Read Online With Patience and Fortitude: A Memoir by Christine Quinn - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Christine Quinn
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could be cleaned up.
Next I lobbied on different pieces of legislation at the statehouse—Trinity is located in Hartford, which is Connecticut’s capital. I’d go to the statehouse a day or two every week. I’d grab state representatives in the hallways and talk to them about specific pieces of legislation, like an act to increase funding for household-hazardous-waste-cleanup days, specific days where you could go to a designated site in your community to drop off hazardous waste, like paint thinner and motor oil, that you aren’t supposed to put out with your regular garbage. These cleanup days have become a reality in New York City and many other cities and towns. I also worked with the paid lobbyists to help their efforts on specific legislation. And then I’d do the corresponding work on campus to support whatever bill I was lobbying for. That might include getting a petition signed, organizing a letter-writing campaign, or getting students to go up to the statehouse for a lobby day.
During two of my summers at Trinity, I worked to raise money for ConnPIRG. The summer of my sophomore year, I went door-to-door as a canvasser. I rang bells and asked people to become members of our citizens’ network. It was a six-day-a-week job, from ten in the morning until ten or eleven at night. We asked a lot of people to join, but we were intent on helping our cause. The second summer I ran the door-to-door operation, which was easier on my feet but also hard, because the work was exhausting and the turnover was pretty serious.
Going door-to-door is difficult because you’re completely intruding on people’s lives and space, but it’s a great way to get people involved who might not otherwise join. Wheel of Fortune was a very popular show that summer, and we were interrupting people in the middle of the show, right when a contestant was about to guess one of the puzzles. So when they opened the door for us, they were already unhappy. That was a challenge. But it’s a challenge for every person who puts on a coat and walking shoes and takes to the street to leaflet for something they care about deeply. Nobody likes standing in the rain and interrupting people while they’re watching their favorite shows, but this kind of commitment to action is what makes change possible. This work taught me the importance of pushing through the fear of bothering people and asking them to get involved.
During that time I learned how to organize a public event in a way that is most effective and empowering to all in attendance. Room size and the number of chairs are both important. You have to make sure you’ve got more people saying they’ll come to the event than you need to actually show up, because a certain number of people won’t show up. And you have to have fewer chairs in the room than the number of people you expect to show up, so the room will look crowded. If more people show up than you expect, then you get more chairs, but you don’t want empty seats. You don’t want people who’ve given their precious time feeling like they’re the only people who care about something—that will stop them from staying involved!
D oing all this real work on interesting issues was so much better than sitting in a classroom. I was learning how the governmental process worked. It was very hands-on, and I loved it. I was surprised to find that the state representatives were very respectful. They treated me just like anybody else who was there to talk to them about the issues they were working on. This was the best thing for me. I guess I went a bit too far, because not long after I left Trinity, the school imposed a limit on the amount of credit students could get from internships and independent study. You might call that the Chris Quinn rule. I’m fairly sure I was the cause of it, because I’d taken so many internships and probably not enough regular classes.
I wound up majoring in urban studies and education, mostly because I knew
Next I lobbied on different pieces of legislation at the statehouse—Trinity is located in Hartford, which is Connecticut’s capital. I’d go to the statehouse a day or two every week. I’d grab state representatives in the hallways and talk to them about specific pieces of legislation, like an act to increase funding for household-hazardous-waste-cleanup days, specific days where you could go to a designated site in your community to drop off hazardous waste, like paint thinner and motor oil, that you aren’t supposed to put out with your regular garbage. These cleanup days have become a reality in New York City and many other cities and towns. I also worked with the paid lobbyists to help their efforts on specific legislation. And then I’d do the corresponding work on campus to support whatever bill I was lobbying for. That might include getting a petition signed, organizing a letter-writing campaign, or getting students to go up to the statehouse for a lobby day.
During two of my summers at Trinity, I worked to raise money for ConnPIRG. The summer of my sophomore year, I went door-to-door as a canvasser. I rang bells and asked people to become members of our citizens’ network. It was a six-day-a-week job, from ten in the morning until ten or eleven at night. We asked a lot of people to join, but we were intent on helping our cause. The second summer I ran the door-to-door operation, which was easier on my feet but also hard, because the work was exhausting and the turnover was pretty serious.
Going door-to-door is difficult because you’re completely intruding on people’s lives and space, but it’s a great way to get people involved who might not otherwise join. Wheel of Fortune was a very popular show that summer, and we were interrupting people in the middle of the show, right when a contestant was about to guess one of the puzzles. So when they opened the door for us, they were already unhappy. That was a challenge. But it’s a challenge for every person who puts on a coat and walking shoes and takes to the street to leaflet for something they care about deeply. Nobody likes standing in the rain and interrupting people while they’re watching their favorite shows, but this kind of commitment to action is what makes change possible. This work taught me the importance of pushing through the fear of bothering people and asking them to get involved.
During that time I learned how to organize a public event in a way that is most effective and empowering to all in attendance. Room size and the number of chairs are both important. You have to make sure you’ve got more people saying they’ll come to the event than you need to actually show up, because a certain number of people won’t show up. And you have to have fewer chairs in the room than the number of people you expect to show up, so the room will look crowded. If more people show up than you expect, then you get more chairs, but you don’t want empty seats. You don’t want people who’ve given their precious time feeling like they’re the only people who care about something—that will stop them from staying involved!
D oing all this real work on interesting issues was so much better than sitting in a classroom. I was learning how the governmental process worked. It was very hands-on, and I loved it. I was surprised to find that the state representatives were very respectful. They treated me just like anybody else who was there to talk to them about the issues they were working on. This was the best thing for me. I guess I went a bit too far, because not long after I left Trinity, the school imposed a limit on the amount of credit students could get from internships and independent study. You might call that the Chris Quinn rule. I’m fairly sure I was the cause of it, because I’d taken so many internships and probably not enough regular classes.
I wound up majoring in urban studies and education, mostly because I knew
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