Jeff City Finished

To clarify, Green Jacket Lady's jacket looked What Not To Wear appropriate and she probably doesn't wear it everyday. Before meeting up with the bus to Jeff City, I imagined the fervor of true believers would radiate from Planned Parenthood supporters. But no, take the riders off the bus and they are ordinary people. Put them on the bus; they remain ordinary. There was no big rally in Jeff City and no demonstration signs. Inside the capitol, we were just like other groups milling the halls, including the American Civil Liberties Union, a group representing the visually impaired and lots of elementary age schoolkids. The students were shouting, snapping photos, scarfing paperbag lunches and driving their teachers crazy. The ACLU munched on boxed Bread Co. lunches. The visually impaired and my group ate in the capitol's cramped rabbit-warren cafeteria. I saw more lawmakers dining with the masses than I thought there'd be. I quickly figured out why--Tuesday is fried chicken day. Unfortunately, I wasted my time with a donut. It was 1:30 p.m.; the donut was grim. But if it had been 8 a.m. and I downed about three donuts with a cup of black coffee, I could have rammed all sorts of legislation through--another good reason I'm not among the elected. We didn't worry the lunching legislators. Some, like state Senator John Lamping, we caught in their offices. Others, we pulled off the floor of the voting chamber. Our group leader stood at the door of the chamber, handed her card to a messenger for delivery to a specific representative. Once delivered, the representative can ignore the card or leave the chamber to meet in the hall with whomever the card belongs to. We shouted at two representatives pulled off the floor. We shouted because everyone in the hall shouted. It was the only way to be heard. That brings me back to the school kids lunching in the halls. Hidden among them are our future pregnant teens. They're the ones who need to be heard in Jeff City. If a pregnant 14-year-old asked Lamping to support legislation that requires pharamacists to dispense contraceptives and schools to include comprehensive sex education in their curriculum, Lamping might find it hard to call her "anti-life." Green Jacket Lady might not have to say anything. Perhaps, as she takes her a break from doing all the talking, she could treat Lamping and the teen to a Tuesday fried chicken lunch. And instead of fighting over the wishbone, they could share it.