Here is my latest MTV story.

Last weekend in DC, there was a sort of…”Last Call” party for Barack Obama.

It was a massive phone banking telethon - designed by Obama’s national headquarters, organized and put into action by the DC for Obama office.

Rachel, a full-time volunteer, was on hand to talk. She had two cell phones, numbers scratched in Sharpie on the back of each and a dazed but focused look.

“Our job in the DC Office is to mobilize DC Residents to turn out Virginia Voters.”

Neighborly…or nosy? Check out this video to see how the massive mobilization effort functions - and what it is like to witness the Obama grassroots grow.

Originally purposed for MTV.

This week’s piece is about seven young students. Not all Americans, but all in America.

Stan’s parents are French. Benedict has lived in the States since ‘98. Eliza is half Swedish, half American and is Co-Editor of the school’s newspaper, the International Dateline.

Then there is Leena, who is a junior who has relatives in Lebanon - and Alex, the American, who calls himself the “least interesting kid in the school — culturally.” Yet somehow his presence is so rare it’s original.

Together, these kids make up the student body of the Washington International School (WIS). In a city with 170 Embassies and 10,000 core diplomats, the District transforms from a poor urban area to a Capitol city with international culture.

A few Saturday’s a year, the newspaper class meets to lay out the upcoming edition. They all write about different things - from the Hip Hop Appreciation Club to Google’s new browser – and offer their insight on DC gentrification and world conflicts. Some want to be journalists – others are there for fun. Something about it is so classic high school.

As for the America they live in, Benedict, the soft-spoken Brit, said, “I think (WIS) is the melting pot they claim America is.”

A Global Clique  

After the Show Info:       

for·eign pol·i·cy:
A set of goals outlining how the country will interact with other countries economically, politically, socially and military (Wikipedia).
 
The diplomatic policy of a nation in its interactions with other nations (Free Dictionary).

Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

Senator McCain’s web site does not have a specific place for the complete policy of the U.S.’s interaction with other sovereign nations. For that reason, I pulled some of the positions that speak to the American presence economically, politically, socially and military abroad.

JohnMcCain.com
· Strategy Victory for Iraq http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/fdeb03a7-30b0-4ece-8e34-4c7ea83f11d8.htm

· Climate Change http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/da151a1c-733a-4dc1-9cd3-f9ca5caba1de.htm

·Border Security and Immigration http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/68db8157-d301-4e22-baf7-a70dd8416efa.htm

·Technology http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/cbcd3a48-4b0e-4864-8be1-d04561c132ea.htm

·National Security http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/054184f4-6b51-40dd-8964-54fcf66a1e68.htm

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL)
BarackObama.com

·Foreign Policy: http://origin.barackobama.com/issues/foreign_policy/

I boarded Delta 4071 to Atlanta, on my way back covering the Convention for MTV. Next to me was Julie Zimmerman, a Program Advisor, at The Washington Center. I began to tell her about my job as a Citizen Journalist for the Street Team. I was reeling from adrenaline after all the live reports I broadcasted the night before – which I’m sure was illustrated by a permanent grin. By the time we touched down, she asked if I would speak to the fall class of interns at The Center.

“How many are we talking?”
“Nothing big. Just 100 or 200.”

I smiled but cringed inside. “Sure, I’ll do it.”

The day came yesterday, and with a few nerves but no doubt, I showed up with some notes and a flash drive. Before I was set to speak, I was pulled aside by a few of the organizers who each gave me varied interpretations as to what I could or should discuss. It was like a rushed cram session in college with one too many cooks in the kitchen. I took in what everyone had to say, walked myself to a corner and organized my key points in my head.

And just like that I was up.

I introduced myself and started asking no-brainer, conversational questions just to get a rise. In my last minute prep, I decided to just go with my favorite subjects: the rise of mobile tech, our generation’s involvement in the election and the unprecedented amount of user-generated content forcing traditional media to address us as an audience.

“Alright, who here has a cell phone? Any journalism majors? Who here has volunteered in the last year in DC or on their respective campus?”

And with a few smiles in the front row, I was in. I talked to them about our millennial movement - and how we are influencing a serious political realignment for the first time in 40 years. But I also told them there are big challenges ahead — like the fact that 8 in 10 young primary voters went to college. Meaning there is a deep civic divide between them and their peers who are not in line for a college education.

Finally, I answered a few great questions and received a polite round of applause. I breathed a sigh of relief, packed my purse and then went outside to hail a cab. 

Like on the plane that morning,, I knew I had a similar grin and the same rush of adrenaline. I sat myself in the cab, looked out the window - and couldn’t help but wonder. Another test completed — and hopefully many more to go.

Last week, while visiting home, I got an e-mail. “Remember, your story on a young delegate is due next week.” I was in Chicago and doubted I could pull it off. I hadn’t even started.

With a pad of paper and pencil, I started calling everyone I could think of in DC who could help: the College Republicans, the Young Democrats of America, friends who could direct me to a full list of DC delegates. Voicemail after voicemail, I wondered if I could actually pull this one off.

A few days later, I was back in DC. And just as I was about to throw in the towel, the phone started ringing. Here are the people, who met with me to tell their individual stories — and how they fit into the magnificent puzzle of the largest anticipated youth vote turnout in 16 years.

On any given day at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, a face-off will happen. Whether it’s from within the house walls or on the blacktop where tourists and activists gather, belief systems are tested, tourists sometimes troubled and locals carry out many missions.

Last weekend, I caught up with a few people picketing at the White House. The picket was organized by the Campaigns Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) and calls into question President Bush’s intentions towards Iran.

In a New Yorker article by investigative reporter, Seymour M. Hersh, “Preparing the Battlefield,” sources confirmed the White House asked for, and received, $400 million for a major escalation of covert operations against Iran.

While the White House sells the idea that Iran is an immediate nuclear threat, a 2007 U.N. nuclear inspection reported that there is no evidence Iran was working actively to build nuclear weapons. Instead, concerns were expressed that the escalating rhetoric from the U.S. could bring “disaster.”

Here is a short video I created from that White House picket. It was great interviewing the activists - and then in pure contrast asking for the reactions of tourists. I even found an Iraq Vet along for the show.

I love the twirl of the mouse after I hit “upload” on a Street Team story. It means, for just one second, I can relax and appreciate that I finished an assignment. Those seconds feel good!
 
Here is a quick update of what I have been working on the last few weeks.

Coming off of two blog posts on Public Housing and Gentrification in DC, I decided to take my camera down to Southeast. It was at Thurgood Marshall Academy, a public charter school that serves a 99 percent African American students and 70 percent free or reduced lunch  - where I would ask what it is like to use your education to stay off the streets.

Hear what the students had to say in Anacostia’s Academy: Southeast Gets Smart.

Next, check out this blog post I wrote for Media Future Now, a group that meets monthly in DC to talk about evolving communication tools with 21^st century techniques like mobile technology and constant connectivity.

I wrote about the Street Team Super Tuesday project where MTV had 23 of my colleagues report live from polling places, caucuses and rallies using mobile phones. “Mobile Tech Connects Young People to Politics.”

Finally, check out this awesome article about the Street Team put out by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. The front cover read, “Cameras, Action and Accountability: Politics and the New Media.” Every time I see the photo of me looking paralyzed with confusion - and a wee frustrated, I am reminded it is the Nieman Reports and console myself that content speaks louder than vanity.

Here is the article my Supervising Producer, Liz Nord, wrote about the program: “Young Reporters, New Tools, and Political Reporting.”

And my Kansas colleague, Alex Parker, talks about the many hats - and struggles - we face.

I was slightly stressed out last Monday. I didn’t have a story yet (for my weekly MTV submissions) and was under the methaphorical gun. Then I remembered the public housing two blocks down. I had always been curious, so I decided there was no time like the present. I watered down my outfit, threw an audio recorder and pen in my bag, and headed to the streets.

To friends and family when my video launched.

“This doesn’t just close out a month when I (determinedly) worked through each weekend, it signifies a milestone in my Street Team tenure. I am half way through this journey. My production skills have greatly improved, but more than that, I think I found what a friend and mentor advised I do back in January.

“Erica, Humanize this War.”

With that advice, I thought – and continue to think, about the way to do it. For this video, and over time, I talked to dozens of Veterans. Read every article I could. And through conversation, absorbed anecdotes — about a confusing and unorganized war – from intelligence officers, artillery soldiers, explosive specialists and more.

Here is my video, Mission Possible.”

Hey Everyone. Let me catch you all up. It’s been a busy three weeks and because of it I have a very cool development to share with you.

Though I”ll do a specific post for Erica-America a little later, here is what I did for MTV this week. It was origianlly posted on THINK, along with a short video — and serves as a brief introduction to the time I’ve been spending with a young group of DC based Veterans.

Young Surge in Anti-War Movement

Three Sundays in a row, at 4:00PM, I would pack all my gear, strap the tripod to the pack’s side and summon my inner EricaAmerica to come out and play. Thank karma she did, which made those afternoons of metro rides and shooting the shit with young Iraq Vets not just educational, but also a lot of fun.

This group house, by some measure, is the Real Real World. A place stocked with fruit snacks and beer , testosterone and girls. But in an UnReal World sense, these co-existors were more than just age-similar. They had all served in Iraq or Afghanistan since 9/11 and upon return, joined a fast-expanding group called the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). The house, on the Northeast side of DC, is not only their bunker, but the central headquarter for the business of IVAW’s grassroots operations.

I had my first dose of IVAW in action back in March, when I attended the Winter Soldier event. [see my video here] I was taken back by the candid, powerful, testimonies about the U.S.’s occupation in Iraq. I realized as I walked around the conference exactly what IVAW was doing — reporting the war from the eyes and ears of a very young, elite graduation class. A class that received educations at the University of US Occupies Iraq and are now taking their diplomas to bring attention to what they call a criminal occupation and use of force.

There is a 22-year-old freckled Embassay Guard. A 19-year old college junior. A southern farmer with flow hair and a Jewish political theory student. They are unlikely messengers. But they keep coming back with a message.

Over the three Sundays I went to the IVAW Group House, I listened for those messages. I captured three tapes, about five interviews and a whole lot of b-roll. While I kick off the process of importing, editing and producing it, I thought I’d share with you all this little sound bite from former Marine, Adam Kokesh. Kokesh has his own blogand attends Graduate School at George Washington University. In Iraq, Adam served on a Military Affairs team, which, he told me, “means we’re the guys shaking hands and kissing babies.” During the tour he also set up a store front to pay Iraq famliy grievance checks.

“Historically unprecedented,” he said. “We are actually paying people for losses.”

Here is the video…

Last Saturday was great. An afternoon I’ll always remember.

I produced a crumbled credential letter to get past security. I squeezed my pint-sized camera next to Reuter’s monster lens in the press bleachers — and I focused my camera.  Not everyday do you get to cover Hillary Clinton’s concession speech. It was a close, confrontational and critical Primary race — and I would be there to witness the end of it. I remember keeping my cool while thinking, this shit is going to be historic. 

 Originally posted to THINK.MTV.COM

Thanks to everyone who stopped to tell my camera their thoughts.  Definitely post a comment and let me know what you think about Clinton’s campaign, her endorsement of Obama or what her next steps might be.

On April 24th, Helen Thomas wrote in her weekly column, “if history repeats itself, the loser of this year’s presidential election will blame the news media.” [SEE FULL ARTICLE, "The Loser Always Blame the Media"]

With the recent case of Hillary versus Barack, Helen’s assessment was spot on.

Last Saturday I had a unexpected, and even scary, confrontation. I was interviewing demonstrators at the DNC Rules meeting and had spoken to about seven people on camera. All of them supported Senator Clinton and wanted the votes in Michigan and Florida to count.

After the interviews, I was getting b-roll when I saw a guy wearing an Obama sign. I hadn’t talked to any Obama supporters so I thought this would help round my story out. He said he would talk to me, so with that, we moved away from the crowd to a quiet area. And I started to roll the camera.

I didn’t know it, but this exchange, between me, “the media” and him “the Obama fan” would come to sum up the hostility Clinton fans have felt towards the media in this primary season.

Within a minute, Clinton fans spotted me talking to the lone Obama guy and lids started to flip. I was trying to focus on the interview but I couldn’t. Loud, confrontational slurs were being directed at me. I looked over and saw two aggressive Hillary fans only an arm length away from my camera. They started yelling into the lens “This is all your fault! You’re to blame! You and the media!”

To my silent and even confused look, they went on.

“Why are you interviewing this fool?…It’s always like the media to support Obama!”

I could hardly believe it. I mean, me? This is my fault? A million thoughts ran through my head. My heart raced. This was the second time during my MTV tenure as a one-man-band that my safety felt in jeopardy. Never during, but always after, I kind of love it. It really puts me in touch with how people feel.

Within a few seconds, two cordial Clinton supporters came over and walked them away. I turned back around and went on with the interview.

The story came back to me as the North Carolina Street Teamer, Carla Babb, wrote an article about whether or not the media had favored Obama over Clinton.

With that experience fresh in my mind, here’s what I think.

To Helen’s point, the loser (and the campaign supporters) might always blame the media. But as I experienced, the assertion that my work somehow reduced (or on the flip, improved) a candidate’s political standing, while quite complimentary, is not at all true. At least I don’t think it is.

But to the Democrats as a whole — hostility, especially directed at each other, is retro active in securing the November election. It would behoove Senator Clinton to make that known to her supporters. The finger-pointing, not always aimed in the right direction, digresses party unity.

And oh yeah, one more thing. I’m not the mainstream media. I’m a citizen journalist. SNAP.

I’m a magnet to events with young demonstrators huddled by doors of buildings they aren’t allowed in. And over the last five months, some of the most fun I’ve had is when I couldn’t get in. Instead, I’ve needed to immerse myself in the crowd, buck up and start asking some questions.

Afforded no press badge, it’s all I can do - and perhaps, exactly what MTV’s wanted us to do. Reducing us amateur journalists to nothing more than one of the crowd, tests us to meet people we otherwise might not, and spotlight different takes on the issues and election. After all, each voice matters.

This Saturday, about 300 people gathered outside of a DC hotel to protest equal voting rights - most in regard to the MI and FL primaries.  But after interviewing about eight people - I began to think about the bigger picture. What were they all saying? What did they have in common? And here’s what I came up with.

Each person, in some way shape or form, had an experience that left them, a relative or friend, feeling disenfranchised by our voting process. Whether they were turned away for not having the right ID or frustrated by the hanging Chad issue of 2000 - these people were pissed. Well, pissed - but also passionate. From a bright 17-year-old to a 35-year-old D.C. resident without a vote in Congress, each sent me the same message: this voting system is broken and we need to fix it.

Here is my video from the event that day. I hope I fairly represented the many voices I heard and in some way, inspire you to think that hey, this really does matter.

As one soldier told me, “Erica, it’s a fast and furious world.” That it is.

This week’s video draws from footage from the Winter Soldier event last March and brings into the story the shortcomings of the GI Bill, in particular what it offers soldiers for education. As I reported for MTV, three former Presidents, a dozen U.S. Senators and fourteen Nobel Prize winners went to college on the GI Bill. The last time it was updated was back in the 80s, when we were at peace, not war, and soldier were less likely to serve multiple deployments and then choose to move on.

From my work on Veteran issues I’ve heard a lot of talk about why they joined. Some did out of patriotism, and felt, after 9/11 it was their undisputed duty. Others, and perhaps the most common thread I’ve heard, is the cost of education. A shot at a four year university that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to pay for.

I can trace my fascination with GI’s, the cost of education and war, back to Indiana University. For three years, my next door neighbor was ROTC. From our manicured front lawn, I would watch my peers walk in and out of the former Fraternity house. In uniform and up with the sun, they would practice marching orders and do endless push-ups. A part of me felt sorry for them, perhaps not rightfully so, but still — because I wondered if a commitment to our armed forces was their best option to pay for a four-year university.

Not long after those careless afternoons, the war broke out. I remember having profound realizations that several of those students — soldiers — would now be sent to fight a war. And I questioned. Were they recruited – in a bigger picture by the Pentagon – with the knowledge a war was on the brink? And Is college tuition the new draft?

Today, 57 Senators are supporting a large increase to the GI Bill for public university tuition. In a letter I obtained from the Senate, Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked Senator John McCain, who is on the fence, to consider how the bill might hurt retention.

“The Department estimates that serious retention issues could arise if the benefit were expanded beyond the level sufficient to offset average monthly costs for a public four-year institution.”

Here’s my video. Hope you’ll check it out and let me know how Congress should approach GI Rights while we fight two wars and send soldiers on multiple deployments.

Quick Disclaimer: No one is perfect, especially EricaAmerica. I misspelled “Sergeant” at 1:26. Take total responsibility, but am so tired from I am calling it a day and putting the effort into research. I totally need an editor. One man band life is hard. 

So just what is a civil liberty and why should we care?

For my 23rd birthday, my Dad sent me a copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. In it, he wrote, “To Erica, Wash. D.C. From Dad 5/8/07.” Today, I carry it around in my Street Team backpack. I don’t know, it just feels right. If I’m ever in a bind and need to remind the force that I’m just doing my job, I’ll have backup. That’s right, I have rights. And I’m not about to let them be chipped away.

As much as my friends joke with me, we do. We all have rights. And though at times it sounds a little silly (dependent on when you yell out the statement, just ask my colleagues) there is never anything outlandish about the term, “I have my rights.” But today, more than ever, it’s important to realize what those are because they are being chipped away and justified.

So what are our rights? Well, when it comes to the First Amendment, we have the right to freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly and petition. We are also protected under the Bill of Rights to equal protection under the law (regardless of race, sex, religion or national origin), the right to due process, and the right to privacy.

When I went out and interviewed people last Monday about civil liberties and what they thought, I was up against the wall. Some of the responses were reiterations of the administration. “Well, in terms of national security, if it’s necessary, I’m OK with it.” Really? “Ok, I thought.” But once this war on terror is over, you’ll still have lost those rights. Are you OK with it then? More importantly, are they being taken away for the right reasons?

While 21-year old Iraq Veteran, Paul, aims to add normalcy back to his life, the war transcended on Washington, DC. At the start of the sixth year of war on Iraq, March 19, a mix of people gathered within an ear shot of the White House to demonstrate dissatisfaction.  Join me as I explore how courage and activism bridge unlikley partners in the fight against US Occupation of Iraq.

Decision to Desert: Part I
My MTV Profile