Whos Your Congressman? :: essays research papers

Who’s Your Congressman? After several laps in circles in my head, I decided to give up. I did not know the person who was representing my district. The first step involved jumping on the internet and surfing for a "Congressman finder", if you will. I type the word congressman in the space provided. The search engine displayed several different topics to choose from and finally I see the site for a general purpose. Voila! I had become one step closer to find my Representative. After clicking in different places, I landed on the Postal Office web site. Why? You might ask yourself. This general site was to find my "guy" by typing in a five-digit zip code. I was thrilled and could hardly contain myself. I enter the code and it gives me an answer of "There are multiple Representatives who share your 5-digit ZIP code ( 21234 ). Please use the Postal Services ZIP+4 Lookup to determine your 9-digit ZIP code." In other words, I still could not locate this person who is representing my d istrict. I decided to actually do something smart. Look on my mail with the rest of my zip code. I put the code in and finally after thirty minutes of fighting for the truth, "The Honorable Benjamin L. Cardin, Maryland, 3rd" (www.house.gov) appeared. I was beside myself. The truth brought me Ben Cardin, a man with 57 years of age and fourteen consecutive years as the 3rd-District Congressman. How embarrassing is that? He has served seven terms and I found this news several days ago. The life of Ben Cardin began on â€Å"October 5, 1943† (The Sun, Sec B). After searching several books, magazines, and internet sites, I could not find any information about his life until 1964. In other words, twenty-one years of his life are not recorded publicly. In 1964, he "earned his BA degree from the University of Pittsburgh† (www.house.gov/cardin/bio 1), soon after he earns another degree. Only three years later in 1967, he becomes a "graduate of the University of Maryland Law School† (www.house.gov/cardin/bio 1). After the success of earning his BA and his Law Degree he decides he will serve in the Maryland House of Delegates. Mr. Cardin was a Delegate from 1967 until 1986. Following his â€Å"father’s and uncle’s footsteps† (The Sun, B) it seemed almost natural. During his time as a Delegate he was the "chairman of the Ways and Means Committee from 1974-1979† (www.