Day 2

Today was the second day of College Convention. It was pretty exciting, however I was really expecting many more people than there were. We slept in, because the first session wasn’t a subject we were too interested in, and went to brunch at a cute little cafe in downtown Manchester. We got back to the hotel in time to hear Senator Mike Gravel speak.

Senator Mike Gravel is a Democrat from Alaska, and was very interesting. He was a less dynamic speaker than the last two speakers, but had very interesting ideas. Gravel spoke a lot about how he believes economic sanctions don’t work, and then about how he does not agree with the current taxing system. He wants to change the consumer behavior in America, and by this he wants to have taxes only if a citizen spends money He jumped around a lot, between subjects, like from education to immigration and didn’t have a lot of transition. He also talked a lot about how he wants more power for the people, and have them create the laws. This I thought this was a little weird, though its a nice idea really would not work. He did mention that he really does agree with ideas of promoting love, which I agree with, but Sen. Gravel was just too “scatterbrained” to really capture my attention, or my vote. Here is a photo of Senator Gravel speaking.

After Sen. Gravel’s speech we wandered around downtown some more, and found a cute little shop. We went back to the hotel to relax a little bit before going to a session at 5. At 5 me, Amy, Brendan and Sarah went to a session about bird-dogging about AIDS and the Jubliee Act, which cancels debt in developing countries. Bird-dogging is asking a candidate a question, just to get their policy about an issue out to the media, and on the record. Some of the things they thought would be a good idea to ask candidates would be if they would give $50 billion to fight global AIDS. It really gave me ideas about how to ask the candidates about issues I care about. If they will come out with a plan to rely entirely on renewable energy, or if they will increase funding to fund conservation. In addition, I really enjoyed learning about the Jubliee Act, and think that it is very important to definitely get passed. Lastly, they suggested letter writing campaigns, which I thought I could utilize for promoting issues I care about, such as saving the rainforest or alternative energy.

After the session we all went out to eat at Margarita’s for Juan’s 21st Birthday. It was delicious food and I really think everyone had a great time. All the waiters came out to sing him happy birthday which was sweet. We also had fried ice cream, which was really yummy. Overall, the entire day was a lot of fun, and I am really looking forward to tomorrow. Here is a picture of me and Amy at dinner.