No, it’s not what you think! I’m a good kid, I promise! On Feb. 5, I took a trip to Little Rock with my state and local government class. We had a first-hand opportunity to observe all three branches of the government: judicial, legislative, and executive.
Our first stop was the Arkansas Supreme Court building. While there, we witnessed the opening statements of an appealed case. Both the defendant’s and prosecution’s counsels had opening statements with opportunity for justice questioning, then the defendant gave a rebuttal to end the preliminary proceedings of this case.
After the court case, we walked to the state Capitol building, where we spent the rest of the day. The Capitol building houses both parts of the state General Assembly, the House and Senate, and the governor’s offices.
The class walked onto the floor of the state Senate chamber and each one of us sat in one of the representative’s seats. I just so happened to be sitting in the seat of President Pro Tempore and Harding graduate, Jonathan Dismang. State Senator Dismang spoke with us about his Harding experience, how he eventually ran for office and his job as second-in-command within the Arkansas State Senate. After taking a group photo with him, we sat in the gallery to watch the Senate convene. Each proposed bill was summarized and then voted upon individually by the representatives.
The other students and I were not allowed to be on the floor of the state House chamber, but we did meet with our state House representative, Les Eaves. After a short discussion with him, we walked up to the gallery to watch the House convene. Each bill was introduced by the bill sponsor, there was opportunity for debate over the bill and then the representatives all voted by pressing a button to be recorded by a machine.
We also had the opportunity to meet in the governor’s conference room with newly elected governor, Asa Hutchinson. We took a group photo with Governor Hutchinson and he jokingly quizzed us on our knowledge of how a bill passes into law.
At the end of the day, I was surprised to see that almost every bill presented to the convened House or Senate passed unanimously. Most bills are so simple and uncontroversial that all of the representatives will vote to have it passed. I also noticed that legislative proceedings were more routine and normal than I thought they were. Yes, each representative was dressed very formally and the chambers were very glamorous, but a lot of them were on their phones or whispering back and forth to their neighbors.
I then realized that our government officials are normal people, just like you and me. (@dismang even retweeted the photo I took of his seat in the Senate chamber.) If any normal citizen can work their way up to holding a government position, then I can too. I enjoyed every second of my trip, and I left with much more knowledge, motivation and experience.
