DC Trip 17 Day 3 - Lobby Day

Day 3 - optional run with the usual suspects at 715. Checked out of the hotel at 9 and lugged our bags up Capitol Hill to Keating's new office in Rayburn. We did our first presentation to Gabrielle - his foreign affairs aide.

To summarize: Cesca and Tori introduced us, Colleen and Charbel gave personal testimonials about why we are passionate about these issues, Julie and Erin gave a summary of the background to these conflicts, Izzy and Grace did our first ask to be a co-sponsor on the soon-to-be-introduced Genocide and Atrocity Prevention Act to make permanent the Atrocities Prevention Board and the Complex Crisis Fund, Jack and Ben did our second ask to push for level-funding the International Affairs budget and UN support (the President has proposed 29% and 50% cuts) and to sign letters in Congress supporting this, Emma and Livia did our third ask to take a strong stand against the President's executive orders on refugees and immigration and to sign on to the bills opposing these, Pat did our fourth ask to co-sponsor the Caesar Syria Protection Act when it gets re-introduced to impose new sanctions on the Assad regime, Katie and Ryan asked for follow up questions and info, and Graham and Patrick did our concluding thank you. They did a great job impressing Gabrielle with their expertise and advocacy. Keating is already a big supporter and is strategically placed on the Foreign Affairs committee - and is on board with our asks. Following the meeting we walked down to the Capitol Visitor Center and took at tour with Anne Marie and Jen. Always a highlight to see the rotunda and statues etc.

After the tour we took the tunnel over to the Senate cafeteria for lunch - one of our favorite places to eat. We then did a meeting in Sen. Warren's office with Feras, the third time we've met with him. He was impressed as usual (do you know a lot about these issues? I do thanks to STAND (!)) and the kids did another great job. For Ms. G, visiting Warren's office was like a pilgrimage to Mecca.

For the first time in six hours we got to go outside and it had turned from a cool foggy morning to a warm sunny afternoon. Some of us took the chance to visit SCOTUS for a court room lecture while others opted to catch a few rays on the marble steps.

We headed next to our final presentation in Sen. Markey's office to Matthew. He was likewise appreciative and impressed us since the Sen. had recently been in a meeting pushing Sec. Tillerson on famine issues. Our day nearly at an end, we walked back across Capitol Hill to get our bags in Rep. Keating's office.

As we got through security in Rayburn, the door to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Hearing Room was open so we ducked inside to see if we could check it out. Turns out the Oregon delegation staff was just cleaning up a spread of food for some constituents. They offered us the leftovers and we didn't say no. Go Ducks!

So we finally got to Keating's office, retrieved our bags, and just as we were about to get on the elevator, out walks Rep. Keating himself! Not only did he pose for a picture with us, but he then talked with us about human rights issues and other topics (AHCA is the worst bill I've ever seen) for a half hour! This was an unexpected treat and a great capstone to our trip.

We trudged back across the Hill with our bags to Union Station, had dinner in the food court, then got on a train to BWI.

Finally we got on our flight at 1030, arrived at Logan at midnight, got in our carpools, and got home ~2am. See you in school tomorrow! (I mean today)

DC Trip 17 Day 2

Day 2: Started with optional run around Capitol Hill at 645 and optional Mass at 8. Props to Graham and Jack for opting in on both. Mass at beautiful little church - St Vincent de Paul's.

Left hotel at 930 - much cooler than yesterday. First stop was at Air and Space for an hour visir.

Then we headed to the new National Museum of African-American History and Culture - we were very lucky to get tickets having reserved them two months ahead.

The museum has three floors of history below ground and three levels of culture above ground. The long line was to see the history section - warms a history teacher's heart.

We were at the museum for almost four hours, and I spent the whole time in the history floors - kind of inverse to the Holocaust Museum, you start at the bottom and work your way up chronologically from early slavery to the present.

Highlights included the many tributes to great leaders,

and the section on Emmitt Till featuring the casket he was originally buried in (long line to see this, no pics).

Will have to go back several times before really seeing the museum.

Great cafeteria too. From there we took a nice walk down Constitution Ave

to Impact Hub for our STAND conference run by Mac Hamilton (HHS alum). Colin and Kori helped, and our keynote was by Myra, a refugee from the violence in Burma.

We were brought up to date on a variety of crises that STAND is pushing for our government to act on. We learned the issues to prepare for our Lobby Day presentations tomorrow. Kept the synapses firing with pizza and salad. The conference consisted of our group of 22 and 24 from Pathfinder Tech in Palmer, MA. We then went together on a three hour Monument Tour - White House, Iwo Jima, Jefferson, FDR, MLK, Lincoln, Vietnam, and Korea.

Got back to the hotel at 10 - took a while to settle down from a busy day - excited and nervous to lobby tomorrow.

DC Trip 17 Day 1

We're back! MRHS STAND is in DC on our annual field trip to learn and advocate on anti-genocide issues. The morning started before 3am as the carpools rolled down the midcape. By 430, we were gathered at Logan and by 530 we were on the plane. After a smooth flight and a nice shuttle ride,

we got to our hotel by 815 to put our bags down and have some breakfast.

On a beautiful spring day that eventually got up to near 80, we had a nice walk to the USHMM (past a lot of construction going on in this part of SE DC - our hotel is right next to the Nationals stadium). We spent more than two hours absorbing the permanent exhibit.

I found myself focused on the info about American responses to the refugee crisis.

As always, this is an important and moving part of our visit.

Leaving the Holocaust Museum, we spent some time walking along the waterfront on this Cherry Blossom festival weekend - I've never been in DC for this before.

We stopped for lunch at the food trucks just East of the Washington Monument,

which was slower than we imagined - there were a lot of people out on this first warm day of spring. Then we split up between groups visiting Smithsonians for a couple hours - American History, Natural History, and the National Gallery - where I went with Tori, Cesca, and Emma.

We visited the East Wing which features modern art,

and has a beautiful rooftop deck.

After another beautiful stroll back to the hotel

and checking into our rooms, we went to a new Shake Shack for dinner - on their third night.

After dinner we had some time to settle into our rooms and go visit the roof lounge overlooking the Nationals' stadium.

Thanks to HHS STAND alum Ali Donovan (senior at American U and budding political activist) for spending the afternoon and evening with us. Asleep by 10. In theory.