Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Students enjoy Q&A with Congressmen Brian Fitzpatrick

Riley Brennan
Features and A&E Editor

Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick came to visit New Hope-Solebury High School, Tuesday, April 18. At this visit he spoke to students about Congress, and the current political climate, before opening the floor up for a Q&A session. The questions asked by students from a variety of different classes, with varying political opinions, created a great conversation, and allowed everyone present to get a better sense of their congressman. Questions ranged from his opinions on government involvement, healthcare, “career” politicians, immigration, fake news, cutting welfare programs, the internet privacy repeal, and much more.
 New Hope students enjoyed getting to hear from their representative, as well as participating in a group selfie that was later posted to his personal Instagram.
 Junior Chloe Miller was pleasantly surprised by what he had to say: “Congressman Fitzpatrick was really interesting to listen to and his stances were much more moderate than I expected. I like that he talked about how Congress should focus on the bill at hand, not who proposed it and what party it came from.”
 During the Q&A, students were able to learn more about the man representing them in Congress and his own views. He really stressed the idea of focusing on ideas and solutions rather than focusing on political parties and voting to “fit a party.” This pleased Junior Bernadette del Prado, who said: “I like that he didn’t feel the need to use labels like Democrat or Republican for everything, and that his goal was to satisfy everyone’s political ideals and not just his own party. Especially because Bucks County is very mixed, politically.”
 Bucks County happens to be very evenly split between Democratic and Republican voters, making it one of the true swing areas in the U.S.  
 Fitzpatrick’s visit was written about in the Intelligencer, where New Hope students were quoted, as well as the organizer of the event, AP Government and Non-Western World teacher at New Hope, Mr. Nord.
 Not only did Fitzpatrick’s visit further inform everyone present, but hopefully helped to inspire students who make up, or will soon be a part of, the population of young voters; whether it be to get involved in politics/political science, to vote whenever they have the opportunity, develop stances on issues facing the country and become more informed about them, become an advocate for a party, candidate, or issue, etc.