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When it comes to political awareness, Hannah McMeekin hit the ground running in 1999. She was a fifth-grader at Randolph Elementary School, and "for some reason got into the Gore-Bush race" for the U. S presidency. That wasn’t her only issue. That year, McMeekin, who now lives in Braintree, was also fascinated by the civil union debate raging throughout the state. Her mom, Becky McMeekin, says she remembers her daughter asking her young friends, out of the blue, "What do YOU think about civil unions?" The typical response: "I have no idea what you are talking about." For McMeekin, now a junior at The Sharon Academy, fifth-grade was just the beginning. In the spring of her eighth-grade year at Randolph Union High School, she served as a legislative page in the Vermont State House. Last year, she spent three weeks in the Mideast, in Jordan, on a Project Harmony exchange. And this school year, Ms. McMeekin went to Washington. From Sept. 4, 2006, through Jan. 26 of this year, the poised 16-year-old was one of 30 high-school-aged pages serving in the U. S. Senate. For those five months, McMeekin had a front-row seat—right on the Senate floor—on U.S. government in action. (Or inaction: "I got a little fed up: They could get more done than they do.") Witnessed Big Change During the last half of her stay, McMeekin witnessed the dynamics of a political sea change, as Democrats took control of both the Senate and the House following mid-term election in November. Post-election, she saw tensions on the Senate floor rise, as Republicans just voted out of office strove—without much success—to push their bills through. The Democrats’ rise to power in January meant more work for McMeekin and the other pages: "Usually, we tended to go in (to work) earlier in the day, and with the Democrats, we actually worked on Fridays," she said. McMeekin went through the rigorous and highly competitive application process to become a page in November of her sophomore year. The process is competitive in Vermont, anyway. McMeekin said she was surprised to learn that a few members of her page group were the only applicants for the job. After she got to Washington, McMeekin was promoted further, picked as one of two head pages. This happened because she volunteered to do some extra, unglamorous work, according to her dad, Charlie McMeekin. The life of a U.S. Senate page is extraordinarily intense. Every weekday, McMeekin said, it was up at 5 a.m. for breakfast, and a little time to check emails, and then to classes in the basement of the building, starting at 6:30 a.m. Senate pages are housed in Webster Hall—formerly a funeral home—close to the Capitol. That basement school wasn’t dreary: Charlie McMeekin, a teacher, described it as a state-of-the-art institution. Classes Were Tough Classes, Hannah McMeekin said, were considerably more demanding than those she was accustomed to, due to the "compression" of doing a full schedule in just two to four hours a day. After their daily uniform inspection—polyester blue blazer and pants, white shirt, and never jewelry or a flashy tie—pages set off to their stations for the day. They alternated shifts, sometimes working into the early morning hours, when on the evening shift. McMeekin drew a plum job. As a "floor page," she kept tally sheets on votes, and answered the phone, dispatching fellow pages to do the bidding of their senator bosses. On the floor, she took in speeches when they were good, and tuned them out when they were not of interest. "Lots gave the same speech over and over again," she said. But, McMeekin never passed up a chance to hear what Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia—"a legend"—had to say. And, thanks to his commanding voice, she added, "You couldn’t help but listen to Sen. Kennedy." Staffers at Sen. Leahy’s office were unfailingly friendly, she noted. McMeekin had one opportunity to speak briefly with a political hero, Sen. Barack Obama, when she brought him a pen. One highlight was attending Pres. Bush’s State of the Union Address. There, the pages had their chance to see all the political heavyweights in D.C., including the Cabinet and the Supreme Court justices. Outside of the classroom and the Capitol, life was just as intense for pages, including hours of homework, Saturday field trips, and time to wander in the city. McMeekin, the only page from a town "without a stoplight," said she fell in love with city living. Off-Hours Off-hours, pages kept up the intensity with their own political debates. McMeekin said she was shocked at the racism expressed by some of the pages. Differences were so intense, she added, that the pages eventually "agreed we couldn’t agree." She left Washington in late January with a renewed "passion for politics," and with the Iraq war, stem cell research, and gay rights as her personal top issues. McMeekin departs at the end of this week for 11 days of community service in Dominican Republic with other Sharon Academy students building composting toilets. She said she remains essentially optimistic about the political process, and hopeful that change is around the corner. The era of government by "old white men" is giving way, she feels. "I would love to see Barack Obama come in and shake things up," McMeekin said, "but I don’t know if people are ready." ____________ |
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