That's right, Congressman Lacy Clay of St. Louis came to speak at my school, St. Louis University. As the guest speaker for the College Democrats, he was humorous, informative, and just plain interesting.
His father served in Congress representing St. Louis for 32 years, was a co-founder of the CBC, and one of the first black people ever elected to congress. He took over for his father in 2000.
He began by saying that he would talk a little bit about what Congress has done in the past couple weeks since resuming control of both houses, followed by a short segment of the role of African Americans in the political system. But the part that impressed me the most was that he spent about 40 minutes out of his hour for Q & A.
The first person asked him about the ongoing conflict in Iraq, and mentioned that as a teacher, she was worried to see her students leaving school mid-semester only to come back disabled and disgruntled. She also made a good point in pointing out that this ISN'T Bush's war, this is our war too! You pay taxes, don't you? You're an American, aren't you? You're a voter too! Congressman Clay mentioned that he was against the war before it even started, and that he has been right the entire time. He highlighted that it has allowed North Korea and Iran to pursue Nuclear programs, ignored the greater threat from Al-Queda in Afghanistan, taken countless American and Iraqi lives as well as cost a great deal of money.
I was the second person to ask a question. I said, "Thank you very much for being here, I was glad to hear you mentioned the way we care for our veterans earlier because I'm originally from the congressional district that Lane Evans, the former ranking member of Veteran's Affairs, and both him and his succeeding member of Congress, Philip Hare, both went to my high school. My question is about racism and the 2008 election. Anyone who watched the Tennessee Senate Race saw that racism was certainly a factor in Harold Ford's loss. Do you think that a black man or woman, or any minority could be elected president in 2008?"
He smiled and told me it was a very good question, and then he went on to say that he was very disappointed with the way a particular commercial hurt Ford's campaign badly in Tennessee, the one with racist overtones about a playboy party. He went on to say that he liked all three candidates, especially Obama and Edwards. He mentioned that Obama called him about a week before he planned to announce to ask for his support, and Congressman Clay mentioned he would have to take awhile to decide, but that he really did like all three of the top contenders for the position.
He also emphasized the importance later of how the house passed the bill to ease the burden on college students and their financial status. He also went on the record as saying he will vote to oppose any future funding of the war in addition to saying that Congress WILL be having a five day work week instead of the "come in on Tuesday and leave on Thursday" crap that the former congress had.
Finally, he discussed with us students the need for election reform, especially pointing out the problems in Florida in 2000 and 2006 in addition to needing voting machines to be touch-screen instead of pulling the lever like in some places in New York. He also mentioned they should be handicap accessible but MOST of all that there must be a paper trail.
On the whole, you could see a real great deal of enthusiasm, youth, and happiness from a congressman who has spent 6 years in the minority party. I came up to him after the Q & A and shook his hand while saying "We've been honored to have you Congressman", to which he responded, "Absolutely, thanks for the question again."
We are very fortunate to have people like Clay in Congress fighting for our rights from Monday through Friday from Iraq to Health Care to Global Warming to Education. I am very glad I set aside an hour to meet with him and I am proud to have voted for him in 2006. Thank you Congressman Clay!