Tuesday night, lying in bed, I thought to myself, 'It'd be funny if I didn't set my alarm.' Well, I did set it, and to the appropriate time, too: 4:40AM. I just didn't turn it on. My dad woke me up at 5AM, and I rushed to get ready in fifteen minutes.
At 5:20 in the morning on Wednesday, I was to report to the administration building of school district. From there, a group of fifteen students, myself included, my AP Government teacher, the superintendent, and a local reporter, would take a school bus up to Albany and lobby against unfunded mandates that schools in New York must follow. Our district has no problem following these, and is one of the most compliant and effective. Yet, many of these mandates do not pertain to us, or are unnecessary, yet cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A vital detail: We did not take a four hour bus ride to ask for more money.
Set with specific examples, we were to meet with three of our representatives: Assemblyman Michael Fitzpatrick, NYS Senator John Flanagan, and NYS Senator Suzi Oppenheimer.
When we reached our state capitol, we took a tour of the building (extravagant and expensive), and then made our way to Assemblyman Fitzpatrick's office. I think he forgot that he was talking to people who will all be able to vote in the next election. Continuously dropping the metaphor that sounded like he pulled it out of a local gazette of, "taking off the rose colored glasses and putting on clear ones," we were told again and again that the state had no money to give us. We weren't asking for money. He also told us that there was not even another place would could take money from. We weren't asking for money. We were also told that if we were to get what we wanted, someone else would complain. That doesn't really matter because this is your job, but he did not really want to understand what we wanted, which was not money from him. Finally, he said that none of what we wanted could get done because he was now in the minority (he can be considered one of the most, if not the most, conservative assemblyman in Albany right now). Overall, we were treated like we were middle schoolers who did not understand politics (all of us are seniors in high school studying AP Gov), and we were told that our goals were impossible.
Maybe we weren't clear on what we wanted, as Assemblyman Fitzpatrick seemed to have no idea what we were lobbying for. Yet, during our last meeting, our main speaker was told that she was one of the best speakers they had heard, being clear, concise, and offering proof and evidence.
That day, one man lost at least fifteen votes in next year's election.
Senator Flanagan was next on our itinerary, and he rushed out of a meeting to hear us out. While he told us that he doesn't dance around anything, we heard about his children and children along with some of their notable endeavours, how much he loves our town (he is from the next town over), and asked us about our tour. He told us he agreed with all we were saying, and he was doing his best to do exactly what we wanted. He was a bit rushed and tight on time (though he obviously did have enough of it to tell us a little about his personal life...), but we did get our point across, and we learned that what Assemblyman Fitzpatrick told us was impossible, was actually... not.
We were then called to call his assistant when we finished with Senator Oppenheimer, and he would take us to the Senate, which is off bounds to the public. And then we'd take a picture, and everyone would receive a copy. How... political of him. Either way, we had much more of a pleasure talking to him than our first experience which left us feeling downtrodden.
After a short lunch, we learned that Senator Oppenheimer was unable to make the meeting, but we met with two of her representatives, who, even though they had only worked under the Senator for at most, two weeks, knew all of her stances. Those stances were very promising for us. The two women seeing us took diligent notes on all we had to say, all the numbers and statistics we offered them, and our solutions to the issue (they were the only ones to write all of this down).
The day improved as it went on, and we left with on a good note. But no matter how the day ended, we will not forget our meeting with Assemblyman Fitzpatrick (as you can probably tell, by the fact that I bring him up many a time).
And overall, this was a very good experience, seeing the functions of the government and how it actually goes through it's motions. As it always is, I learned more from this one day than any length of time in a classroom. And while politics is certainly not something I would like to go into, i have a better understand of how it all actually works, what the people are really like, and a more substantial opinion on the whole matter.
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