My Experience on the HILL

Our experience with Heath Schuler and the office of Kay Hagan

Danielle Snider

           

Going into yesterday I was unsure what to expect. I have never been an advocate on Capitol Hill. In fact, the one and only other time I was on Capitol Hill was in seventh grade. I was probably eating candy from the national park and thinking about cute boys. I was clueless as to the power of Capitol Hill and the blessing it is to visit.  Walking into the building you immediately feel a sense of “wow, powerful things happen here”. Throughout the day I realized that yes, powerful things do happen, and yes I can make a difference and am impact on those things.

            Meeting Congressmen Schuler was a great place to start. He was very open to our conversation and feels very passionate about global health. Schuler brought up numerous points that made me sit back and think. He encouraged us to push this as a part of the “pro-life” movement. “Pro-life” is not just the nine months of pregnancy, but should continue throughout the “whole life”. Too often we forget that. These children need people to advocate for pro-life, for their life! Another touching point Representative Schuler mentioned was a comparison of his children to the pictures of a few children in Africa with malaria. I was humbled as he boldly proclaimed, “this beautiful child is no different than my sweet daughter. She deserves life as much as my daughter does. She is a child of God and we need to do everything we can to save her life.” It was fantastic to hear him proclaim that just because we live in America, it does not make us any better than those children in Africa.

            After a very positive experience with Mr. Schuler we ventured to the office of Senator Kay Hagan. We spoke with her office staff about the destruction of malaria in Africa and what they can do to help end this tragedy. They were very responsive and spoke encouragingly of how they would try to do what they can in this hard time to support Global Funding. I believe we opened their eyes when we mentioned that the 9% cut in the global health fund would cause 3.8 million people that would not get the treatment they need for malaria.

            Overall our experience on the Hill was a positive one. We were welcomed with open arms and encouraged to share our passions with others on the Hill. I am looking forward to follow-ups with both Congressman Schuler and Senator Hagan. Going into this week, I really doubted whether I could make a difference in Washington, but after two meetings I realized that my voice matters. Our voice as United Methodists matter. More importantly, our voice as followers of Christ matters and it is being heard.