The Borgen Project logo. / BORGENPROJECT.ORG
María Castaño, Arts & Entertainment Section Editor
On Oct. 15 Manhattan University’s (MU) Peace Action NYS (PANYS) chapter collaborated with The Borgen Project.
Cesar Tavares-Vasquez, president and founder of MU’s PANYS chapter and an intern for The Borgen Project, hosted the event as an introductory presentation on how the organization links reducing poverty to reducing political and economic instability, which can fuel violence and conflict.
Peace Action New York State (PANYS) is the state affiliate of Peace Action, which describes itself as the nation’s largest grassroots peace network. The group lobbies Congress and uses direct political action to push for U.S. foreign policy that promotes diplomacy and human needs, according to its website.
The PANYS chapter’s recent arrival at MU and its collaboration with The Borgen Project aim to show students how they can take part in politics to improve their communities and influence foreign policy.
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JAYDEN GONZALEZ / THE QUADRANGLE
In his presentation, Vasquez explained that The Borgen Project uses lobbying as its main method of political advocacy. He stressed that individuals have the power to urge members of Congress to focus on particular issues.
“There’s hundreds of different issues [congressmen and senators] focus on, so they might not be that well attuned to what is happening in their own Congress and Senate,” Vasquez said. “It’s our job to lobby and spread awareness to them on what things they should focus on… Part of what The Borgen Project wants me to do [as an intern] is to not just lobby, but to get a lot of people on board with lobbying, or posting things online or going out to the streets, sending messages to other people… [and] emailing and calling congressmen.”
In a separate interview with The Quadrangle, Vasquez expanded further on this matter.
“I think a lot of people are not aware of how they can basically influence their own government or have a dialog with their government, and so The Borgen Project’s job is basically teaching people how to do that, how to interact with their government more, how to pressure them and basically get what they want as constituents,” Vasquez said.
Political participation and dialogue are central to both PANYS and The Borgen Project. Bringing the organizations to campus is meant to show students and community members ways to be politically active beyond voting.
Henriette Feldman, senior international studies major and secretary of MU’s PANYS chapter, expanded on this idea.
“I feel like college students [and] young people are the future of this world and we have the ability to make that more known,” Feldman said. “… I think it’s worth it to spread awareness of that, because sometimes it is overlooked.”
Feldman explained that hosting more political figures and events like this on campus can encourage dialogue and a deeper understanding of multiple viewpoints.
“I think last year there was… an elected official that came and a lot of people went to his talk,” Feldman said. “But there were also a lot of people who were not willing to go because of his political beliefs. I feel like a lot of the time we just need to push that aside and listen to what other people have to say, because that can give us a lot of insight on what other people think and why the state of the world is how it is.”
During the presentation, Vasquez went over the ways The Borgen Project helps people contact Congress about the causes listed in the Action Center section of its website. His main focus was PANYS’s mission to pursue nuclear disarmament and the federal budget cuts to international aid.
“What I’m focusing on is the international affairs budget,” Vasquez said. “You can email them [your representatives] to oppose the budget cuts for the international affairs budget, because that’s the budget that contributes towards foreign aid. What I’m also focusing on is the Block the Bombs Act because the U.S. is sending bombs and arms to Israel, which is fueling their entire invasion of Palestine, as well as the war in Iran. According to the Borgen Project, it only takes seven or 10 people to call Congress for them to actually start focusing on [an issue].”
For students looking for ways to get more involved in politics, the approach taken by PANYS and The Borgen Project offers an alternative to relying on social media. Natalia Perez, freshman criminology major, attended the event and said the approach moves young people away from passive advocacy.
“I first wanted to join [PANYS] because I want to be more educated on what’s going on in the world and learn how I can help,” Perez said. “Because I feel like all I do is repost stuff and see stuff on my feed, I think that damages a lot of people’s psyche because it’s not great to be seeing [the news] all the time. But it is important to see them and to recognize that these are issues that we have the ability to help with.”