A pair of Triad seniors, one from Salem Academy and the other from Ledford High School in Thomasville, will serve as co-speakers of the House this March when young people across the state convene their version of North Carolina's General Assembly.
They'll control the flow of debate, send bills to committees and gavel down rogue mock legislators when they get out of line. Angelica Mack and Joshua Llodrat have risen to the top of the Youth Legislative Assembly, a state program that brings a couple hundred politically minded high school students to Raleigh each year for a weekend of debate.
"I hope to gain more experience … just to come out a better and well-rounded person," said Mack, a 17-year-old at Salem Academy.
Mack will be the calm, conservative yin to Llodrat's boisterous left-wing yang of a self-described "big-government liberal Democrat" who wants to be a U.S. senator someday.
A U.S. senator from New York, that is.
"I love North Carolina, but honestly, being elected here isn't very favorable to me," Llodrat said.
Bills the youth assembly passes may offer a window into the political mindset of North Carolina high schoolers. And debate on a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, on the ballot in real life this May, may be the biggest bill on the youth assembly's docket.
The youth version would ban same-sex marriage, but if it passes there would be another vote in five or 10 years to dissolve or reapprove the ban, Llodrat said. If the ban doesn't pass, that would trigger a statewide vote to allow same-sex marriage and protect it in the state constitution, he said.
The issue divides the two speakers. Llodrat said he supports legalizing same-sex marriage, Mack said she can't support it.
"Religious reasons," she said. "There will definitely be some debate about that."
Both students have been involved in the assembly for several years, serving as delegates and committee chairs. Llodrat called Mack "one of the most soft-spoken and eloquent people" he has ever met and said he has "never seen her butt heads with anyone."
In that, they differ. It took little prompting for Llodrat to offer his opinion of North Carolina's current political leaders. He said the legislature's Republican majority wants only to "cut, cut, cut," sacrificing education funding in the state budget.
Gov. Bev Perdue approved her own education cuts before Republicans even came to power, which Llodrat labeled "despicable." The rest of the Democrats in Raleigh? Lazy, he said.
Beyond the same-sex marriage issue, the youth assembly will take up several other controversial issues, the co-speakers said. One would OK the use of hemp in manufacturing and may include a clause legalizing medicinal marijuana, Mack said. Another would make assisted suicide legal.
Debating controversial issues will push participants to think and debate, Llodrat said. Mack said she expects them to do so with an air of civility.
"You may not agree with it, but just be respectful and knowledgeable about it and give other people a chance to explain," she said. "Take into consideration everything, not just your ideas, but others, as well.
"Like when you were in elementary school and your teachers would say, 'Treat others like you would want to be treated,' " she said. "It's kind of the same concept."
Karl Sjolund, headmaster at Salem Academy, said that Mack speaks when she has something to say, but not just to hear herself talk.
"She's a quiet leader in some ways, but she's going to be solid as a rock," Sjolund said. "She will stand tall."
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