Wednesday, July 21st, a team from COS-NC gathered in Raleigh to meet with Senators and discuss HJR-233, the application for a Convention of States. Some participants had never been to the Legislature and were a little intimidated by the experience, but we had several veteran COS team members to lead us.
Joy Ruhmann, Frank Empie, John Moore and Simon Percival have been at this a long time and have long established connections in both the House and Senate.
When the team arrived, there were Senators who had already agreed to meet with the team. Over the next several hours, meetings went on with a variety of results.
In a typical meeting, four or five COS supporters met with a Representative. After the niceties were observed, the Legislator was asked what they knew about the resolution. Several had a very basic understanding of what COS is proposing. Other lawmakers had no idea what the resolution was about, but most of the lawmakers thought they understood the resolution, but had many misconceptions.
One lawmaker said that he could not support an Amendment which would term limit anyone. His belief was voters should just choose better representatives. When asked how that was currently going in Washington, he was unable to answer.
One lawmaker met with her constituent, who had set up a half hour meeting, for a total of one minute. She was too busy to talk with him. Apparently, she had no interest in representing his concerns.
One lawmaker stated all white men are racist and if we give more power back to the States, the Southern states would revert back to Jim Crow laws. Power needs to remain in Washington??
One lawmaker had some false perceptions of COS but was very open to hearing what the COS team had to say. It was a very productive discussion and was clear that his opinion on the resolution was swayed in a more positive direction by the encounter.
One comment from a lawmaker was that 90% of the e-mails he received were never read since he and his one staffer were so overwhelmed. He said phone calls and handwritten notes made a much bigger impact.
Several meetings were with very friendly and encouraging Senators.
We left the lawmakers with information booklets about COS, our mission and supporting documents.
The take-away? Educating our Representatives is paramount to our success. As in, all education. Not everyone is receptive to learning, some automatically reject the information based on their preconceived biases. Some have been taught misinformation and need to be undeceived and others are ready and willing to learn, and even to teach others.
