Lets Speak Politics

Hayley Reynolds
UWRT 1103
Literacy Narrative
Everyone had to become literate in English, reading, writing, and speaking.
Sometimes people continue on to other topics and become literate in them. Well my
biggest pet-peeve is when someone tries to argue politics with me and they are as
illiterate in the topic as they come... Why? Because I am on my journey to becoming
fluent in the language of politics.
One time were the phone rang at my house and I answered just like any curious
eight year old would. On the other end of the line was a perky man who asked if my
parents were home, and I quickly replied with yes they are, can I ask whos calling. The
perky old man replied with I am a volunteer at the GOP. I ran and yelled at my mom
from across the house there is some happy man calling from a place called the GOP.
After my mom got off the phone once again I was being very noisy and asked her what
does he want? My mom then explained to me that he was asking people who they are
voting for. Out of my mouth trampled questions like a heard of elephants. I asked what
GOP stood for, and I was answered with the phrase the grand old party which in other
words meant the Republican Party. I couldnt stop the words well who are you going to
vote for? from coming out of my mouth. With that question, my life changed. Yes that
may sound like a clich, but after my mom told me President Bush I never stopped filling
her ears with questions and talk about what I now know as politics. At the age of eight I
decided that since my mom was a Republican I was going to be one too, and plus an
elephant was a wicked mascot!

Lets Speak Politics

Hayley Reynolds
UWRT 1103
Literacy Narrative
With my father being in the military most of my life, the news came before my
cartoons and thats where it all started. The first political concept I mastered was the
president, who by definition is the elected head of a republican state. I was eight at the
time, and to be the person in charge of the good ole U.S of A. was a big deal. These
people who wanted to be the next president were all over Fox News. Which is a source I
learned a lot about politics. I later learned that the reason my parents watched this
channel was because it was a republican channel. This is how the term vote became a
part of my vocabulary. I learned that the people got to choose their president, but when I
asked my mom how I could vote her face got red and she let out a quite laugh. Thats
when she told me I couldnt vote because I wasnt old enough and as an eight year old
who thought she was politically savvy already, that didnt go over too well. She told me
Id have to wait until I am eighteen to vote, and since I couldnt vote now by golly I
wanted people to vote for George W. Bush. As I look back Im not sure what my
fascination with him was, but Im glad I was so fascinated. I went and asked local
storeowners who are you going to vote for just like that happy old man. I wanted to be
like the GOP, and if they said Bush I then planted a big shiny, blue Bush and Chenny
04 sign in their window for the world to see.
My enthusiasm did stop there. I think I fell deeper in love with politics when I
took civics and economics my sophomore year. In this class I learned the meaning behind
my good ole elephant, and what it stood for. Most Republicans support human life
amendment; oppose abortion and any funding towards it and also the advancement of

Lets Speak Politics

Hayley Reynolds
UWRT 1103
Literacy Narrative
women in the military. We believe that Americans have the right to bear arms, and the
right to buy and store ammunition without having registration. My favorite aspect of the
Republican platform is their stance on national defense. They prefer military action to
diplomacy, and believe that nations who support terrorism are just as guilty as those who
spread terrorism.
During the year 2012 another presidential election took place, and during the
campaigning season I volunteered at the GOP in Wilmington. I canvased, which is a
political term for tolling how people are going to vote. I made phone calls to people like
that perky old man who called my house when I was eight. I really felt like working on
campaigns could be something I do for a career in my future. Careers in the political
world are something I made myself aware of from then on, because I know politics is
what I wanted to work in but Im still not certain exactly what I want to do. There is the
CIA, which is the Central Intelligence Agency who works on things such as gather
information on terrorist activity and nuclear weapons. They can be said to be the boss of
national security. Another department is the FBI, which worked more inside the country
with things such as terrorism, white-collar crimes, civil rights like human trafficking, and
other things such as bank robberies. Anything that goes on in the United States, trust me
they know about it. I learned about these agencies on my own, by looking them up and
researching them on their websites.
I figured out that to become fluent in the political realm the best thing I could do
was become fluent in Arabic. My sophomore year I took Arabic I and Arabic II, which

Lets Speak Politics

Hayley Reynolds
UWRT 1103
Literacy Narrative
was a lot easier than learning French to me. It was a whole different experience, it was
nothing like the English language at all, and when I speak it sometimes I am afraid that I
was going to spit when on the people near by. Sadly to say I am far from fluent; I can
read it and write it but understanding it is a lot harder than it seems. I started out with the
alphabet, and then I went on to learning how to create words. In Arabic you read right to
left, and sometimes when a word has an adjective it goes in an odd place. There are
feminine and masculine words, and learning how to say and what not to say was scary,
because you never want to unknowingly offend someone with a different culture.
After all my experiences, learning about presidencies I wanted to further my
knowledge. I am a Political Science major, and in college the curriculum contains
anything from the constitution to the way countries governments around the world work
together. The first political science class I took was American politics here at UNCC, and
I learned about the government here in the United States. I can tell people how the court
systems work, how bills get vetoed, and about the campaign process. So when my
roommate tries to argue politics, I can gladly pull out my test book and prove her wrong.
Just like the time she tried to argue with me saying that there should caps on the amount
of money individuals can donate to political campaigns. With being political literate I was
able to prove her wrong and tell her that the McCain-Feingold act put restrictions on paid
advertising during prior to political elections, and regulated the amount of money that
political parties and that could be accept from donors. No donor can donate more than
$1,000 to any candidate, and they cant donate more than $5,000 to a PAC, and no more

Lets Speak Politics

Hayley Reynolds
UWRT 1103
Literacy Narrative
$20,000 to any political party. Being able to prove people with facts, and know what Im
talking about really feels good.
I am a republican girl, just trying to make my way in the political world I may not
be able to speak Arabic fluently, but one day Ill be able speak the language and argue
politics with the next big wig. One day I will know what Im talking about and eventually
use my voice to make a difference in the world.