Bosnian-born intern gets inspiration from Bob Dylan

Born in Bosnia, almost 5,000 miles from Capitol Hill, Igor Letina came to Washington hoping to work on policy issues.

He didn’t expect to be answering phones or constituent mail and leading tours of the Capitol. Those tours have surprised him in one respect. “I expected to hear a lot more negative comments about Congress than I did,” he said.

The 21-year old intern, who exudes the characteristically subtle European style in his fitted jeans and smooth brown dress shoes, has adjusted well to Rep. Joseph Crowley’s (D-N.Y.) office, he said. In doing standard intern tasks, he’s gotten to see the “openness” and “responsiveness” of members.

The contrast to parliamentary systems in Bosnia and Bulgaria — where Letina is enrolled at the liberal arts American University — is incredibly surprising, he said.

For example, say you were able to track down the phone number or address of a member of parliament in one of those countries.

“No one would care,” Letina said.

In Washington, he explained with a laugh, “They tell me the most important letter you’ll ever get is a constituent letter. So if you throw out any letter, it’s OK, just don’t throw out constituent letters.”

Letina thrives off this responsiveness, in part because he’s responding to events that colored his youth. He and his family, who luckily remained unharmed, lived in Bosnia while thousands were killed in an ethnic war. The family eventually moved to Bulgaria.

“Whoever lives through a devastation such as war, you can either continue to breed hatred or you can learn from it and try and stop it from happening again,” he said.

To that end, Letina has become involved with Humanity In Action, which teaches students from around the world to study past genocides, like the Holocaust, to identify patterns of xenophobia before they manifest into violence.

Although he likes America, especially the Smithsonian museums funded by taxpayers (to whom he says, “thank you!”), he’s eager to get home to Europe and become a professor. Only time will tell what kind.

Letina has found inspiration not in the members of Congress, but in the lyrics of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” posted above his desk.

“Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled”

“I don’t think he’s a prophet or anything, like some people,” Letina said of Dylan. “I just think he captured the zeitgeist, the spirit of the moment.”