I need an want to know how and to what extent money affects local state and federal government. I have decided to change my question. After my talk with Mr. Knighton I realized there was more to money in politics than election funding. I still want to keep my focus on how money affects politics however I no longer want to make PACs and Corporations the focus, and I want to explore money in local government more. Quite honestly I have completely confused myself about my question, and the more I think about it the more I'm confused. My focus has always been PACs but in evaluating what I want from politics and the HMP program I came to the conclusion that I will get a lot more out of my mentorship experience if I research local government and the influence of money, which often isn't greatly impacted by PACs, in our community. I want to start my mentorship with Hall Co Gov't before I create a concise question because I know that will clear my mind about how to change my focus from big federal billionaire campaign spending to local smaller scale spending. I just feel like I've discovered a whole new side to government that I never really thought about and I want to explore it at least for a day before I make a decision or else my confusion on what I want will just get worse.
As I stated earlier I really want to do something video related because that has always been one of my strongest project presentations. However I have recently started toying with the idea of a website. If my project goes the way I envision it I will have a lot of information to sort out and the simplest way for me to organize it is through a website. I can still include videos but a website also lets be expand to other media that I want to incorporate like a discussion room, charts, photo galleries and so forth. I don't know if I'm that talented in website design but it's something I have always wanted to explore and since the point of the project is to learn something new and share you're acquired knowledge with others, creating a website would be a perfect way to achieve that.
I believe I already began my real inquiry. As I was talking to Mr. Knighton and telling him about my goals our conversation answered and brought up many questions. I want to learn how elected officials solve issues? Is there a difference in how federal and local officials compromise? Does money affect what decisions are made? How often? The only way I can get a lot of those questions answered is by asking the people I'm going to be working with and observing. I think observing to the point of being creepy is going to be how I best "inquire" whether I'm sitting in a commissioners meeting or touring the building. The best way I can get my research done is through simply watching. If I sit quietly and let the people around me go about their everyday routine I can learn how they make decisions, what they value, and the importance of different issues, because rather than getting textbook or rehearsed answers I'll see the answers and learn about the human aspect of being a government employee.That one meeting just completely changed a lot of my views, and I know the longer I intern the more my views and questions will change. I'm just really super excited about starting Tuesday and the fact that I have such a great opportunity to be inside government.
Sounds interesting and I like the shift towards how county governments operate (funding, accountability, etc). Keep in mind: target audience (who will you be sharing this with (AP government class), where will you get the information you need, who will you interview and what form will project take. I believe just a good old basic lesson on Government, taxes and how the mileage rate is set will be interesting!
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