Spent this morning at the capital, attempting to talk to my legislators (one wasn't at her desk, the other was speaking, wonderfully, from the well, against the stupid voter ID bill that most likely passed today (haven't had the heart to look up the results or even if they finally got around to voting)). Was a weird mix of feeling freakishly empowered and frustrated. On the one hand, it's awesome that just about whenever I want, I can cruise into the capital and track down my senator and representative and bend their ear (or a staffer's ear or drop off propaganda) regarding my own pet issues. On the other hand, it's really only useful to limit such comments to specific bills either sponsored by my legislators or being voted on by them in the near future...so while it was cool today to tell people that I am against the voter ID bill, that I think the parenting time adjustment should be deleted from the new child support guidelines, that I am in favor of allocating an additional $700,000 to women's health and domestic violence issues because currently 49 counties in GA have zero rape crisis centers and a shortage of nurses trained in post-assault examinations, and that the MARTOC committee needs to get off its collective asses and vote on two senate bills related to funding for public transportation...it really brought home why progress happens at such glacial speed. But, on yet the other hand, my senator's aide got really excited when she found out I went to Emory and asked me to try and put her in touch with scientists doing stem cell research so she could ask them for input on a new bill the senator is working on, and 6 hours later I already found four people anxious to talk to her and the senator. That was pretty damn cool.