by Harley Liechty
Children are some of the most aspirational people in the world, (no, I’m not talking about our zero stars here). Most young children haven’t been tainted yet by society’s negative attitudes and worries in life. So when they powerfully declare that they want to be an astronaut in space, an Oscar-winning actor, or a world-renowned singer, there is no hesitation. They sincerely believe they can accomplish their dreams! Where am I going with this?
Well in our first day of session during the joint committee meeting, you may have been distracted by something peculiar. In the event, four children were running around and participating just like we were. Sure, their attention span is crazy small (of course, our attention spans aren’t great either), but they clapped when we clapped and didn’t seem too bored. As a journalist noticing them, I thought, “Hmm…I wonder what they think about all this?”
I know that if I was one of them in today’s joint committee, I would probably be bored out of my mind. Constantly asking my mom why we were even here, being totally annoyed, and just wanting to play Super Mario would wreck my chances of having any interest in listening to anything political. These children here were different though.
See, their mother explained that the oldest 9 year old twins, Logan and Lukas, (who were “forced to go” according to the twins), have already been volunteering in political campaigns for governors and even presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. So the young audience members in today’s joint committee have more experience in politics than possibly some of you!
For the joint committee though, they seemed to respect the whole process. Logan, the most outspoken of the bunch, expressed that, “all the college students seem to have a good understanding and they all know what they are doing.” So hear that House of Representatives? Y’all are on the right track according to Logan. They did point out as well some peculiar activities that took place in their minds.
For instance, they first brought up the gavel (or hammer as they stated). Logan thought it was a little weird that we needed a hammer during meetings. Lukas did bring up the fact that it was to silence the noise in the room, but it still seemed odd to them in their minds.
They also thought the way we clapped was interesting as well. I didn’t gather any other input on this matter, but I’m sure they wondered why the slow clap from “Hoosiers” was chosen in today’s joint committee.
I ended our short interview together by asking whether any of them wanted to participate in politics when they grew up. To this question, they all immediately shout, “Yeah! Yeah!” Lukas would like to be president someday, although he did raise concern on the responsibilities of the job. Ella, (the girl in the group), wants to be president after she first becomes a lawyer. Logan, on the other hand, would simply like to be a mayor or someone in a legislative position.
All together four children, whose names are Logan, Lukas, Ella, and Wyatt, were surprisingly well experienced and each wanted to pursue huge achievements in politics. As such, they actually had an interest in what took place in the joint committee. So who knows? Maybe that curiosity can propel them to legitimate interest in politics and quite possibly, to participate as a future delegate in the next generation’s OIL sessions.