Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska

Wanda's Diary Entries

Monday, October 17, 2005

North Carolina Senator Richard Burr paid a last-minute visit to Henry’s school a week ago today. I knew about the visit at the end of the previous week due to an email sent out to parents asking us to dress our children in either red, white and blue clothing or scout uniforms for the surprise Monday visit. Anyhow, because of the last minute nature of the visit, there wasn’t much community turnout for the event. However, Ann Vaughn and I
attended and sat on bleachers at the back with a small group of community leaders, including the mayor, several city and county commissioners.

Richard Burr came down from the podium to speak to the schoolchildren, who were in grades three through five. He did a masterful job of relating to them, speaking—at their level—about how government works. He divided the children into members of the House and Senate and walked them through the process of how a bill gets passed and ultimately signed. The theoretical bill S-1—sponsoring free ice cream to all schoolchildren on Thursdays—was amended, vetoed, modified and ultimately passed. Then was time for questions. It was obvious that Senator Burr had captured the children’s imagination and trust.

Hands flew up and everyone had a question. He must have answered 25 questions and had to leave twice as many unanswered. Henry never saw me but I watched his hand—flaring up, demanding to be called on. The senator was standing right in front of Henry and finally he called on him. “What are your hobbies?” Henry asked. “Golf and hunting,” Burr responded. Another child asked, “what’s the best part about your job?” “Coming to speak to schools,” he said.

When I picked up Henry at the end of the day, he described Sentaor Burr as “nice” and announced he wanted to be a United States Senator, President and ultimately a Supreme Court justice, in that order. The Supreme Court job he would take, he said, “in my old age.”