Day Two

Ben Haslund-Gourley:


Tuesday began with a wake-up call and a delicious continental breakfast. By 7:30 the group had rubbed the sleep out of their eyes with the assistance of some delicious coffee. Our first stop of the day was a meeting with Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson. The talk that she gave was inspiring and uplifting; I felt so much adoration for her accomplishments. She went into depth on many different issues ranging from environmental conservation, to the health impacts of pharmaceutical drugs, and then onto women’s rights. I was blown away by the ease and confidence with which she spoke about each of the issues and made me proud to know that Santa Barbara had such a representative. The next stop was visiting the Secretary of State, Greg Schmitt. We found ourselves sitting in the Senator’s desks the ornate, red-carpeted Senate. While siting and listening to Mr. Schmitt speak about the Senate, I could imagine how it feels to be in the shoes of a Senator. After the meeting, we were allowed a sneak peek into the ‘old’ back of the Capitol building. The ‘annex’ as it is called was built as an addition to the Capitol building by 1952, but the designers kept the forty foot columns that were once visible from the yards preserved in a narrow hallway. As we exited the secret hall, we had the extreme fortune of running into Darrell Steinberg, the California Senate President pro Tempore. The stars must have aligned because for over ten minutes the second most powerful man in California took the time to speak to the group and answer questions. After lunch, we headed to a Judicial Committee headed by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, and listened to the judicial review of two bills. Seeing this process helped shed light on the life of a bill in California and how a Senator’s authorship and wording in a Bill is crucial. It felt like we had only sat down at the committee meeting when we were whisked away to meet with the Assembly and Senate minority leaders. The discussion was light-hearted and I enjoyed observing a different perspective on some of the matters that I have been hearing about. After the half-hour was up, we raced to the governor’s office and were received in what is known as the “horse-shoe” room. We met with three of the governor’s top staff; Appointment, Legislative, and Press/Media. We were informed about the different ways that we could get involved with state and local governments as students and learned more about how Governor Brown works with his staff. Exiting the meeting with business cards in hand, I think everyone was excited to see what opportunities await them in the coming years. To finish off this exhausting but great day, we met once more with our host, Assembly Member Das Williams. He discussed his stance on education, and how he proposes to fund and change our educational system. It was reassuring to see so much vitality and life in the legislative representatives from our district this day and it makes me a bit sad to think that we are half way through our stay in the Capitol. This trip has been fantastic and it just keeps getting better!