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Personal Narrative: Understanding Politics

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This year has been a contentious year for WV legislators and teachers. For teachers, we have been fighting to keep our health insurance costs down, are pay up, and seniority intact. Legislators have been dealing with the heat from our fire and trying to give us what we need to put that fire out. To deal with my eternal fire, I posted to Facebook saying, "I will never claim to understand politics as I would hope most politicians wouldn't claim to understand teaching. I think we need to fix this. Maybe we need to walk a day in each other's shoes. I don't mean spend an hour walking around. I mean a day, maybe even two." I went on to explain the life of a teacher and decided that a Facebook post seen by my friends wasn't enough. I decided to put my money where my mouth was. I created a paper invitation and a small note then mailed one to every member of the Senate, House of Delegates, and to the Governor's office. In this …show more content…

Following the hearing we walked to her office. Here I learned that she doesn't have a secretary to answer her phone, screen her mail, or check her email. I learned she often has to do her own research on a bill and sift through emails and mail about the topic. She has to try to return all of her phone calls and her emails. All of this is done while lobbyists, legislators, and staffers are asking for her time. After about an hour, we went to the House session in which they passed HB 2655, HB2662, HP 4162, and a few others. Ms. Graves is striving for a 100% voting record, so she had to dash to the Pro-Life Rally to speak in between votes on various bills. After the session, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then were off to committee meetings. Following those meetings my day with her ended but hers wasn't quite finished. She had two banquets to attend that

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