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During the late hours of April 15, students from around the valley assembled at Canyon Springs High School to leave for the state capital to meet with legislators regarding proposed budget cuts. The group included students from Las Vegas area high schools and CSN, as well as CSN Professor of Sociology Kenya Pierce. The group planned to join up with students from CSN, NSC, and UNLV in Carson City.
Collegiate Review staff members Joyce Gorsuch, Nicolette Herrera, T.J. Ropelato and I were among those traveling to Carson City to present legislators with petitions that hundreds of people had signed at the April 6 event, Rally @ CSN.
One of the first to arrive, I tried to not be blown over by massive winds that had been nowhere to be found when I left my house. Michael Flores, a coordinator with the nonprofit organization TRENDZ, greeted me before I boarded the charter bus with Arrow written on the side. News reporters from KVVU Fox 5 and KTNV Channel 13 covered our departure... live.
During the ten o’clock broadcast, we stood outside the bus holding handmade signs that had messages like “Don’t Cut the Budget” and “Save Our Schools,” while news reporters interviewed Flores. As everyone continued to show, we were prepped to go live for the eleven o’clock broadcast, with the same format as during the ten o’clock broadcast.
Our bus full of 55 passengers pulled out of the parking lot of Canyon Springs HS shortly before midnight, and rode the surface streets for a while. I began thinking how nice it’d be if we could get to Carson City without taking the freeway as we entered
he on-ramp, but that unrealistic ish quickly left my head. I hate freeways.
On that trip I especially hated those two-lane highways on which our driver loved to pass eighteen-wheelers. It freaked me out more when I could see headlights in the distance, but I got over it (sort of).
We stopped in Tonopah (or “Ghost Town,” as some liked to call it) during the early hours of April 16. At this first and last stop before we reached Carson City, those who hadn’t changed did so (in the bathrooms of a nearly empty casino) while others got up from the cramped quarters of the charter bus just to stretch. It was twenty-seven degrees out, and windy as hell. I didn’t
mind it as much as others who were voicing their freezing minds. Winter is my favorite season, and though it wasn’t winter, the weather mirrored that time of year.
As day broke and I could finally see the landscape, my eyes stayed fixed on the world outside the confinement of our bus. Papers were passed out for us to go over, and my focus shifted to the facts on those sheets: lists with legislators’ pictures and contact information.
We arrived in Carson City by 8:00 am, and a staffer directed us to the third floor of the Nevada State Legislature Building where a room had been set aside for our party. While everyone settled in and began getting breakfast, Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas), Speaker of the Assembly, came in and greeted everyone.
Buckley stood near the floor-toceiling window that faced the wooden Western facades of Carson Street. She gave us the background of her pursuits: education, longtime activism, and statewide office, and took questions from students. One asked whether she was the equivalent of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Buckley nodded while chuckling, then replied with a
smile, “...yes, I am the Nancy Pelosi of Nevada.”
After the Q&A session, Assembly Speaker Buckley introduced Assemblyman Morse Arberry Jr. (D-Las Vegas), whose self introduction followed the structure of Buckley’s. Arberry then took questions, and later introduced Assemblyman William
Horne (D-Las Vegas), who told of his own journey to statewide office.
After breakfast, we took a tour of the Legislative Building, passing through the Senate and Assembly chambers, and other areas of the threestory building. The tour guide took us through the room where bills are made and bound for legislators’ use. Thousands of sheets of paper neatly waited on shelves--one side of the room designated for the Senate, and the other for the Assembly.
On the second floor, we stood outside a room where a committee hearing was taking place. A bunch of students peered through the glass windows (I could imagine how that looked to the committee members). One legislator waved for our group to enter. Not everyone could fit, so I stood outside but within earshot. Michael Flores addressed the panel, telling of our mission and thanking panel members for allowing us to listen in.
We left the committee hearing before it ended, to start our protest outside the Legislative Building. Students lined the sidewalks, and again held signs protesting Governor Gibbons’ proposed budget cuts. Cars honked in agreement as they drove down Carson Street, and students shouted and jumped to elicit the motorists’ support.
College of Southern Nevada ASCSN President David Waterhouse, Nevada State College NSSA President Ryan Crowell, and University of Nevada, Las Vegas CSUN President Adam Cronis proceeded down the sidewalk carrying a coffin. Inside the
coffin were petitions signed by students who had attended budget cut rallies at the UNLV academic mall in January and March. Our group joined the procession and added hundreds of petitions to the collection in the coffin, while continuing to the State Capitol Building and back. En route, students began chanting slogans.
Back within the walls of the Legislative Building we stood in groups, scattered around the lobby with the open coffin as the focal point. The red lining contrasted with the black casing and the white pages of letters to our legislators, and attracted many to
walk by and look in.
We later gathered for the meetings of the Nevada State Senate and Assembly. Our group was split between the two houses, and later reunited on the Assembly side. U.S. Senator John Ensign (R-Nevada) addressed a joint session of Assembly members and Senators, while students observed in the gallery, all of us nodding a bit, and eventually regaining consciousness.
After Senator Ensign’s address, I spotted Governor Jim Gibbons standing in the lobby after being stopped by a couple of high school students who wanted answers. I walked closer to listen, but couldn’t hear too well (the lobby was packed). Governor
Gibbons’ entourage rushed him along soon after I got a bit closer, blocking any more contact from outsiders. I later heard that he quite eloquently evaded answering questions.
After watching several lobbyists run through the Legislative Building, my fellow students and I walked a few blocks over to a local church for lunch. Michael Flores spearheaded an after lunch discussion of the day’s events. At each table at least one student stood to speak his or her thoughts.
We were later given a choice of sitting in on more committee hearings, or exploring the city. Nicolette, T.J., others and I opted for an excursion while the rest went back to the Legislative Building.
We walked up the majestic steps of the Capitol Building, opened one of the double doors, and stepped into a corridor where large paintings of past governors hung on the walls, the many faces of Nevada’s political history.
After making our rounds on the first floor, we went up to the second. I couldn’t help but think how touristy we looked, taking pictures and looking like people we normally see in Vegas.
Through the halls we saw the offices of our elected officials including that of Governor Gibbons, whose door was closed with the word Private printed on a gold plated sign. We later tried getting to the top of the tower, but couldn’t because the door was locked, so we came down.
While we were getting ready to leave the Capitol Building, a woman in one of the offices gave us some leftover Easter eggs, and coins with the state seal on one side, and Governor Gibbons’ face on the other. (The coins were donated by an anonymous entity).
A few blocks down we visited the Nevada State Museum, and entered the “Ghost Town” exhibit, which is set up like an old abandoned mine. We worked our way through the descending turns of drearily lit track lighting (taking a touristy photo or two along the way).
At 4:00 pm, after an hour of exploration, we met in front of the Legislative Building to leave Carson City (and take a last photo or two).
We stopped soon after our departure from the state capital, in a small city called Dayton. While the bus refueled, we were told to get food and a good stretch. Students ambushed Starbucks, Taco Bell, a Smith’s grocery store, and other establishments.
As we pulled away in the bus, everyone took time to reflect on the experience that had just come to a close, talking with nearby seatmates. As I half slept on the way back home, in and out of consciousness, I thought how different Northern Nevada was from Southern Nevada... but a good different.
It’s true that Northern Nevada and Southern Nevada are two vastly different worlds. Three quarters of our state’s population is concentrated in the lower region (primarily the desert of Las Vegas), while the remaining quarter is sharing the northern area with a lot of trees. Hopefully this division won’t keep future problems from being dealt with appropriately. |END
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