I visited the Georgia State Capitol on March 23rd. I invited my friend Lili to tag along with us and we were planning to meet up with the rest of the class at the Commons at KSU. That way we would all be together to go on the Marta transit. Unfortunately, traffic interfered with that plan and we would not make it to the scheduled time. Therefore, we decided to head straight to Atlanta, park, and walk to the capital.

Since we had arrived far earlier than everyone else, I decided it was best to start interacting with people at the Capital. I spotted a protestor in front of the entrance and interviewed him. What I learned about Jeff Jones is that he is a peace activist who has been out in front of the capital since the first day of the session and has been in areas such as Marietta Square for 80+ days. He has been vocal about various causes such as ceasefire, ICE, and civil rights. He is also a Unitarian Universalist Manager and believes there is something valuable to learn from each religion. I managed to get his name but getting a picture slipped my mind. Thankfully, when the rest of our class arrived, so did my CA team members (Sean, Woody, and Marley). They interviewed him as well and took a picture, but didn’t get his name. Therefore, we shared the piece that the other was missing.

Once we were inside the Capitol, I was hearing bills I recognized left and right including a meeting about Homestead extension (Bills HB 1116 and SB 382). I wasn’t able to get a decent image however. As for my next observation, it was Gwinett Representative Gwenda Booth. She spoke about topics regarding her organization, NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) alongside drug rehabilitation centers. We all left with pamphlets that referenced more topics such as SB 427, SB 248 and LEAP (Listen, Empathize, Agree, Partner).

As for my final observation, I got to witness a session meeting! Lili and I were informed of it by Laura and Eli so all four of us managed to make it in time. Representative Emory Dunahoo spoke during the session and began it with an in memoriam to various people. It was not a traditional meeting about bills as it was acknowledging people including his former roommate, Representative Eddie Lumsden. After the meeting ended, Jason met up with us. He informed us of the meeting he witnessed which did acknowledge bills. The bill discussed was HB 1009 (Cell Phone Ban K-12), which was the bill my team covered for our CA1 and CA2 posts. He let us know that although one amendment was killed, the legislation still passed.

Overall, the trip to the Capitol allowed me to use the knowledge I acquired throughout this semester and encouraged me to interact with people from the capital. I also got to know more of my classmates throughout our time there. The Capitol trip will be a fond memory I look back on from my time at KSU once I graduate.