Post-NYLC Diary Entry (March 30, 2007)

I have been maintaining a thread on Twitter collecting political entries from the diary I kept on the family computer in the aughts. The process so far has mostly involved screenshotting the relevant portions, although I’ve recently come across one that would be too much of a pain to do in screenshots, so I’m going to copy and paste it here instead. I’m going to put it in block-quotes, with occasional interruptions to editorialize. Also I’m going to abbreviate some people’s names with just their initials, to protect their privacy. Any names left in are those of public individuals who wouldn’t have had an expectation of privacy. I’m also editing out a few parts that don’t make sense to include. And finally, I’m also correcting a few typoes, and adding some links while I’m at it, as well.

Yeah, I meant to write sooner but I couldn’t. The day after I wrote last we drove down to New York and spent the night at [my aunt]’s. The next day we drove down to Maryland. The day after that was the first day of NYLC. [My family] dropped me off at the National 4-H Center in Chevy Chase and then did some stuff on their own while I was in NYLC. The first day not much happened. I found K. and L. and then did a lot of the orientation stuff, like tours of the Center, get-to-know-you activities, meeting my smaller group, and stuff. I got to hear Michael Weisskopf speak about how he lost his hand when he was a journalist in Iraq. He was wearing a hook at the time of his speech. There were a lot of people from New Hampshire there because of vacation.

(New Hampshire has a weird way of doing vacations: instead of just having a single-week spring vacation like most places do, our schools instead will have two vacations in late winter / early spring: one at the end of February, and then one at the end of April. This must have been the week of our February one.)

We [NH] were tied for second most people there with New York and behind California. I had 3 other roommates. One was from New Hampshire like me, another was Russian and came from California, and the third was from Texas and had a wicked strong accent. Speaking of “wicked”, a lot of the other southerners were trying to imitate us northerners by using the word “wicked”, but they didn’t do it right. They used it as an adjective rather than an adverb. Anyway, my roommates and I stayed up late most nights talking and telling jokes and stuff and watching The Daily Show and South Park.

What a time capsule…

The next day in our small groups we did simulation of what it was like to be president, except only one person got to be president. Everyone else got to be advisers when we were making our decision, and then we got to be journalists and ask the president about her decision. First I was the head of the House Foreign Relations Committee, then I was a journalist from the Taiwan Post. (The decision we were discussing involved a hypothetical crisis between Taiwan and China).

(I would just like to add a disclaimer here that my past teenage self is not to be held responsible for any violations of the “One China Policy” or whatever the current U.S. diplomatic stance towards China and Taiwan might be currently)

After that we went into Washington to see the Vietnam Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and Lincoln Memorial. One thing that I thought was cool was that the reflecting pool for the Washington Monument had to be drained in the winter, but snowmelt left a little water in the pool, so it was only a partial reflection and it looked really cool. That Washington Monument is everywhere. No matter where you are in Washington, you can see it. Then we had lunch in Dupont Circle and then came back to the 4-H Center and heard Scott Stanzel, the deputy press secretary to President Bush, speak. He seemed very rehearsed and good at his job. Nothing threw him for a loop. Then we did some random stuff in our small groups, and then split up to go to some workshops. Mine was on peace and stuff. The guy who led it, Hawah Kasat, gave off really good vibes.

The next day we went to Capitol Hill. First we went to the Capitol got to sit in the House of Representatives Chamber and talk with a representative from Connecticut.

(I wish I’d remembered to record which representative from Connecticut it was specifically, but unfortunately I didn’t…)

Then we could go where we wanted. K., L., and I went to the Supreme Court building, but they got bored so we left. Then we went to the Rayburn Building to go to a committee hearing. We went to the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of the House Foreign Relations Committee hearing. There was only room for me, so K. and L. left. The committee talked about poverty in Latin America and Hugo Chavez and stuff. They weren’t even done with their opening statements by the time I had to leave. As I was in there, I was thinking, “You know, I just know that someday I’m going to come back here, and when I do, I’m going to be on the other side of the (metaphorical) wall.”

This was in fact true! While I don’t think it was that room specifically, I did in fact come back to DC and participated in some hearings from the “other side” of the room my junior year of college when I interned for Senator Shaheen.

Next I headed over to the Russell Building to meet with my senators. Senator Sununu was speaking on the floor when I got there so he was a little late.

(This was John E. Sununu, to be clear, Chris Sununu’s older brother)

He had time for a photo op and that was it. Then I went upstairs to Senator Gregg’s office. K. and L. showed up around then. We took a picture with Gregg, too, and then talked to us for a few minutes, but he didn’t take any questions. Then we went to the Cannon Building to meet with Paul Hodes. He couldn’t make it, so one of his staffers gave us a tour of the Capitol. We got House and Senate gallery passes that are good for all of the 110th Congress. I was surprised at how few people were actually on the floor. The House was debating an amendment to a unionizing bill which would disallow “salting”. I didn’t really understand it.

Argh! Bad Eric! Bad former self! I read this passage now as an indictment of the American education system; the fact that I was able to be considered one of the “smart kids” in high school and graduate without knowing what the unionization tactic known as “salting” is, reflects a major failing of our schools to teach about the labor movement.

There were even fewer people on the floor of the Senate. It was just Senator Collins from Maine and Senator Lieberman from Connecticut debating something to do with port security. Then we came back to the 4-H Center and went back into our small groups. We did a simulation about what it would be like to be on the Supreme Court. That made me sure that the Judicial Branch of the government is not the one for me to go into. I’d like to go into the Legislative Branch the most. That night there was a variety show. It was cool. I forget most of the acts.

The next day we had breakfast at the National Press Club. We got to talk with a panel of four journalists. Then we went to the FDR Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial. Then we had lunch in Georgetown. It’s a nice neighborhood. We didn’t get to see the university. When I ask people where I should go to college, people who know me usually say Georgetown.

(I did in fact apply to Georgetown, but got rejected there, and instead went to the George Washington University in Foggy Bottom, which people always get confused with Georgetown. It was probably for the better that I went to GWU anyways, since the Georgetown neighborhood is filled with NIMBYs who wouldn’t and, AFAIK, still won’t let a Metro station be built near the university…)

Then we went back to the 4-H Center and broke into two groups for some debates. The one I went to was about campaign finance reform. Then we went back to our small groups. That evening we had committee hearings for the Model Congress. My group was the Government Reform Committee. I was the Democratic Chairman of the committee. We were deciding whether or not to recommend amendments to a public safety bill to the general session. We recommended all but one. We made some funny rules for the hearing, such as “all collars must be popped.” That rule would have been more effective if we were still in our professional clothes.

The next day we went to the White House, but we could only stand behind the fence and take pictures of it. Then we went to the Department of the Interior for the Model Congress general session. We passed three of the amendments. The Republicans wanted a recount on one because they thought it had been counted wrong, but it turned into a re-vote. The entire bill passed by only one vote. The amendment votes were pretty much along party lines, but the entire bill vote split the parties. Then we got to go where we wanted on the National Mall. K., L., and I went to the Air and Space Museum. I got to do a flight simulator, except instead of just sitting in it I got to control the “plane” and fire missiles and stuff. Then we went back the the 4-H Center and hung around for a while. Then we went to a hotel for the Farewell Dinner Dance. I had fun dancing, but not with anyone.

The last day we didn’t do much. [My family] picked me up and then we drove home. There was more snow waiting for us once we got back.

The next day, the first Monday back from vacation, was my 16th birthday. We had peanut butter pie. I got a GameBoy game, Magic cards, a hand-crank-powered flashlight, a rubber chicken, a paperweight, a light and a new seat-cover for my bike, and money. I used the money to buy another GameBoy game and some more Magic cards.

I’ve had two Teen Courts, a training and a hearing. I was lead prosecutor at the hearing. It’s confidential, but I can say that the jury came up with a disposition that was halfway between what I wanted and what the defense wanted.

I ran the CD player for Youth Sunday at church, which was early this year. Other Sundays since then I videoed and ran a PowerPoint over the new projection system.

Ian and I got our cholesterol tested. Mine is lower than his, which is funny because he’s skinnier than I am, but I’m happy. He must have Dad’s genes. We also went to the dermatologist to get checked for skin cancer. I had zero moles, which was less than Ian. I got my warts frozen with liquid nitrogen. It hasn’t really worked too well.

It’s spring now. It was annoying having daylight savings time start early. April Fools Day is Palm Sunday.

I think this has happened again since then, although it may also be that I’m thinking of the time Easter fell on April Fool’s Day in 2018…

It was warm for a week, then it snowed really hard one weekend and it was winter again. The snow’s pretty much melted now. I went and played Magic at the card store during the snow storm. There weren’t that many people there, but the next week I went back and played in a 2HG sealed deck tournament. My partner and I lost all three games. Although the first one we could’ve won if it hadn’t been for a really stupid play I made.

I got accepted to the SCA. I’ll be spending 4 weeks around Linville Gorge, North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

School is okay. I had a rough week a while ago. I got a detention in math. I was playing games on my calculator, and then the teacher came over and told me to stop, so I put it away and finished all my work and stuff, so then I didn’t have anything to do so I took the calculator back out and then I got a detention. She decided to cancel it, however, because I participate the most positively in class. I’ve also had trouble rolling my “r”s in Spanish class. I also got kicked out of Chemistry class. [Anecdote removed due to pun dependent on the teacher’s name, which I’m redacting to protect privacy.] I said no, but she knew anyway so she kicked me out. I missed a quiz that class. Afterwards when I went back and apologized she wouldn’t let me take it, but later she changed her mind and let me take it after all. Grades closed for the quarter Friday, so I don’t have homework this weekend. There was a fire in one of the boys’ bathrooms this week. The west building got closed down because of it.

My picture was in the Insider from when the Newspaper Club went to the Monitor.

I wish I’d saved this picture! No idea where it might be now…

There weren’t many people at the [School] Senate meeting this month. The biggest thing we talked about was underclassmen parking in the Senior Parking Lot.

Jim Gilmore was going to come to Concord High, but that never happened. Mike Huckabee was going to come, too, but he postponed his trip. Next week John Edwards and his family are coming to Concord High on Monday, and Chris Dodd is coming on Wednesday. The Presidential Candidates Club is going to be busy.

I’m kind of in the CHS Peace Club. I took part in a peace rally in front of the State House a week after the four year anniversary [of the start of the war in Iraq] which was mostly organized by our club and the Hopkinton club. It was a week after because there was that snow storm on the original date. There were barely a hundred people there. I wrote a letter to the editor in response to someone mistakenly assuming that because we were the CHS Peace Club that taxpayer money went towards the rally. My letter hasn’t made it into the paper yet.

I wish I could find what had happened to that letter; I’d forgotten about writing that one… (I mean, the published copy, that is; any copies I might still have saved on one of my hard drives don’t count)

I spend more of my time on the internet now on Wikipedia rather than mtg.com or AIM. I’m going to take a short break before starting on ROPE journals… or maybe I just won’t do them this time. I’m kind of tired of typing….

…and that’s it; after this I’m going to go back to screenshotting things for Twitter again…