I want to remind all one million bajillion Virginia bloggers that I will happily promote any blog entry about your trip to the General Assembly.
If you live in Richmond, carve out some time to visit an early-morning subcommittee meeting (they start at 7am, alarmingly) or to talk with your representative or just observe the House or the Senate in session. If you live farther afield, make a half day of it. (Heck, Chad went, and he lives in Wise County, so don’t tell me you can’t make it from Arlington. Little-known fact: Wise is farther west than South Dakota.) Write about what you see, who you meet, what your impressions are, and what the experience tells you about the state of government in the commonwealth. Let me know when you’ve posted that blog entry, and I’ll write about it to make sure that lots of people see it.
The General Assembly is totally accessible. Odds are good that you can stroll right in and talk with your senator or delegate. You may well not have to wait — just knock on the door, introduce yourself, and sit down and start talking. There’s no pass required. No quiz to answer. Just check the meeting schedule, find something that looks interesting, and head on down. It can be surprisingly interesting.
I can’t tell you what good will come of having somebody blogging from the General Assembly every day. That’s because I don’t know. But I think that, should it happen, the impact will be far greater than we’ll ever have on the outcome of an election. Accountability and openness require a willingness on the part of the public to actually look at government. Go for it.
(Speaking of which, Eileen visited Richmond today and wrote about her experiences in a lengthy comment on this here blog. Give it a read.)
I agree Waldo, and I’ll be back for a few more meetings.
My new job is really cutting into my blogging though . . .
How did Wise get over the Mississippi River?
It is west of Cleveland. That’s somewhat more believable and a whole lot less interesting.
Wise county actually extends west of Detroit as well. I just looked at a map and was amazed. Wise county is so far west that they have a small population of elk.
Virginia is just so cool. I’m drooling and pawing at the air over how cool we are. WE’RE THE GODD*MNED BEATING HEART OF AMERICA, FOLKS! All this and Thomas Jefferson and Missy Elliot and we’ve got the Pentagon and Monticello and the Statler Brothers and all the turkey farms and the whole winery thing and sometimes somebody will see an alligator in the Rivanna River. We totally rule.
Wise County rocks.
“Little-known fact: Wise is farther west than South Dakota.”
Good thing that that “fact” is little known because it a’int true. The map hanging on my wall shows the the easternmost point of South Dakota is 7 inches west of the westernmost point of Virginia. The map is to the scale of the U.S. being 24 inches wide.
Chad: What about Wise County rocks? We have a bunch of rocks up here in Fauquier County; we are constantly digging them out of the garden…
I said it was little-known. Don’t buy into the MSM (MainStream Mapping industry).