Everything I Need to Know about Lobbying I Learned in Kindergarten

Photo Credit: Kentuckians for the Commonwealth

Wednesday I got home from KFTC's Economic Justice Lobby Day just in time to pick up Sophie from school. On the way home, I told her, "Sophie-dog (yep, my stepdaughter and dog have the same name, more on that another time) is going to be so excited to see us. I haven't been home all day."

Sophie(-girl), incredulous: "You finally found a job?!?" (Child, if we were cave people, you might not have survived to adulthood.)


Me, annoyed but not surprised: "No...I went to Frankfort today. Frankfort is another city in Kentucky - it's the capitol. It's where the governor, and the senators, and the representatives work - the government - the people who make the laws. I went there to talk to them about what laws I thought were good laws, and which ones I thought needed to be changed, and why."

Sophie: "Martin Luther King, Jr. changed a lot of rules. Like darker-skinned people and lighter-skinned people couldn't drink out of the same water fountains or eat at the same restaurants or go to the same schools, but now we can. I'm glad 'cause Nicki is my best friend and I would be mad if they didn't let us go to school together."

Me: "He sure did. And there were a lot of people who helped him. So that's kind of like what my friends and I did today. We went to Frankfort to try to help get rules changed so that they are fairer to everyone."


Did I just inadvertently compare myself to Dr. King? Eeep! Well, more to the members at large of the civil rights movement. And isn't fighting for fairer taxes and better schools and health care and job opportunities for lower- to middle-income families like my own really about making sure everyone is being treated fairly and has access to basic human rights? It just might be. And so maybe I didn't accidentally speak activist heresy after all. Maybe it won't be until 50 years later, but what if we're part of a bigger movement than just a handful of Kentucky citizens lobbying at the capitol?

I'm glad I'll be able to say: "Honey, I was THERE when we started to turn this thing around!"

Who knew? Everything I need to know about lobbying, I learned in kindergarten. It's that simple.