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The Mountain Times
By Marie Freeman

THIRD-GRADERS ASK THE TOUGH QUESTIONS

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx discovered recently that fielding questions from a classroom of third graders might be tougher than facing a room full of political foes.

Invited by Valle Crucis Elementary teacher Diane Wilcox to participate in “Legislators in Our Schools” month, Foxx accepted the challenge. One major reason — her number one fan and sidekick, grandson, Kenan Ozdemir — is in Wilcox’s class.

But Wilcox threw down a gauntlet for Foxx. Her challenge: 1. Speak about negotiations. 2. Explain the three branches of government and 3. Discuss the role of the constitution to the students. And, oh yeah, try to keep them entertained.

The students were well behaved. They tried very hard to grasp the Civics 101 terminology. There may have been a couple of yawns and there were definitely more than a couple of wiggles — but they paid Foxx due respect during her presentation.

Yet Foxx was not home free.

Upon concluding her speech she asked, “Do you have any questions?”

That was when the kid gloves came off.

Sweet, curly-tressed Savahnna Copeland opened the forum by asking Foxx, “Do you get free food?”

To which Foxx nodded and said “But there is no such thing as a free lunch. I often must pay for my food with the loss of my time.”

“Who is your favorite president?” Terry Yates said.

“Washington,” replied Foxx.

That’s when Ryan Loflin piped in her two cents on favorite presidents.

“Last year we visited Michelangelo where Thomas Jefferson lives. It was nice,” he said.

Things got interesting when Zeb Speir asked, “How much money do you make?”

“Oh, I was afraid that you’d ask me that question because I don’t know,” Foxx said. “I have direct deposit and I didn’t run for this job because of the money. I am definitely going to find out now so I can tell you later.”

“How hard do you work?” “How much do you read?” “Is it Washington or Washington D.C.?” were all questions bulleted towards Foxx. The seasoned politician remained calm and answered each question carefully.

Then, from some place that only Andrew Mason knows about, he asked Foxx the zinger of all philosophical questions.

“Why is there no such thing as impossible?”

For a moment, it appeared that Foxx had finally been stumped. She paused for a moment, wiggled in her seat a little; then looked directly at Mason and said, “When you put free people together to work on a problem, they will eventually solve it. There are many things in life that we haven’t figured out yet, but I have no doubt that we will. For example, do you know that we still haven’t figured out how to reproduce blood?”

“No,” said Mason.

“Oh, I know how to do that,” said a confident Shelby Hatton “All you have to do is mix ketchup and water.”

In the end, Foxx and her new friends had a pleasant visit. But as she was leaving the room I asked her if this was a tough constituency.

“You bet,” she said.

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