During the 2000 presidential election, I began to become somewhat emotionally invested in political matters that were transpiring at the time. I had always held a great interest in the historical context of the American government and political system, but it wasn’t until around the time I segwayed into junior high school that I began being greatly fascinated by them. Following the “appointment” of George W. Bush to the presidency, I began to understand just how much such matters could affect me, not only tangibly, but morally. Especially after the 9/11 attacks and the incorporation of the Iraq war into our lives did I become invested to a point where cultural and political issues began to shape who I was. Never more evident was this potential in cultural matters to impact me psychologically and emotionally, than in the instance in 2003 when the identity of C.I.A. Agent Valerie Plame was leaked the press by affiliates of our own American government.
Upon my first hearing of these series of events, I was in Kingston, NY, having just finished 7th grade. A former ambassador named Joe Wilson had been given the assignment of traveling to the African country of Niger to verify if they were selling nuclear fuel to Iraq. In the summer of 2003, Wilson had come out with this implication that prior to this expedition, the Bush Administration pulled him aside and told him that whatever the truth turned out to be, that he write an article tying Niger to Iraq in a nuclear sense, for it was vital to their justification for invading Iraq in the first place. I can clearly remember watching my uncle’s television set in his museum-esque, three-story house in Kingston surrounded by trees a hundred feet high. Carl Rove, Scott McClellan, and other high affiliates of the Bush Administration repeated over and over to the press that this was not true at all and that Wilson was a liar and a coward. Of course we didn’t find out about everything that followed this right away, but over the next two years, the details of this case that transpired forever changed the meaning of the word “government” for me.
I'd like to see you bring yourself into this memo a lot sooner and a lot more personally. What part did your family play in your decision to become more political? In what ways did you become more political? There are a lot of unanswered questions in here. Use this memoir to help us get to know you, not just the political situation of the time. And put us in the moment more fully - think of a way to start us off - an argument with your family - a particular political moment that galvanized you, in a way that engages and interests the audience.
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