By Trevor Marzloff

Trevor Marzloff

Professor Robertson

Intro into Political Science

April 14, 2019

Political Event Blog Post

            I have always been fascinated by the world of politics, particularly in the United States. I am often hearing and learning about it on the news, reading it online and in books, and to the dismay of others I am often debating about it. I am also hoping to be a history teacher one day so politics is a very important aspect to the profession I am working toward. The one thing that I have not really done is actively been a part of politics. Other than voting every two years I have not done anything to contribute to politics or even attended a political event… until now. When I first started my Intro into Political Science Class at Georgia State University, and my Professor told us about the Blog Posts and attending a political event I was excited to see “politics in action” but also nervous because I was not sure how I would get to find a political event that I could get into. I quickly found out however, that there were tons of events in which I could attend from Panel Discussions about fake news to political and current event speakers and even political workshops. I decided to keep it local and went to a Forsyth County Town Hall meeting that took place in a nearby high school. It was attended by several key political figures in town such as state senator Greg Dolezal, Forsyth County Sheriff Ron Freeman, Board of Education Director Kristin Morrissey, State Representative Todd Jones, and U.S. Congressman Rob Woodall. They talked about a number of issues that matter to me, which made this much more interesting then I would have thought. They brought up issues involving the Georgia 400 (which I drive everyday), school safety, common sense gun control, and even talked getting rid of time change in Georgia. There were also people there that were silently protesting for a women’s right to choose with signs and people who were vocally opposing some of the speakers. Overall this whole event was very interesting and I am glad I had the opportunity to attend the event. This event made me think of the Book “On Democracy” by Robert Dahl that I had to read for my class. In “On Democracy”, Dahl talks about how an important aspect of Democracy is citizen participation. This Town Hall and other political events both local and nationally are how regular citizens can participate in politics and Democracy. Another thing he talks about are political institutions in democracy and talks about freedom of expression and access to alternative sources of information. This is why people were able to protest and disagree with the politicians at the Town Hall and why we don’t have to listen or agree with one certain news source. To conclude, this was a very eye-opening experience that allowed me to see politics and everything I have been learning about in my Political Science class at work.