By Nicolle Conlogue – City of Manzanita
During Girls State today, each citizen was sorted into one of two different political parties at random. In order for it to be nonpartisan in regards to the classic, major political parties in the United States (Democrats and Republicans) each girl was appointed to Federalists or Nationalists.
As part of the Nationalist party in Girls State, the party delegated which types of issues would have the majority of our attention. The Nationalists were able to discuss and establish numerous issues within Arizona that we decided were the most crucial and the most impactful in the state.
Some of these issues include: raising the budget for education in order for all high school students across the state to receive a proper education, creating programs for young adults who have grown out of foster care that related to working, life skills, and paying rent, and a few other issues that we felt were influential over our decisions as Nationalists. Our main concerns mostly had to do with where the budget would be allocated within the state.
Towards the end of our party meeting, we discussed various slogans and short statements that represented us. All of the girls agreed on the slogans given in either the chatroom or when stated through the microphone. Personally, two of my favorites would be “We persist as Nationalists!” and “If you aren’t a Nat, then scat!” because they are memorable and rhyme. As of today these are not our official slogans, though most of the Nationalists enjoyed them and believed they would present us well.
Overall, the Nationalists interacted with each other smoothly and were positive when encouraging one another to state their ideas for the party, as well as gracious when they began humoring one another during their brainstorming for their slogans.