The Nation's capital

Leina spent the weekend in DC. She's an important person--she's on the board of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), so she attends meetings about every three weeks. This one was a hard one--the topic was "How can we, as social workers, get more respect?" They sat around and brainstormed and then finally realized that social workers are too nice. Unlike the rest of the professionals in this country, they spend all their time working and helping people to spend their time lobbying for more money, prestige, or respect. They have no AMA, no powerful lobbyists. And unlike teachers, they don't have a strong union and aren't even really thought about by people in power. Powerful people all had teachers when they were young, few had social workers.

So Leina decided to do something about it. She's in the midst of planning something huge, involving civil disobedience and fireworks, to make people more aware of the good work that social workers do. But first, she had to go to the orthodontist.