Washington State Submission by Rachel Leavitt-Baron

Coming from Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham, and everywhere in between, there are seven delegates representing Washington this year. We have proposals ranging from ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, instituting the Department of Peace and Nonviolence, requiring all public high school students to take one class in world religion as well as four more excellent controversial ideas. On June 25, the seven very excited Washington delegates, two advisors and two children took a six hour plane ride from Seattle/Tacoma to Nashville for our pre-trip. Hanging out with the Tennessee delegation was fun and essential to make sure we were comfortable around each other. We visited many monuments in Nashville such as the capitol, Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage and the ever so controversial (in our delegation) Parthenon. Finally, the anticipation was over and we started our six hour drive from Nashville, Tennessee to Black Mountain, North Carolina. This year we have four delegates returning to CONA who are very excited to get back to the mountain and see old friends and three new delegates who will hopefully soon discover exactly what the Blue Ridge Spirit is.