Harvard College Democrats

Dem Summers: Gary Gerbrandt’s Government Gauntlet

Posted 8/01/11 by Christine Hurd

The Dems have been busy over the summer: interning, working, volunteering, traveling, and of course, indulging in some leisure time not oft found in Cambridge (leave it to a Harvard student to be busy spending leisure time.) This is part I of an indefinite series. If you’re a Harvard Dem (or rising pre-frosh with interest), we’d love to hear what you’ve been up to. |  E-mail communications@harvarddems.com. 

Gary Gerbrandt’s Government Gauntlet

Gary Gerbrandt: Service Director extraordinaire

This summer has been quite the experience — I’ve been working in the
marketing department of a massive professional service form,
copy-editing and project-managing and email-writing my way to
“success”. Fun fact: I’m actively helping to privatize various parts
of progressive governments thanks to the department I work in. (This
wasn’t what I planned.) But I’m enjoying the experience. Mostly, I’ve
been sleeping on commuter trains, wandering around an underground
mall, and looking dreamily out at Toronto from my (boss’s) office
window. As you can see from the attached company photo, I have
forgotten how to smile, keep both eyes open, and, yes, brush my teeth.
 
In my spare time, I have been injecting television, the New York
Times, Twitter, and, lately, the remarkably addictive game Dwarf
Fortress directly into my brain. I have been in a hyperventilatory
state for the past few weeks about the debt nightmare-shitfest-crisis,
but I know that by the time we’re all back on campus, it will be a bad
dream. A bad dream without any revenue increases for absolutely no
reason. A bad dream with a disgusting disregard for the worst-off in
America (a category which arguably now stretches from the poor to the
“middle class”). A bad dream which shows no signs of ending.
 
What can progressives and Democrats and the fiscally sane among us do?
I’ve been wondering that constantly since the deal was reached and
America barely squeaked by its largest fiduciary crisis in memory. How
can we possibly address the gaping holes in the social fabric which
are sure to grow faster with these cuts?
 
Then, I’m reminded of what I do with the Dems. Service. Service is the
one inviolable way which we can serve the causes that the modern
Democratic Party adheres to — ones which every person depends upon.
Equality, freedom, activism, communities, anything and everything. We
need to give of ourselves to bridge the fundamental gaps in society,
no matter what happens in Washington.
 
Despite this nightmare — and its powerful ability to shake a
Democrat’s faith in their party leaders — we must all remember that
we’re on the good side, fighting the good fight. I’ll remember that.
And I hope that everyone else will show their progressive stripes this
fall and spring by volunteering at Service’s events.
 
I can’t wait to see you all there. Enjoy the rest of your summers, and
keep your ears to the ground about upcoming events!

The Palinites are in your Wikipedia, rewriting your colonial history

Posted 6/06/11 by Christine Hurd

From Huffington Post:

Last week, Sarah Palin told a local news station in Boston that Paul Revere “warned the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms.” As the news media rushed to point out that Revere was, in fact, warning the American colonists, not the British, Palin’s supporters apparently attempted to update the Wikipedia entry on Revere in order to make the facts conform to Palin’s version of history.

According to the revision history on the Wikipedia page, Palin supports attempted to add the line in italics below:

Revere did not shout the phrase later attributed to him (“The British are coming!”), largely because the mission depended on secrecy and the countryside was filled with British army patrols; also, most colonial residents at the time considered themselves British as they were all legally British subjects.

Wow. This feels a lot like 1984 (and we conveniently have a editable medium to record history now.)

Congratulations to the Class of 2011!

Posted 5/27/11 by Alli Gofman

We’d like to give a huge congratulations to the wonderful seniors of the class of 2011. They’ve been an enormous part of the college community, and have helped make the Dems what they are today. We can’t wait to see what they do in the coming years!

Graduated Dems, we hope you keep in touch! Let us know how things go, and especially if you stay involved in politics. Best of luck with whatever your future holds, whether it be work, elected office, grad school, law school, medical school, Teach for America, or anything else.

We’ll miss you!

Save Our Marriage Campaign

Posted 4/24/11 by Alli Gofman

Henry Velandia and Josh Vandiver were married on August 29, 2010 in Montville Connecticut, one of the 5 states that currently grant same sex marriages. Unfortunately, the two have not been able to enjoy a honeymoon and start building their lives together in the months since.

Henry immigrated to the US in 2002 from his native Venezuela, and is now facing a deportation hearing in November because his husband cannot sponsor a spouse for citizenship by the Defense of Marriage Act. Because DOMA prevents the federal government from recognizing same sex marriages, Josh, a US citizen and current Princeton graduate student, is unable to sponsor Henry for a green card that would allow him to stay in the United States, as any straight couple in the same situation would be able to do.

Our hearts go out to Henry and Josh, and we wish them luck on November 17th when they enter Henry’s hearing just days after their fourth anniversary. If you would like to help, you can sign a petition to Janet Napolitano here and find out more information on this page and this page.

The Dems have worked hard this year supporting marriage equality and immigration reform. One of our wonderful prefrosh brought this heartwrenching situation to our attention, reminding us that no issues exist in isolation and that we must continue to fight.