' s comments. When asked about his and his country' s thoughts about Obama and whether they would have preferred to have John McCain in office, he eloquently dodged the question. He said that he and the country had no preference about which candidate was elected. While I feel overall the world is excited about Obama becoming president, his remarks to the question did not seem sincere to me. I got a sense that he was just putting up a political front. Yes, this is his job to do so; however, I feel that his remarks may not have been completely representative of his personal opinion which is what I would have liked to hear.

The morning session ended with Dr, Bell and more of his discussion on media and the campaign. We watched clips from SNL and also the interview of Sarah Palin by Katie Couric. It was nice to end the day' s lectures on a humorous note.

Our Capitol tour in the afternoon was a disappointment compared to the one we went on last time we were in Washington with the Presidential Leaders, although we did get to see the newly completed visitor center.

Our day concluded with a concert from satirist Mark Russell at the George Washington University Concert Hall. His political humor was as witty as it was true in many cases.

The anticipation for the inauguration is continuing to build up and we can see the excitement escalating around the town!

This experience is also making me feel more optimistic about President-Elect Obama. The general consensus of most of the experts and speakers we have hear from, both republicans and democrats, is that Obama is working towards the center and not making his bed with partisan politics of either side thus far. They feel that he is trying to bring people together and has honest intentions to better America. Regardless of our political party, he is now our president and his leadership in this time is going to be key to the continued prosperity of our nation. As I mentioned in my last personal post, President-Elect Obama has been dealt pocket aces in the poker game of the presidency. I am starting to feel hopeful that he will play a good hand and make sensible wagers.

As always, I' ll leave you with some pictures.

Phillip

Have you ever felt as though early morning commitments seem earlier each new day even though the itinerary reads the same starting time? I often do and maybe it's because I'm just having that much fun! Fortunately Wednesday's rise was no exception. Our buttoned up shoes, jackets and tightly wrapped scarfs enabled us to sprint to the University of the District of Columbia for an enticing conversation concerning mainstream media.

The evening before, Bob Schieffer informed us of his daunting experiences with Generation Y's choices for adequate media sources (we just so happen to belong in Generation Y), suggesting Saturday Night Live and South Park were slightly uninformative and somewhat limited in their approaches. Dr. Steve Bell of Ball State University picked up right where Mr. Schieffer's indictments left off, yet this morning he focused on the power of media coverage and its inherent biases, especially in the context of individuals with painstakingly limited news consumption. He proposed we, as in the youth of the nation, develop a sense of "media literacy" to weed through all the biased forms of news; a challenge to encourage our generation to become active, serial readers digesting information from a complex of media sources.

C-SPAN aired its final of a two-part series of live interviews from the auditorium stage where current White House Press Secretary Dana Perino responded to tough questions submitted by fellow peers assembled at the University and from public viewers via telephone. She faced questions such as: "What was one of the most frustrating things you experienced working under the Bush Administration?" and "Are dangerous buzz words such as 'terrorism' and 'national threats' an attempt by the media to thwart the public's sense of security?" As you can imagine, it was fascinating to witness first hand how the press secretary responds in real time.

Ted Koppel of NPR and BBC uniquely assessed our opinions on whether or not journalists should first consider the consequences of their reports prior to publishing. He would go on later to submit, "Although journalists must be held responsible for the accuracy depicted in their postings, rarely ever should they be held responsible for the outcome of a story.” Interesting!

Concluding our morning session, Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune spoke of the Obama Administration transition into the White House and humorously illustrated how the Obama Administration has succinctly dealt with the changing times through the use of technology to foster communication ("I told Barack that Blackberry's are modern day shackles or sorts, I mean I own two!"). One of the most entertaining topics Mr. Page touched on was the danger looming if the Internet were ever to be "corporatized". Page asserted, "I believe the Internet is precisely what this nation's founding fathers had in mind when they hammered the freedom of speech and freedom of press into the first amendment." Pure genius!

And last but certainly not least came our captivating and inspirational site visit to the Embassy of Kuwait. The notable speakers addressed the long standing and supportive relationship between the United States and Kuwait through the common values of openness, strength, and respect.

Here are several moments of our great times from Yesterday's events (January 13th, 2009).

Juan Williams and Bret Baier spoke to President-Elect Barack Obama's presidential transition. On the live C-SPAN feed they responded to telephone calls and questions from our fellow peers assembled at the university.

White House evening photo.

Bob Schieffer of CBS News providing commentary on the historic election of our 44th president. He opened the floor up for questions as we chowed down on fine reception dining.


Bob Schieffer and Us!