On Wed. Oct. 21, McIntosh students Elijah Smith, Libbie Larsen, Kennedi Malone, Tylese Rideout, Lydia Golley, and Harrison Baro organized the State House 72 Roundtable at the Kedron Fieldhouse in Peachtree City, Georgia at 7 p.m. via Facebook Live. This event has also been recorded and can be found on Youtube on the Youtube channel GA State House 72 Debate which was filmed and streamed via Facebook Live by Elijah Smith. Questions from the community were asked by Libbie Larsen, Kennedi Malone, Tylese Rideout, Lydia Golley, and Harrison Baro who served as moderators for the event to conduct an open discussion between Georgia State House district 72 candidates Josh Bonner and Fred Rovner. Each candidate was given two minutes to answer each question along with one additional minute to conduct an open discussion, and six questions were given to each of the candidates and five questions from the community were given to the candidates. The questions that were given to each candidate ranged from whether the HOPE scholarship should be merit or needs-based to how to deal with future population growth in terms of public transit.
The State House 72 Roundtable was organized by Elijah Smith, Libbie Larsen, Kennedi Malone, Tylese Rideout, Lydia Golley, and Harrison Baro on Sept. 12. While planning they had to consider the venue of this event, the audio and visual equipment that would be used to record this event, and the availability of the candidates.
“All the planning for this event was extremely worth it because it was extremely rewarding to meet local politicians and discuss with them the issues that face our community,” said Baro.
The purpose of this event was to inform Georgia district 72 voters about the candidates who were running to become the Georgia State House district 72 representative along with where the candidates stand on certain issues that were given to them based on the questions that were given to them by the moderators. The organizers of this event thought that it was necessary for them to use their leadership positions that they hold at McIntosh High School to prompt more civic engagement in local politics. The leadership positions held by the organizers of this event are Elijah Smith who is the sports and multimedia editor for the McIntosh Trail, Lydia Golley who is the co-president of McIntosh’s Black Student Union, Tylese Rideout who is the co-founder of #STAYCONSCIOUSMEDIA and Stay Conscious Club, Harrison Baro who is the vice president of We the People, Kennedi Malone who is the co-founder of #STAYCONSCIOUSMEDIA and Stay Conscious Club, Amy Kim who is the president of the Korean American Student Association, and Libbie Larsen who is the president of the McIntosh Debate Team.
“I believe that it is important that the youth has a voice in politics because present day politics influences how we will live in the future,” said Rideout. “We must stay engaged in order to influence the decisions that will affect the foreseeable future and potentially for the rest of our lives.”
This event not only helped to inform the Georgia district 72 voters about the candidates who were running to become the Georgia State House district 72 representative along with where the candidates stand on certain issues that were given to them based on the questions that were given to them by the moderators, but the organizers of this event were also able to gain knowledge about local politics. The organizers of this event were able to put their leadership skills to use while planning this event and reaching out to community leaders.
“From organizing this event, I realized that being able to interact with community leaders in a more personal way really helps me feel involved and heard,” said Malone.