On Tuesday, March 5th, Shelby Clinton and I joined Moms Demand Action on their Advocacy Day. The day has started at 5:30am with a large coffee and lots of excitement as we made our way to meet some of the moms before the drive up to Columbia. An hour later we were all in the same car discussing the craziness that had been happening politically in the last few weeks, and not soon after I was sound asleep, just to be woken up and told we had gotten to our destination. As a group we walked from the parking garage to Trinity Cathedral, where we would meet up with a large group of moms (and dads) in their red shirts. To say the least, Shelby and I were left shocked and speechless at the readiness this group had. We were all separated into groups by legislators, so we had company when approaching them. After an hour of discussing the do’s and don’ts I’d confronting legislators, we made our way to the Statehouse. Throughout the day we had switched between representatives and senators to see who we could reach first. Though most were not available at the time we had arrived, my group was able to speak with Republican Representative F. Michael “Mike” Sottile from District 112. He gave our groups, both Moms Demand Action and Lowcountry Students for Political Action, the response we had hoped for: he agreed with common sense gun control.
To say the least we were all excited and pleased with the conversation. We then made our way to my representative from District 108, Republican Rep. Lee Hewitt, and unfortunately did not receive a clear response to our question: How do you feel about Constitutional Carry in our state? When the time came, the representative seemed at loss for words and could not give us a clear response. After speaking with him, I felt a bit frustrated that the representative from my district was not able to communicate with us on a level that could have been understood. With that being said, I am hopeful that in the near future he will agree with common sense gun control that our community will benefit from. We shall see. The last person we had gone to see was Republican Representative Nancy Moore, from District 99. Though not a lot can be said from our conversation, I can, with confidence quote Benjamin Franklin when he said “an investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” Representative Mace had no knowledge of the bill regarding Constitutional Carry and instead, had given ideas of amendments to add to the bill if it reached the floor, without even knowing the extent of the bill itself. Nonetheless, our day continued and many of us were able to spark multiple conversations with a variety of legislators. From a student point of view, this experience was not only exhausting, but a sort of insight to politics. It’s a sneaky and tactic environment to say the least, but with groups like LSPA, Moms Demand Action, March for our Lives, and many others, it’s safe to say I’m more hopeful than ever before.
Before I “sign off”, I’d like to say one last thing. Moms Demand Action is a force to be reckoned with, Rep. Jonathan Hill. To end with the best of the best, Martin Luther King Jr. once said “there is power in numbers and there is power in unity” and MDA has our support, pearls or no pearls.
Best wishes,
Pamela