Meeting Congressman Mike Quigley was very exciting. Once we entered the small conference room I was so anxious to meet such an important person. After he began talking to us about his political life, I noticed how simple he was. I was actually shocked he was not wearing a suit and speaking all proper. I was so shocked because my school and I have visited Springfield and visiting the representatives was not the best experience. Mostly every representative was either too busy, not at the office, or at very "important" meetings, excuses to avoid our presence.
On the other hand, Mike Quigley is such humble and amazing person, and because of everything he has done for Illinois, I believe he is a great congressman as well.
It was such a great conversation. Even though my classmates and I were a bit shy when asking questions, he kept telling us all about experiences with president Obama, the time he visited the troops, and everything he thought and felt about politics in Chicago. What I thought was the best part about talking to Mike Quigley was when he gave us advice as to what to do without lives and our education.
After meeting with Mike Quigley, we headed over CURL where we had a brief discussion about Chicago politics and the Daley’s before having lunch with the staff. When discussing how Mayor Daley (father) became so powerful, I was shocked to hear how he had to choose between the White people and the Black people. In order to keep his campaign strong and from being re-elected, Daley has to support the white people, and keep the black people isolated from his plans and from Chicago. I thought this was unfair to the black community because they were the main race that kept re-electing Daley (father). Throughout history, we have seen Chicago at its lowest point and I do not think anything can be any worse than the Chicago fire. What I am trying to say is that nothing can get extremely bad in Chicago, as the worst has already happen. Having the Daley’s in office for such a long time has given Chicago a huge reputation, good or not it is up to the people, but they had done a great job in keeping the city together.
Even though both father and son have been corrupt, even though some people like them and some don not, the Daleys have done an amazing job in building Chicago from nothing to what it is now. Nothing is ever perfect, they both failed in certain parts of their careers as mayors, but in the end, we see Chicago as it is today.
After discussing about the Daley’s, we had lunch with current students at Loyola and the staff. This lunch was great. We had the opportunity to meet amazing people. We had the privilege to have lunch with them all, and I thought this was such a great opportunity and a very nice gesture from our teachers that planned this. What I liked the most was being able to interact with such great people. They are all working in different projects, but most of them are working on a project that deals with homelessness which I thought was very interesting.
Today was a great day. I got to meet a great man, Congressman Mike Quigley, and I had the opportunity to meet great students and staff from Loyola. Overall, today was full of surprises, great people and delicious pizza!
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