There are many actors that have portrayed the shy naïve individual that by situation and circumstance is forced into a position that reveals their true character. By personal choice or as a result of dire necessity they rise to the occasion to lead the masses on the correct path often at great personal sacrifice and consequences to themselves.  Jimmy Stewart is the actor that I remember that handled these rolls very well. He was cast as that most unlikely hero with a whimsical underdog status that evolves under pressure to a person at a crossroad of choices. One path seems easier but has the consequence of compromising his own values and principals that is the basis of his integrity and character. The other is the arduous and uncertain path that may as well end in failure and defeat but his commitment to his personal integrity stays intact.

It is not often that one gets to personally witness an individual in this capacity and even rarer to witness a collection of most unlikely heroes. Yesterday was one of those days for me. I was a member of a delegation of individuals that traveled to Austin Texas to lobby the legislators against illegal immigration. We were led by the leaders of a group I wrote about on February 9^th called Citizens for Immigration Reform. I was impressed by the organization and yesterday I became a member as well as a delegate to voice my concerns about illegal immigration. I’ll be writing my perceptions of this experience in this and subsequent articles for the next few days.

We began the day assembling at a predetermined central location to ride in a large van to Austin. The departure time was scheduled to leave @ 5.30 AM but we were delayed waiting for some last minute arrivals. The leaders of the group prepared information and an agenda of selected representatives they wanted to contact to promote support for our positions. This was passed out when the sun provided enough illumination to distinguish the written characters on the sheets. The drive for me was spent getting to know the individuals in the van. I’ll write more on each of the individuals in the next few days.

As in the movie, “Mr. Smith goes to Washington,” I was impressed with the hustle and bustle of the Capitol and the excitement of witnessing our government in action but just as unsure and apprehensive of speaking to the representatives trying to get them to consider and represent our position. We were queried in the van our experience in any lobbying efforts and from that information we were paired with the more experienced to learn the protocol. Our mentors admonished us that manners are in order when trying to persuade a representative to accept and promote our positions. They stated that most of the individuals had egos as large as the capitol dome and we should be well warned not to step on them if want any chance of successfully influencing them to our side of the debate. We were also told that our chance of actually meeting with the representative was unlikely because of their schedules in committee or on the floor in the house or senate. Our arsenal included a pamphlet explaining our position and listing the bills we wanted them to support or sign on as co-author, a business card with ways to contact our organization and a page disputing the conclusions reached by the Comptroller Carol Keeton Strayhorn by the bean counters from the organization FAIR, Federation of American Immigration Reform. We were told the pamphlet didn’t include all of the immigration bills and there were many more that we support but for the matter of compact convenience they were excluded from this document.Lastly we had a sheet of talking points to be armed with in case we were asked to debate or clarify our position.

The agenda included meetings with representatives for which we had appointments and also representatives that we would do a “stop in” and ask to leave our literature for consideration.

The closer we came to Austin the more the infamous traffic we experienced. We were well ahead of schedule until we hit the morning traffic jam. We were to meet some additional members in the cafeteria of the Capitol building and our first appointment would be at 9:30. We missed that appointment and mustered the troops to get their assignments. I was paired with Jean, the diminutive silver haired lady from the first article, to seek the representative on our assigned schedule. We spent some logistical time plotting the representatives on a map of the capitol.

Our first appointment was with Kirk England, representative of the 106^th district for Grand Prairie. Mr. England is a member of the elections committee and would be directly involved in the negotiations concerning house bill 101 relating to the procedures for registering to vote and accepting the voter at the poling place. Jean took this initial contact to present our documentation. I’ll share more on the meeting with Mr. England’s office and Jean tomorrow.