My 2025 A to Z Challenge theme is activism. I’ve been a Black Lives Matter activist for over a decade. I’m not an expert. I do have experience to share and I’m hoping to learn from your experiences, too. We’re all in this together.

I’ve been to my state capital, Jefferson City, twice in my life.

The first time was for a school field trip (7th grade?) when the focus was on architecture and history. The most memorable moments were the Thomas Hart Benton mural and the smell of cooked cabbage in the Governor’s Mansion (we happened to be there on St. Patrick’s Day).

The second time was last week. This visit was all about exercising my power as a Missouri citizen to talk to representatives, senators, and their staff.

Standing with two friends in the Capitol Rotunda

I have had many previous opportunities to exercise that power. Several organizations that I’m associated with hold annual Lobby Days where many people flood the halls, often in matching T-shirts. On the day I went last week, there were high school students all wearing their Future Farmers of America jackets. I don’t know if they were lobbying but they weren’t just touring — I saw groups of them around the offices of their representatives and senators.

The other major opportunity I’ve been presented was to offer testimony to committees on issues that I care about, or to be present in support of others offering testimony. Usually, those invitations arrive 24 to 48 hours in advance. One of the reasons that I went to the capital last week was to make myself more comfortable with the whole process so that I would be more willing to journey to Jefferson City on short notice.

A friend wondered if we would make a different sort of impact by showing up on a day that was not an official Lobby Day or a big committee hearing day. For one thing, no one can form an opinion of my issue until I state it, because nothing about what I’m wearing or the day that I arrived gives it away. I think that did help.

In our preparation, we discovered that it can be hard in current divided times to figure out what to talk about, even though there were some 2000 bills filed in this session. This is the same feeling that I think many of us have when we’re asked to contact elected officials. We think that we already know what their position is. Whether they agree or disagree with our position, there doesn’t seem much point in attempting to make a an argument.

That’s me on the left with my representative in Jefferson City. Fortunately, my representative holds similar positions to mine. This is his first year in the Missouri congress, so mostly we grilled him about what he’s learned so that we can understand better how to advocate in the Capitol Building.

Here’s what worked best for me. I still have connections to the small town where I grew up. So, I visited their representative and senator. I passed on concerns from my hometown friends about their hospital being among the rural hospitals that will close if Medicaid is cut. I arrived with maps made by an acquaintance that showed that nearly all of the county would be farther than 15 minutes from a hospital if this one closed. I also mined this site for financial data about the hospital in the form of charts.

So, I walked into my appointment (directly with the representative and with the senator’s chief of staff) holding three sheets of paper. I explained what the maps and graphs were about and added my concerns about Medicaid cuts. Since, at the moment, that’s mostly a federal issue, I requested that they use their influence with the US Representatives in their districts to make sure that they know how much rural hospitals depend on Medicaid. The reception was cordial. Only one seemed likely to do what I asked, but that’s something. I left the sheets of paper behind, so they had a reminder of what was discussed.

It was a good enough experience that I’d be happy to do it again.

We watched for quite a while from the rear gallery of the Missouri House of Representatives

Have you ever lobbied at your state capital or in Washington DC?