The Untold Stories Behind the Bills

The Untold Stories Behind the Bills

By Kiernan Green – Faith Christian School

Model General Assembly is more than generic problems and solutions being recycled year after year. At MGA current problems that are unique to a community are often brought up. Behind every bill is a story and that story is important because it provides context to the problems being presented. These stories are also essential for humanizing the problem. No matter how fun MGA is, sometimes sitting in the chambers for three and a half hours can take their toll and people can grow unsympathetic. This is where the real, untold stories behind the bills are most essential.

This year Ethan Fields, a Senior returning to MGA for his second year from Castlewood High School, is bringing a bill that he believes could help better his community. His bill, Commonwealth Senate Bill No. 24, “prohibits the sale of certain lethal pesticides, such as neonicotinoid pesticides. This bill is especially important to Ethan and his community because the father of a girl in Castlewood’s Hi-Y club owns and operates a bee farm within their hometown. However, the introduction of lethal pesticides such as neonicotinoid pesticides, described in the bill as a pesticide containing “any chemical belonging to the neonicotinoid class of chemicals,” has proved harmful for farmers, florists, and beekeepers alike. If this bill were to be passed, it would positively affect their community in a great way and the fact that people’s voices can be heard and are represented is the beauty of this country.

Matthew Norton, a Senior returning to MGA for his third year from Kenston Forest School, has brought a bill so that people like his Great Grandfather can vote. Matthew went on to describe how because of certain regulations of his occupation, his Great Grandfather usually did not vote, explaining “my Great Grandfather was chief of police and he always had a hard time on election day because he had to carry around a handgun but those aren’t allowed in there,” Matthew concluded his story with, “I don’t think he voted much at all because of it.”

Molly Rhudy, a Senior returning to MGA for her third time from Chilhowie High School, talks about a bill she brought last year regarding the possible requirement of drug testing to receive welfare benefits. She describes how her small town is troubled with an opioid problem and how welfare money can feed into people’s addictions. She describes a personal experience saying, “There’s a girl I know who was about three at the time and her parents just allowed her to climb up onto the table and eat meth.” It was not a problem for the parents because they knew they would get more money from the government soon to resupply their addiction anyways. If the bill were to pass for real, it could really help the Chilhowie community cleanse itself from the drug problems it faces today. Just with three stories out of 550 students, one can begin to see behind the facade of an emotionless bill and into the complex lives of those who it could impact for the better.