By Nikki Mayo

We started off the day by going to the Capitol. On the way to the building we saw the Supreme Court and Library of Congress. We went to the Capitol to meet with civil rights activist, Representative from Georgia, and someone whose life we had heard about on the Civil Rights part of our trip, Congressman John Lewis.

We met with his legislative correspondent Sam Skardon who told us about the views and teachings of the Congressman. Unfortunately, we could not meet with the Congressman at our scheduled time because he was held up in meetings. We were told we would be able to try later in the day.

Our next meeting was with Greenpeace. Bill Richardson spoke with us about their work and goals. He said what Greenpeace does is “provoke solutions to global problems by inspiring action.” Overall, Greenpeace is an environmental group working to repair and prevent future damage to our world.

We continued to our next meeting with the Heritage Foundation. They presented the alternative view of what to do about our economy from what we heard at United for a Fair Economy in Boston. The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank. They spoke to us about reforming welfare and promoting work. They claim that $714 billion was spent on welfare every year. We spoke a lot about taxes and poverty, but our main topic was how to reform welfare so we can spend less on the poor but have it work better. We spent the last 20 minutes of the meeting discussing with their economic advisor how the economy is going right now and what the future looks like.

Fortunately, after this meeting, Congressman John Lewis was able to fit us in for a quick meeting. It was supposed to last 10 minutes but he kept telling us stories and showing us pictures of events we had studied and places we had visited in the South. His aides finally pulled him away to go vote after 20 minutes. During that time, he shared his wisdom about how to change the world, told us stories of how he marched with Dr. King, worked with Dr. King, and that he was one of the 10 speakers at the March on Washington. At the end, he told us that by organizing and marching over the bridge in Selma, he “got into trouble, but it was good trouble, necessary trouble.” He was truly inspiring.

For dinner we had free time in Georgetown. To finish off the day, we had a discussion/debate on the legalization of marijuana to prepare us for our meeting with NORML, the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws.

Today was truly indicative of Washington DC. It inspired us all.