This past Friday (5-3-2013), I was over in downtown Anchorage for a class, specifically called TeenPact. TeenPact is a class/workshop that's designed to teach teenagers about government, legislature, and how it all works.
Since the class is for teenagers, and I happen to not be a teenager, I had to attend the one-day version of the class rather than the four-day version. But that was probably for the best, because the one-day version sort of eased me into it, if you know what I mean. But, anyway, on with my description of the day.
Unfortunately, the class was scheduled to take place on my father's birthday. Fortunately, he agreed to go with me, so it was sort of our little thing for the day.
Anyway, we had to stop to pick up a sack lunch for the class, so we were five or ten minutes late. We arrived during the introduction, which I didn't mind, and ended up sitting in the back of the room, which I sort of minded later on.
At the end of the introduction, we were introduced to Michael Wagner, who would be doing most the speaking during the class. He, in turn, introduced all of us to the other... erm... I really don't know what to call them. 'Teachers' doesn't sound right because they were only about nineteen or twenty years old. But they definitely weren't students... if you know the term, don't hesitate to tell me.
Anyway, moving on, after that we prayed and had a short worship time (which was also fun, but I won't go into that here). After a short explanation of the three kinds of elections, we were divided into three parties to hold our own primaries.
Each party had to elect one governor and two senators. We didn't really bother with nominations--if you wanted to run for governor or senator, you were allowed to run.
Once we had our nominees for governor, each nominee was asked questions by the... uh... helper assigned to our party. Then we voted, using the good ol' fashioned method of covering our eyes and raising our hand when we wanted to vote for the person whose name had been called.
Once that was done, we went back out into the main room with the other 'parties'. The senatorial nominees were called up and had to answer a list of questions. One of the points that was stressed was that name recognition is important. This is important because if people don't know you name, they won't vote for you. So each nominee was supposed to start and end their answer by stating their name.
Next, the gubernatorial nominees were called up. (Gubernatorial is a term used to reference nominees for governor.) They, too, had to answer questions. Then the ballots were passed out, and we voted by marking down the name of our preferred candidate. All of the ballots were turned in, and then it was time for our field trip to the governor's office!
We all collected into one large line/mass, left the building, and started walking. The governor's office was about four, five, or maybe six blocks away--not far, in any case, but a bit uncomfortable when you're not used to wearing a skirt. I'm sure we looked a bit out-of-place: thirty-plus kids in nice clothes just strolling through the city.
Out-of-place or not, we reached the correct building quickly and then rode up to the seventeenth floor in groups, since the elevators obviously weren't large enough to accommodate the whole group. Once all of us were on the right floor, we went in.
First we got to see the governor's conference room. Surprisingly, it wasn't all that much fancier than any other conference room I've seen (though the dark wood paneling on the doors did look like chocolate... yum). We also got to take free copies of the Constitution. Then we were allowed into the governor's real office.
Unfortunately, the governor wasn't there. But the office was big, big enough to accommodate thirty-plus kids without (too much) crowding. The view was amazing, though. The cars looked like matchbox cars, the view of the mountains was breathtaking. Several kids took turns sitting in the governor's chair. I didn't. After a certain amount of time for sight-seeing, each of us gathered into groups and prayed for the governor. Then we left, rode the elevators down, left the building, and walked back to our original building. And then it was time for... lunch.
Lunch ended at 1:05 p.m. Once that was over, Michael Wagner got back up to talk. It was time to learn about the legislative process--in other words, how laws are made. And fortunately for us, Mr. Wagner just happened to have a 50-minute lecture on the subject.
Fun.
So we got out note-taking materials and prepared ourselves for the boring part... only to find out that we were actually going to watch a skit put on by the helpers.
The skit was long, but that was okay because there was plenty of humor, it effectively taught us about the legislative process, and we got candy. :-D When the skit was finally over, we got to try out the process ourselves, using the bills we had written as part of our 'homework' before the class.
First off was a read-through of the bills. We all formed into one long line, and began reading our bills aloud one at a time. Usually we got about as far as the first section before Mr. Wagner banged the gavel and assigned the bill to a committee.
This wouldn't have been as fun if it weren't for some of those committee names. Our TeenPact legislature seemed to have a committee for every subject. For example:
A bill protecting innocent insects from being killed by humans? Assigned to the Bug's Life Committee.
A bill stating that all children should be kept from eating broccoli? Assigned to the Amen Committee.
A bill allowing children ages 10-17 to vote? The Little Big Guys Committee.
A bill giving cyclists their own bypass so they wouldn't take up a lane in traffic? The Get Off the Road! Committee.
And those were only some of the more memorable ones.
Once that over with, we were divided up into a few small committees to discuss the bills. This was fun. The helper assigned to our committee, Shelby, would read a bill, then ask if the author was present. If the author was present (and they usually were), they would get up to talk briefly about their bill, then open it up for questions. We could ask questions, but we couldn't state anything unless we were in the speaker's area (called the well). We could move to vote on the bill unless the well was empty.
We went through a few bills this way, then voted once of the rest of the stack so that we could go back out to join the other two committees. There, we did much the same thing. The bill in question would be read in its entirety by the clerk. The author of the bill would come up to talk about their bill, questions would be asked, and (in some cases), amendments would be suggested, passed, and/or rejected. In many cases, an amendment would be suggested, and then a student would move to vote. There would be an objection from some other student(s), and that would lead to us voting on whether or not we should vote! It was fun and engaging, and I even managed to get an amendment passed on a bill allowing children to vote.
Unfortunately, we only got to go through maybe five or six bills. At 4:00 p.m., one of the helpers moved to adjourn the meeting permanently until the next year's class. And, surprisingly or unsurprisingly, there was a majority vote not to adjourn. Unfortunately for us, we were out voted by the director of the class. So our committee adjourned, and that was end of the 2013 TeenPact class.
So, as I learned, government skills are not hard to learn. In fact, though it may seem daunting, the legislative process is actually simple at its core.
What are your thoughts on government?
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