Without going too far into the nitty-gritty, a sitting Shelby Township Trustee (who has been in the news lately) has tried to attack me for my accomplishments. Apparently, he finds fault with the fact that I have been entrusted to help mold public policy in the National and International Arena. And I saw firsthand that America leads best from the front. Our sovereignty is our strength, and we can remain that beacon of freedom for the rest of the world.
First, the facts: it’s true, it’s all true. In 2004, I was selected from a list of competitive candidates to intern in the House Judiciary Committee for the United States House of Representatives. Then in 2009, I was selected to study and report to the United Nations on the growing issue of genocide on the continent of Africa. These experiences offered me insight inside the halls where policy that affects world events happens. I wasn’t reading about it the next day in the newspaper (or at all, if the media thought it inconvenient). I had a seat at the table, and it reinforced my Conservative values and galvanized me in my core values of Government: that the government which governs least, governs best.
When I worked for the House Judiciary, I reported directly to the Chairman. This wasn’t a “get me the paper and cup of coffee” type of internship. I was tasked with monitoring the then-current scandal coming out of the prison at Abu Ghraib, Iraq, providing twice-daily updates to the Committee to ensure that our elected leaders were out in front of the scandal. I was collecting sources from all over the world.
The problem arose that many of the newspapers reporting on the scandal were in Europe. Luckily, I’m fluent in Italian and French, and my cousin was the Vice Director of L’Osservatore Romano (which my fellow Catholics will recognize as the official newspaper of the Vatican and the Holy Sea), so I was able to quickly obtain and report from news sources without waiting for translations. As a lowly unpaid intern, I am proud that my work was instrumental in updating our Nation’s elected officials on a growing crisis, and they were able to take swift action that ultimately helped to maintain our Coalition in the War in Iraq.
Upon returning from Washington, D.C., I worked for a year before I enrolled in Law School. Graduating in 2009, I literally took the Michigan Bar exam and moved to New York the following day to begin working at the United Nations. At that time, the world was focused on Darfur in South Sudan. The genocide occurring in Darfur at that time was gut-wrenching. The Sudanese government was exterminating three different tribes in a systematic fashion. More than 1,000,000 children had been killed, raped, wounded, displaced, traumatized, or endured the loss of parents and families since 2003. My job in New York was to research the implications and effects on society of conscripting children soldiers in conflicts like the one raging in Darfur, and elsewhere. I had read the eye-witness reports from refugees and doctors on the ground. I had seen the satellite images of mass graves. I had seen the photos of the partially exhumed bodies drying in the desert sun. As you can imagine, genocide is not a “political party-line” issue.
As part of my job, I attended United Nations General Assembly meetings. This wasn’t some far away thing shown on TV clips as part of a 30 second news story. I was in the room. I sat in the large assembly listening to delegates from around the world discuss the goings on in their home countries. Finally, the moment I had been waiting for, the representative from Sudan stood up and gave an eloquent introduction. He then stated unequivocally that there was NO GENOCIDE occurring in Darfur or anywhere else in Sudan. He didn’t even say the word “genocide.” He said, “we have no problems.”
I felt like I was watching a movie. I waited for the big climactic scene where the American stands up, yells “No” and busts out the satellite footage of the mass graves. But nothing happened. No one spoke. No one said a word.
It was at that moment that I completely checked out. I saw firsthand that the United Nations was not actually dealing with the atrocities it claims to meet head on with swift action. It is a hollow shell filled with good intentions. It was born out of the original League of Nations that defined a generation after World War I. It has no bite. It has no army. It has no strength.
I saw that the international community sways and bends to what is expedient and easy for its own interest. And while there is a place for something like the UN, where sovereign nations from around the world can communicate, America doesn’t need the programs it offers. We have a robust judicial, legal, political and military justice system. We police ourselves like no one else in the world.
In a way, I should be thankful I experienced that moment of silence, apathy and appeasement of one of the worst atrocities in my lifetime. I witnessed the silence and it struck a deep chord in me that we need sovereignty. We need borders. We need to lead as America and as Americans. We do not lead from behind.
My Conservative values are as strong as that of the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher. And considering the recent attacks against my overwhelmingly positive campaign, she said it best: “Don’t follow the crowd. Let the crowd follow you.”
Lucia
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