Senator Olympia Snowe Senator Olympia Snowe took the time to speak with Southport resident Wyatt Colby while he was in Washington, D.C. as a member of the National Youth Conference.

On Sunday, October 21, at 1:30 in the afternoon, I left my home on Southport Island and embarked on what would soon be one of the best experiences of my life. Where was I going? The District of Columbia. I had been nominated for a special conference, the National Youth Leadership Conference, at which I would experience government firsthand and begin to grasp the enormity of what it really is.

I went everywhere in Washington. I went to the Mall (no, not the one that you go shopping in), Georgetown and the Capitol itself. I saw the temple-like monuments and the great Potomac River. I went in the Smithsonian and Union Station. I was fully, deeply inside the heart of this great nation! When I say great, I mean truly great.

The drive to Washington was great as well. Although my father and I bypassed all of the large cities in order to make good time, I saw 700 miles of beautiful, sunny countryside, Worcester, New Haven, Bridgeport, Stamford, and I went over the Hudson River with New York City visible to the south. Fall seemed but a distant memory once we came to New Jersey. The weather could have passed for late summer by the time we reached southern Maryland. My travels outside the capital of America, however, are of little importance compared to those inside the capital.

We arrived at NYLC headquarters in Chevy Chase (right outside of Washington) around noontime on October 23 rd . After checking in with my faculty advisor, Melissa Smith, in the Ohio Room (most of the rooms there were named after the 50 states), I entered the massive lounge. It had numerous pool and foosball tables, an arcade, a gigantic television, a gift shop, and computers for getting on the Internet. Of course, I was only distracted by this for so long, because once I entered the NYLC building complex, there was no shortage of things to do.

The first thing I did after putting my luggage in room 4258 in a building called Firestone Hall was to take a tour of the area. The guide took us around all the buildings, beginning in the lounge. We exited to a small street that went by Firestone Hall and McCormic Hall, both of which were used for rooms and were not unlike dormitories. Next we walked by Kellogg Hall, which was the aptly named breakfast and dinner room, and J.C. Penny Hall, where registration took place. We circled around into a parking lot in the back and entered through another door that led into the lounge.

After all of this, I had even more to do. I was to introduce not one, but two speakers that evening. The first speaker I introduced was Mr. Leizear, who worked for George Washington University. He offered a better understanding of how to apply to and get accepted by colleges and universities. He spoke of many things, such as SAT scores and applications. Truth be told, I actually did learn more about what colleges and universities are looking for in applicants. I'm grateful that I attended this optional event.

The other speaker I introduced, the one that everyone was required to listen to, was Mr. Klein, a truly inspiriting character. Mr. Klein is one of the greatest advocates for the Jewish people. He is the National President of the Zionist Organization and is the son of two Holocaust survivors. Why was he so inspiring? He had a disorder that caused him to make random, uncontrollable sounds every moment or so; nonetheless, he got up on the stage of the Aiton Auditorium and spoke to over 300 people. Those 300+ people listened. If Mr. Klein could overcome his disorder and speak so well, then any person who has no disorder should be able to excel at speaking. This was a valuable lesson that would be important throughout the conference.

Of course, what's Washington, D.C. without a grand tour? Married only by the rainy weather, my visit to the Mall, Congressional District, and downtown made the trip seem all the more real. Dreamlike might be a better word to describe the grand monuments and buildings, however, for they were nothing less. A trip to the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials is absolutely unforgettable, with the lifelike effigies and their famous quotes carved into the marble walls as they are into the memory of this nation. If you visited them, you would feel really patriotic too. The great Washington Monument, a white obelisk stretching as tall as a skyscraper is doubly unforgettable, as are the Franklin Roosevelt and Korean War monuments. History can never be preserved in such a way as these grand temples have captured it.

History, a word that certainly pertains to the Congressional District, but does not encompass the full meaning of the imposing buildings that inhabit the heart of America. Every square inch of every building is full of pages, senators, representatives, lobbyists, security officers, and gawking tourists such as myself. A few of these crowded buildings, the Capitol, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, Union Station, and the many, many buildings that host our government agencies. I even went inside the Capitol, and sat in the seat of a congressman inside the House Chamber!

I met many important people as well. For starters, I met our representative in the House of Representatives, Tom Allen. I shook hands with him and actually had a brief conversation before he took us to a committee hearing on whether or not the United States should export mercury. Unfortunately there was a vote on a more important issue, SCHIP (the health care bill that's been on the news). Since our representative was busy doing his job, my accomplices (two other Mainers) and I left and continued on.

The next stop was the office of Senator Olympia Snowe (fear not, dial-up users, Senator Snowe is pushing for broadband access). We met, shook hands, and had a very good conversation about the internet and other technology. She didn't seem to be busy at the moment, so we stayed for a good while and even had our pictures taken with her. She was the member of Congress that I got to know the best.

Unfortunately, I did not meet Senator Susan Collins, as she had a meeting at the same time we were scheduled to meet with her. However, I'm sure that Senator Collins would have been pleased to see us if she wasn't so busy. But, congressmen and women are always busy, busy running our country, so it's rather difficult to complain.

Now, you may ask, where did I eat all this time? At McDonalds? Hardly! I did get something to drink at Starbucks twice, but otherwise I had some very original and delicious lunches in Washington. I ate at a mall (yes, the shopping kind), Union Station, Georgetown, and many other places. Everything was good, whether it was a delicious Philly cheese steak sandwich or a typical hot dog from a street-side vendor. All of the food I ate was quick, good, and not a potential health risk.

Of course, in addition to the tours and meetings with senators and representatives, I was also there to learn about the process of government. This was done through three insightful stages. First we (meaning all other students and me) did the "If I Were President" activity, designed to simulate the processes that the president and his cabinet go through during a crisis. In this case, the crisis involved China testing missiles close to Taiwan, a very sticky situation for the United States, as we are attempting to keep good relations with both. In any event, I was the commanding officer of the Pacific Fleet, responsible for informing the president of any options involving the military. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the military was unprepared at the moment, so that eliminated almost any military action. The president, huddling with his key advisors, eventually decided that we should get a U.N. force positioned just out of Chinese and Taiwanese waters in case anything happened, in the meantime placing trade embargos on China if they refused to cooperate.

Next came the simulation of the Judicial Branch, "Testing the Constitution." In this process, nine students played the justices and supreme justice and four played the attorneys (two for each side). I was an attorney on the prosecution side, so it was my responsibility to prove that it was Environmental Protection Agency's responsibility to manage greenhouse gases. Using proofs from earlier hearings at the Supreme Court and evidence from documents pertaining to the EPA, my partner and I were able to get the court to rule the EPA guilty of not doing its job. This activity required many brief speeches in response to questions given by justices as well, which I handled well enough.

The final activity was simulating the Legislative Branch. In this simulation, I was the member of a caucus, a group of representatives that wants to insert a certain amendment into the proposed bill. I was a member of Caucus A, the farthest politically left group there was. The bill was about internet use, and we, Caucus A, were responsible for making sure that the bill allowed our government to coerce other governments to provide freedom of speech through the internet and not censor parts of it. It was my responsibility to testify or the importance of our amendment before a committee, the Courts Committee. Overall, there were three committees and six testifiers. Unfortunately, our amendment seemed unpopular, because only one of the committees passed it. Even more unfortunately, it wasn't the Courts Committee that passed it.

We of Caucus A did get our revenge (which by the way, is not a leadership quality). During the final stage of the Legislative Branch simulation, every student was a representative in the House of Representatives. It was our responsibility to vote for each amendment of the bill (dubbed HR1), including those made by Caucus A. Unfortunately, we did not get enough votes to pass our amendments (sharing the belief that the other Democrats had stabbed us in the back). Since many were uncomfortable with the emerging bill already, we sent a spokesperson to suggest that perhaps everyone should vote against the bill. "If we (meaning most of the caucuses) could not get our amendments to pass, why should we let any others pass?" was the argument. The vote was taken, and the bill was "shot down." Jokingly, one of my associates entitled the whole simulation "Kill Bill, Volume HR1."

It was on Sunday, the 28 th of October that I finally left Washington, D.C. Ironically the weather was cloudy and rainy the whole time I was there, yet from Sunday on it was perfectly sunny. I had no regrets abut going to the conference. As I said, it was one of the best experiences of my life, and one of the more educational too. I didn't just learn about government, I experienced it first hand, which is the only real way to gain knowledge. If anyone reading this article EVER gets nominated for the National Youth Leadership Conference, go. You will never in your youth get closer to this nation's government than if you go to the conference that I have gone to.

I have some thanks to give as well. First, I would like to thank Mrs. Sirois for nominating me to the NYLC. Without her support and encouragement none of this would have happened. I would also like to thank my father for driving me down and pushing me to get ready beforehand. I send thanks to Jill Britton, Charlie Britton and their families for hosting me on our way down. I owe thanks to all of those at the NYLC, especially Melissa Smith, for being a great faculty advisor and source of experience. I would like to thank Senator Olympia Snowe and Representative Tom Allen for giving up some of their very important time to speak with my fellow Mainers and me. Also, I thank Senator Susan Collins for attempting to do so. After all, senators are busy people. Finally, I thank you, the community for making this all possible. Without such a strong and generous community as the Boothbay region behind me, it would have been that much more difficult for me to venture forth into the wonderful world that is Washington, D.C.