The day started out early for the
CCS 9th graders. We met at school at seven o’clock and loaded the
bus for the trip. After about 2 hours, we pulled into the Capital
and un-loaded. We were greeted by a friendly tour guide and he
started us on our little journey through the magnificent building.
As we weaved in and out of halls
and went up and down staircases, we came to the Senate room. It is
very rare to be taken onto the Senate floor because you have to be
invited by the Senator. But we got lucky and bumped into Senator
Geoff Hansen right by the door of the Senate room. He took us onto
the floor and showed us the beautiful room filled with extraordinary
masterpieces and carvings. The ceiling made of 50 glass tiles each
representing a state was an amazing token to see. The Senator also
invited us to watch part of the session they were about to hold. We
left the Senate floor and walked to the other wing of the building
which was the House of Representatives wing. And as luck would have
it, we bumped into one of the representatives and were invited onto
the House of Representatives floor. This room was just as amazing and
we marveled at the extreme work that had been done. We thanked the
representative and headed back to the Senate floor to watch the
session.
The best part
was sitting in on a meeting where we could see what the people were
doing. They voted using special buttons, green for yes, and
red/orange for no. Only the representative could push the buttons,
otherwise, it would be illegal. At the same desk as the
Representative, there was usually a reporter or an assistant. If we
looked up at the ceiling, we could see all 50 state flags and right
under the Michigan one was the podium where the person in charge
would sit. It moved very fast, but it was really fun to watch. Around
the voting room, there were various paintings of governors, i.e.
Lewis Cass. The Michigan coat of arms was all over the building and
the building itself was very intricate and detailed. In the round
part of the building there were paintings of all the governors, one
was left unfinished because the person it was painted of didn’t
want it finished once he was out of office.
The trip wasn’t done after the
Capitol building. We headed to the Supreme Court to learn more on
that subject. As we entered the building, we all had to go through a
metal detector. Mr. Marshall was the only person who had to be
scanned twice. We toured a learning center and played a bunch of
interesting interactive games that we could play to learn more about
the capitol and how it worked. The trip came to a sad close when we
left the Supreme Court and headed home. Thanks to Mr. Marshall and
Mr. Maine for making the trip such an awesome and fun time!
- Alec
Cammenga and Laurie Schreur, Freshmen
