Flying out to see the Capitol Building and meeting with state officials for the first time was a truly surreal experience. I had never before visited Sacramento, and I could feel myself being riddled with nerves after arriving at the airport at 7 am to catch a flight to Northern California. Upon arriving, we were given a tour of the Capitol Building by Erika Ngo, a CLA alum who now works with state legislators. Walking through the building, I was mesmerized by how grand it all looked, and I was surprised to realize how little I knew previously about the ins and outs of legislative procedure. Erika explained that policy work is a structurally rigid process: for bills to be passed, there are clear-cut deadlines that must be met every few months, and bills must make it through both the Assembly and Senate in time. As someone who has had little prior experience with politics, the panels and events gave me a glimpse of what it means to push for change inside the system. Policy work can be slow and laborious, but it gives legislators the chance to make large-scale change on a structural level that can impact entire communities for the better.
One question I’ve been pondering for a while is what kind of changemaker I would like to be—would I rather push for large-scale change through policy implementation, or stick with community organizing and advocate for change outside the system? I’ve come to learn that they both have their pros and cons: getting involved with local communities gives me the opportunity to make a large impact in a small number of people’s lives, whereas policy work is slower and less personalized but results in changes on a grander scale. And to be honest, I still don’t know which path I’ll take. However, throughout these last few weeks, a repeated piece of advice we’ve gotten is that there does not have to be a clear-cut choice. At the CLA alumni panel, Erika and the other alums mentioned that it sometimes takes trying out different kinds of advocacy work—whether it be with legislators, non-profits, or community organizations—to figure out what career path we truly want to pursue. Dan Schnur, who ran a workshop with us a while ago, also gave similar advice, stating that advocacy is not an “either-or” and that there are multiple paths for us to reach the same goal.
Last Sunday morning, I had the chance to table with Alhambra’s mayor, Jeff Maloney, at the farmer’s market, and interact with community members. We managed to ask several people about some issues that they would like to see on the ballot in November, and some points brought up were the lack of public spaces—such as parks or green spaces—and traffic congestion. However, it was still definitely challenging to get people to engage with us, and Mayor Maloney acknowledged that political advocacy is by no means easy—it’s slow, demanding, and requires going against a lot of opposition. But in the end, being able to impact a community close to us for the better, regardless of the obstacles along the way, will be entirely worth it.
