Government and Advocacy

This week, week 4 of NCI we spent our time with Helen Hayashi to learn about government and advocacy. Through Helen's connections we were able to meet various people who worked with the government; mainly local. To start off our time with Helen she had us research each level of government (local (city and county), state, and federal) before we met with people. Being a Criminology-Law Enforcement major I researched the aspects of how each level of government used law enforcement, so I searched San Jose Police, Santa Clara County Sheriffs, California Highway Patrol, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (fun fact, I like to call the FBI the Federal Bureau of Intimidation because of an NCIS episode I watched). I understood the relationship of these law enforcement groups with the exception of the Sheriffs Department because for me and like most people we do not really know what the county does. With this research we finished we drove over to San Jose City Hall and met with Fred Buzo. Fred is one of the people who helps Mayor Sam Liccardo. Meeting with Fred was a great experience because he talked about how he got into working with politics and how Japantown was an important part of San Jose. The common theme of meeting with these people is that they went into one field of study and ended up doing something else; Fred was a lawyer who ended up in politics after a while. Later that day we met with Laura Wells. Laura is in charge of the Department of Transportation in San Jose and she told us that her field of study was actually civil engineering and that working for the DOT was not exactly a career she wanted but ended up becoming in charge after sometime. She took us the DOT's Transportation Management Center to show us one of the many "toys" that they have to help the city's traffic needs. This place was as someone put it right out of the movie The Italian Job. One big screen where you can see any of the 200 traffic cameras throughout San Jose. This place was pretty cool and interesting and the fact that its in a "secret" location that you would just walk past makes it even cooler.

DOT TMC 7/6/2015. Photo by Alec Matsumoto

On Tuesday we worked with Kathy Sakamoto with the JBA again. We helped her stuff letters for VIPs for the upcoming 125th Anniversary of Japantown. VIPs such as Congressman Mike Honda, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, and various San Jose City Council members, and county supervisors. My hand writing is not the best but I guess it was good enough to have the task to address the envelopes.

Letters to the VIPs 7/7/2015. Photo by Alec Matsumoto

Wednesday was a great day. We got to meet with three interesting people from government. The first person we met was Cindy Chavez. Cindy is one of the Santa Clara County Supervisors and she talked to us about the role of the county. Remember in the first paragraph where I talk about how people do not know what the county does, well Cindy explained it to us and it really helped. Essentially the county can be a city government for places that are not inside of a city's boundaries, also they act on behalf of the federal government when needed. They provide jails for cities as well as the courts and probation. The county does a lot, but we don't exactly realize it. Cindy drew me a diagram or picture to help illustrate what the county does:

Picture illustrating what the county does by Cindy Chavez 7/8/2015. Photo by Alec Matsumoto

Later that day we met with first term City Council member Raul Peralez. Raul was a straightforward and honest guy. He told us the process of him becoming a city council member was not a one year thing but it actually took him about four years to actually do. He said that he did a lot of research for this job prior to even running for office and that he did not even expect to become a city council member coming out of college. He told us that he majored and got his degree in math and became a teacher for his old high school in Cupertino. Later he became an EMS then eventually served as a San Jose PD officer for eight years before becoming a city council member. He said doing what you like is better than doing something you don't like and he enjoyed everything he did. He still holds his substitute teaching permit so that if he ever wants to he can go back and teach students. From what I can tell, Raul does things that interests him while also serving and giving back to the community.

After meeting with Raul we met with Vedant Patel of Congressman Mike Honda's Santa Clara Office. Vedant talked to us about how he got into politics and what a Congressperson actually does. Vedant actually majored in biology wanting to become a doctor but after graduating he got an internship with the Congressman and has worked for him for a while now. He also talked about how much a Congressperson's office can do for the people that they serve and also how how hard it is to run a campaign.

I think that common theme of this week was not about politics even though it was but instead of how the journey of life is an interesting one where we do not know where we will end up. Vedant was a bio major but ended up working as a Congressional Aide, Raul was a math major who became a teacher then an EMS responder then a police officer then a City Council Member, Fred was a lawyer who found his way to the Mayor's Office, and Laura was a civil engineer who had no interest in DOT but ended up becoming the head of it. We never know where we may end up but from what I can tell is that all of these people enjoy their jobs and all I can say is I hope that my future is similar to theres.

Also I found that it is hard to go anywhere in the JA community where there is not someone who knows either one of my parents, especially my "famous" mom...

-Alec Matsumoto 7/10/2015