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Tallahassee

James Croft

Politics and Media

&

Courts and Constitution

Professor Baker

Tallahassee Trip

I personally found the trip to Tallahassee very enjoyable. Having focused mainly on national politics in my studies, it was refreshing and enlightening to see and experience state level politics. I had never visited the State Capitol before, and I was not disappointed. It was a beautiful building. I also enjoyed visiting the various office holders in the State House and hearing what they had to say. And it was inspiring top sit on the actual floor of the State House, and in the big chair in one of the Committee Rooms.

Now where sitting in the chairs in the House and the Committee Room was all well and good, my favorite aspect about going to Tallahassee was with visiting and corresponding with the Representatives. Although Jennifer Carroll was not in attendance for our visit, I did send her an e-mail when we returned to Jacksonville thanking her for the opportunity to visit and congratulating the hospitality of her staff. She quickly responded, and apologized for not being there in person.

The class's favorite speaker would no doubt be Nassau County representative, and JU graduate, Representative Aaron Bean. He was vigorous, young, enthusiastic, charismatic, and an all around likable guy. You can tell by the way he speaks that he is passionate about what he does. And you can also tell y his self-deprecating sense of humor that he doesn't take himself too seriously, a rare quality in today's politicians. His e-mail response wasn't as quick as Jennifer Carroll's, however when I mentioned about hoping he could visit the campus and speak sometime he mentioned being excited about it, and about being free in the fall after session gets over. Maybe Professor Baker can get him to guest lecture?

Representative Stan Jordan was a nice guy. He had a good sens of humor as well, though he didn't connect as well with the students as Rep. Bean. He seemed to know what he was doing though, and sensitive to what we wanted. He knew that we were upset about the possible cuts to the FRAG grant and the children's issues we were there to lobby for, and he assured us that significant cuts in those areas were "off limits", despite the significant shortage in funds this legislative session. He has yet to reply to my "Thank you" e-mail.

This year's trip to Tallahassee was a success. I enjoyed myself greatly, even if I was a bit quiet (as I normally am.) Next year however I would emphasize more on the requirement of formal attire, as jeans and a t-shirt are not appropriate for when you are representing our school and ourselves to our State Representatives. And we should also probably spend more time advocating the issues we were supposed to be their advocating. We let ourselves get distracted by the tours and such, and I feel that we sort of took advantage of Daniel and the Jacksonville Kid's Coalition for a free trip and didn't really do our part in advocating their cause. I would like to see lobbying as more of a part in the next trip. All in all though it was a great trip.

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