Humor on the Hill

When a friend and State Representative of ours asked if the boys wanted to serve as honorary pages on the House floor, I agreed wholeheartedly.
We were permitted to park up at the Capital! It was thrilling getting to park in a guest spot up with the rest of the Representatives and Senators. The guard at the shack was very helpful and showed us which way to go. Did I mention it was pouring rain? I mean sheets of rain! We were thankful we didn't have to park far away. We entered in a side door and went past security and made our way up to the floor where the house and senate meet.
We were up in the middle of the action. There were people everywhere. While waiting on the Representatives to come up from another meeting, we met with the Sargent at Arms and he verified the boys names on the list for working that day. He showed the boys around a bit and then brought them out to the waiting area. We went up to the balcony to look around. In no time it was time for the boys to go in and get busy. The House was called to order and the Pledge of Allegience was enacted and then a prayer. It was refreshing to see that before business is conducted they went to the Lord to seek His direction.
Once the introductions were made by various Representatives and their guests we were underway. We learned that the podium under where the Speaker of the House stands is called the well. It was very interesting to listen to the various bills and to them argue the details out, and finally either amending it, or passing it. There was one Representative that tickled me the whole time. Everytime a bill or amendment would come up if the word "fee" was in there, he would raise his hand to be recognized by the speaker and ask if the word indeed meant "tax". It was awesome to see this "troublemaker" working hard for his district. One of the Representatives defined it for this fellow and for those of us observing. A tax is a raising of the general revenue while a fee is a payment for a service or authority rendered by the government. The Representative said, "either way you gotta pay." To which the crowd laughed.
The boys were sent out on the floor several times to take copies of paperwork back and forth, and Cory had to get a Rep's hearing aid some new batteries. Good stuff. After completing their time on the floor, Rep. Pitts presented the boys with some certificates from the Govenor.
We looked around the Capital some more, then took the boys to eat a special lunch at The Spaghetti Factory. After lunch we took them to the State Museum. When we were finished Brian made the comment, "That was fun, but it sure was full of a lot of history!"