You may have noticed that last weekend, I did not publish any articles. This was because, loyal reader, I was in Washington D.C, attending a convention of the Junior States of America (JSA). I spent three days and two nights in our nation's capitol, and it was a wonderful experience. The following are my recollections of the trip. Enjoy!
Day 1-6:15AM, Friday - Boarded the bus at my high school, ready for a 5-hour trip to Washington. I went with 36 other JSA members from my high school, who were all in a state of excitement due to their destination. I listened to some CD's, began reading "The Boys on the Bus" and argued about gay marriage with my neighbor on the bus.
We arrived at our hotel, the Doubletree Crystal City in the Pentagon area. After changing into suits and skirts, we all went over to the Pentagon Mall, where we had lunch at the Food Court. After that, we took the Metro to the Dirksen Senate building on Capitol Hill, where we'd be hearing our guest speakers.
1:00 PM-5:00PM-We went into a committee room in the Dirksen building, where we heard four guest speakers. The first was the Executive Director of LULAC, the Latino equivalent of the NAACP. He talked about immigration and civil rights. Next up was ex-US Senator from Colorado Tim Wirth, now head of the UN Foundation. He delivered an excellent talk on why Washington is the way it is right now, and what we can do about it. I talked to him afterwards, and he was happy to answer my questions. In fact, he even gave me his coffee mug given to him by the JSA!
The next speaker was from YouthVote'04, and he talked about the need for young people to get involved. While I personally enjoyed listening to him, I swear I could hear some people snoring in the back of the room. Our next speaker was supposed to be a Kashmiri exile, but he couldn't make it. Instead, he sent one of his staffers. She was a good speaker, suprisingly, considering she was just out of college and relatively new to her job. She talked about the fight for Kashmir between India and Pakistan, and how Kashmir should be able to decide for itself which way to go. After this, we travelled to the House of Representatives chamber, which was wonderful. I sat in the front row, and I think that the seat I was in was Rhenquist's during the SOTU! Our speaker there was the former Clerk of the House of Representatives, Donald Anderson. Mr. Anderson served from 1987-1995 as Clerk, and was fired by Newt Geingrich for being a Democrat. He was an awesome speaker, with plenty of funny anecdotes and a message of youth impowerment. After this, we headed back to the Mall for dinner.
That evening, we took part in some leisure activities, such as a talent show (where yours truly stole the show with a political comedy routine) and an improvisation course. The next morning, we went to our "committees" (I was in Senate, Group H) to discuss the bills that all the members attending had written. With over 700 JSA students at the event, we were divided up into 20 groups, 10 House and 10 Senate (the House being bigger than the Senate). I proposed a bill called the Corporate Accountibility Act (CAA), which was narrowly rejected due to abstentions. In between committee meetings, I took part in a debate on whether to repeal China's most-favored-nation status (I was in favor of it).
That afternoon, at around 3PM, we gathered in the hotel Crystal Ballroom to listen to our keynote speaker: Ralph Nader. Just one day before announcing his candidacy for President, Mr. Nader spoke to us about combating corporate corruption and getting young people involved. One student, a Kerry supporter from Florida named Josh Lipsky, turned us into a frenzy when he cried out for Nader to announce "right here and now" whether he'd run for President. Nader declined to say yes or no, citing his committment to Meet the Press.
Since Nader was not saying anything he hadn't before, I slipped downstairs to the Political Fair, where many different organizations were waiting for us so that they could try to sway us to their side. They included Amnesy International, Democrats for Life, The Green Party, Youth Vote '04, the Ayn Rand Foundation and many others. I especially enjoyed speaking with Rachel Coleman of Amnesty Int., a college student at GWU. She is a very nice person, and I had a great time talking with her about the program's goals.
After spending the evening finishing up our committee bills, I went to my hotel room to work on my speech. You see, I'm running for the JSA's New Jersey Region (NJR) Vice-Mayoralty, and I had to announce my candidacy the next day in front of all 700 students. My website, for all those interested, is http://votestephenyellin.tripod.com/ . The next morning, Sunday the 22nd, I announced my candidacy for Vice-Mayor of the NJR:
"We must dedicate ourselves to the great task ahead of us-to take the reins of power from our parents and grandparents, and prepare to lead this country in the 21st Century. By working together, by giving our generation a say, we will all be enriched-not just in political terms, but as human beings."
After the speeches, our group headed home to New Jersey. I have to say that it was a wonderful time for me and for all the students who came. From Eric Straub to Henry Weil to Kristin Fiani to Courtney Shanney, I made so many friends there that I have never been happier. For me, it was a trip well worth going on.