John Baer: Hope for reform lies with the young
IF PENNSYLVANIA hopes to get the kind of fundamental political reform it so desperately needs, it needs young people like George Hicks.
IF PENNSYLVANIA hopes to get the kind of fundamental political reform it so desperately needs, it needs young people like George Hicks.
The 19-year-old college sophomore from the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia is an intern with the statewide nonpartisan grassroots/reform group Democracy Rising Pa.
When I ask how long he intends to work there, he says: "Until we get government reform and integrity legislation passed."
I hope the kid has staying power.
Between our Legislature's antics, highlighted by members indicted, jailed or under investigation; judicial scandals and messes at the Delaware River Port Authority, the Philadelphia Housing Authority and the city's DROP program, reforms will take time - and might well rest with the young.
Hicks is Philly-born and -raised, a Chestnut Hill Academy grad. His mom's an insurance broker; dad works for the city municipal employees' union, District Council 33; and sister Karon is a freshman at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster.
George is a student at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Democracy Rising's home base.
(Dickinson and F&M are among the nation's top liberal-arts colleges in just-released U.S. News & World Report annual rankings.)
George jokes about being hesitant to get into the reform game, as "a black kid from Philly" in the middle of the state.
Carlisle is the seat of Cumberland County. African-Americans make up just 3.3 percent of the population, according to current U.S. Census data.
But George loves the region and "never once" encountered a racial problem.
I ask if he might be related to George W.B. Hicks, of Philadelphia, who served in the state House in the late 1800s.
"Not unless he owned my relatives," says George, with a laugh.
Actually, according to the Legislative Black Caucus, our first African American lawmaker was Philly's Harry W. Bass, a Republican elected in 1910.
George Hicks got into reform stuff early this summer after answering a campus-posted ad for an unpaid internship at the state House Democratic Campaign Committee in Harrisburg.
While working there reviewing newspaper stories on Democratic candidates and their opponents, he saw reform-related stories mentioning Democracy Rising.
"I asked somebody at HDCC if we'll ever get a constitutional convention, and the person said, 'No.' So I did some research, read the [Pennsylvania] constitution and contacted Tim Potts [Democracy Rising's founder/boss]."
Then he quit. That was more than a month ago. And now Hicks works for Potts on outreach to college campuses and setting up a statewide tour to push Democracy Rising's reform message.
That message includes advocating for a constitutional convention, which could, for example, reduce the size of the Legislature and establish merit selection of judges.
"I want to be able to re-empower people," Hicks says. "Who is the future of the commonwealth? Young people. So I want to work with students to change attitudes."
He adds: "We give up power to elected officials and then we don't check up on them. They're supposed to do what the people want. It's not supposed to be about their getting power or another public office."
Potts is high on Hicks: "He's a real hustler. The thing we need, and that he provides, is a professional extrovert to build public awareness of the need for a constitutional convention. He gives us outreach we've never had."
Hicks majors in Italian. He already speaks French and Spanish and fell in love with the Italian language after one class. He also does entrepreneurial PR/marketing on the side. He has two clients: a Carlisle restaurant and a retirement community; he's helping uptick their marketing efforts with targeted Internet use.
Good thing. Democracy Rising doesn't pay interns.
To me, the interesting thing is this: I've long believed that substantive reform won't come from inside the system without extreme, consistent and long-term pressure from outside the system.
George Hicks, even unpaid, was working inside and opted out, and now is working for change. He's but one example. But maybe his story speaks to a shift in thinking about working for a greater good than one party, one candidate or one person.
One can only hope.
Send e-mail to baerj@phillynews.com.
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