{"id":5778,"date":"2009-05-19T09:43:34","date_gmt":"2009-05-19T14:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=5778"},"modified":"2010-01-12T02:44:29","modified_gmt":"2010-01-12T07:44:29","slug":"ram_represents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/19\/ram_represents\/","title":{"rendered":"Ram Represents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"kesha_headshot2.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sepiamutiny.com\/sepia\/archives\/kesha_headshot2.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"217\" align=\"left\" hspace=10 vspace=10 \/>Last week Burlington Rep. <a href=\"http:\/\/kesharam.org\/index.html\">Kesha Ram<\/a> (D) completed her first session in Vermont&#8217;s legislature. At 22 she&#8217;s the youngest member of the House and a recent graduate of the University of Vermont where she was student body president. When the state legislature is in recess she teaches preschool. A Los Angeles native with a father from India and a Jewish mother, Ram is the only person of color in the House.<\/p>\n\n<p>You may have seen MTV&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/think.mtv.com\/044FDFFFF017E5E3B00170099355E\/\">Kesha Ram Rocks The House<\/a> when she ran for office last year. Her campaign sought to energize young voters, who in the 18-25 age range make up 50 percent of her district&#8217;s voters. Progressive opponents attacked her choice to run as a Democrat, arguing that it would hamper her ability to speak for her constituents.<\/p>\n\n<p>Update: I just noticed this interview with Kesha Ram over at Wiretap Magazine, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wiretapmag.org\/stories\/44280\/\">Young and Elected: Kesha Ram<\/a>.\n<!--more-->In this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vpr.net\/episode\/46046\/\">interview with first-time lawmakers<\/a>, Ram joins other freshmen members in reflecting on the recent session, including her experience as Clerk of the General, Housing, and Military Affairs Committee. She also describes a personal connection to the Vermont vote on legalizing gay marriage, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scottforbrattleboro.org\/2009\/04\/inter-racial-marriage-to-freedom-to.html\">drawing a comparison<\/a> with the interracial marriages of her parents and Barack Obama&#8217;s parents.<\/p>\n\n<p>More: <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/KeshaRam\">Ram on Twitter<\/a> and interviewed by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.teenvogue.com\/connect\/blogs\/politics\/2008\/12\/qa-with-vermont-representative-kesha-ram.html\">Teen Vogue<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vermont&#8217;s youngest state legislator Kesha Ram completes her first session.<\/p> <a href=\"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/19\/ram_represents\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5778"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}