Sophomore Jessica Stark and her fellow students took the plunge Tuesday, and here's what happened

By Jessica Stark
Gargoyle staff reporter
Posted Wednesday, March 1, 2006, The OG, features

I would say that when I jumped out of bed yesterday as my alarm went off at 6:30 a.m., it was probably the only time that I was actually excited to get up that early. Why was I so invigorated? Because I, along with 16 other Uni students, was about to go to Springfield to lobby for the Illinios government to provide funding for a comprehensive sex-ed curriculum in schools.

We met up at the Planned Parenthood building in Champaign, piled into two vans, and began the 90-mile trip. I kind of dozed off after a while and woke with a start as our driver braked hard in front of the capitol building. It was a little disheartening to see that the grassy lawn surrounding Illinois' legislative center was completely deserted, but, as we would soon find out, it wouldn't be that way for long.

After signing in at the Michael J. Howlett Building, where we each received a very professional-looking orange folder packed with information about Senate Bill 2267 (the bill we were there to lobby for), all 400 or so of us from around the state gathered in the auditorium. Here, we received directions from the campaign manager for SB 2267 and learned some chants that we would use for our rally in front of the Lincoln Statue outside the capitol.

After we had been briefed on basic lobbying techniques, the entire group gathered in front of the Lincoln Statue for a short rally to get us fired up for our big day of politicking. State Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, along with a few other legislators and some other teenage speakers, including Uni's own Eleanor Unsworth and Annie Fehrenbacher, joined us there and gave us some words of wisdom before we headed out on our own. After about half an hour of chanting and encouraging speeches, the rally dissipated and we headed off to meet our legislators.

We broke off into separate teams with people from all over the state, with each team assigned to certain senators and representatives. Our job, before the day was over, was to give each of these senators and representatives information and petition signatures for SB 2267, find out their current positions on the bill, and, if necessary, use our powers of persuasion to push them toward a vote in favor of comprehensive sex ed.

Despite the huge crowd of lobbyists, the senators and representatives weren't being very cooperative. Curiously, all of the senators were either having caucuses or meeting all together for the entire day, and most of the representatives were also tied up in caucus when we tried to find them. As a result, my team was unable to talk to any of our assigned senators and only talked to one of our three representatives.

After traipsing around the capitol for about an hour without being able to talk to anyone, we finally found Rep. Mike Bost, a legislator from the Carbondale area. From what was said in our brief 15-minute meeting, it seemed as though he was ready to support comprehensive sex ed but had some hesitation because he had not read the actual bill.

Being strictly pro-life, based on personal experiences since his girlfriend, now wife, became pregnant in her junior year of high school and decided to keep her child, Bost worried that there might be somthing worked into the bill regarding abortion rights. Apparently, this is not an uncommon occurrence in legislation, and the senator sponsoring SB 2267 has been known for such things in the past. Makes you wonder about the true integrity of our government, doesn't it?

After about two hours of politicking, we met back at the Howlett Building for lunch and from there went to the House of Representatives, where we were formally recognized by Jakobsson on the House floor. Although cool in theory, our announcement went almost unnoticed, since only a small handful of the reps were actually paying any attention. They were all immersed in their own personal phone calls, and we saw a small group sharing some cake and a bottle of milk. Again, it kind of makes you uneasy when you realize these people having a little party during a House meeting are actually the same people making the laws.

After our 30-second recognition in the House, we met back at the vans and got ourselves mentally prepared for the ride home. I fell asleep still holding my awesome professional-looking orange folder, content that I helped make a small difference in Illinois government. Oh, and also kinda hoping that those people passing around the milk jug will vote in favor of our bill, if not because they were paying attention, then because they're too busy eating to really realize what's going on.

[Note: This story can also be found as a March 1 entry in the Gargoyle staff blog.]