8-year-old follows Tenn. lawmaker around Capitol until he drops welfare bill
A Tennessee lawmaker has relented and agreed to drop his bill linking academic performance to the family’s welfare benefits after an 8-year-old girl shamed him by following him around the state Capitol.
On his way to vote on Thursday, state Sen. Stacey Campfield ® was confronted by 8-year-old homeschooler Aamira Fetuga, who presented him with a petition signed by people opposing his welfare bill, according to the Tennessean. Nearby, a choir of about 60 activists sang “Jesus Loves the Little Children.”
“You are so weak, to not listen to a child,” a parent said as Campfield walked away with the girl following.
“Why do you want to cut benefits for people?” 8-year-old Fetuga asked after she caught up with him on a Capitol escalator.
“Well, I wouldn’t as long as the parent shows up to school and goes to two parent-teacher conferences and they’re exempt,” the state Senator explained.
The confrontation continued during what appeared to be long, uncomfortable walk to the Senate floor for Campfield.
“Using children as props is shameful,” he grumbled at one point.
But the protest tactics may have worked because Campfield decided to withdraw the bill before Thursday’s vote after several other former supporters began to express doubts.
“You can say that withholding the money from the parents doesn’t harm the child, but you’re fooling yourself,” Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris ® pointed out.
Under Campfield’s bill, families could have lost up to 30 percent of welfare benefits from the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program if a child did not attend school regularly and make “satisfactory academic progress.”
Campfield, however, said he was not giving up on the idea. He asked the state Senate to further study the bill, giving him the opportunity to bring it back up next year.
“To me, it’s not a dead issue at all,” he told reporters. “This may be a slight detour, but honestly I think this could hopefully make it even better.”
As for the protests, Campfield remarked, “It is what it is.”
“There’s always going to be detractors.”
Image: Short light-brown-skinned person with braided long black hair wearing red shirt and black pants frowns and walks through an office, surrounded by many people, including a news reporter.
This blog supports the revolutionary spirit of the youth. Never underestimate your power or impact. You will eventually inherit the earth, so why not work all you can to make it better until that happens? Shame the Man, the white cis* het male able neurotypical capitalist patriarchy, and never feel ashamed about being materially disadvantaged in relation to the Man—he didn’t earn it.
“Using children as props is shameful,” says the man who wants to pass a bill punishing impoverished children for poor performance in already failing school systems and therefore causing the children to be the source of blame when their families get even poorer.
Tell me, what’s shameful here? A bill that attacks poor children, or one of the children it will affect playing part in the protest?
where does he get off assuming that this kid is a “prop” who doesn’t understand the relatively simple concept that this bill is ridiculous and evil? like, who says this kid doesn’t understand what’s happening here?
Stacey Campfield continues to be pure spite distilled in a lab for maximum awful, and Aamira Fetuga is a better politician at 8 than he could ever hope to be, I mean this.
When is she running for office and where do I have to move to vote for her?
Ill move to whatever state she is in charge of when she’s older
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