UPF & CARP bring the spirit of family to the Capital
Left to Right: Akira Watanabe (Director of CARP ls Vegas), Ilya Hack (CARP Las Vegas Media director), Marcus O Fuller Jr (CARP Las Vegas Band Director), Leslie Rigney (UPF Las Vegas President)
UPF (Universal Peace Federation) and CARP Las Vegas teamed up to establish relationships and communication with state legislators. The team was headed by Leslie Rigney, the local UPF President and Akira Watanabe, the local CARP Director. In addition were two young CARP members: CARP media director, Ilya Hack, and a political science graduate and CARP Band director, Marcus Fuller. They set out to converse with legislators about the upcoming April 13th Campus Talk event.
These four set out Thursday at noon and ran into some difficulties on the road and safely arrived in Reno at eleven in the evening. The next morning they drove to Carson City to meet and network with the legislators. The purpose of the visit from the UPF and CARP team was to find like minded legislators who believe in the importance of building intact families to better impact our society. A coalition could then be built within the Nevada government to bring further awareness and action to the issue of family breakdown. The focus that was brought forth was how human trafficking/prostitution was a big issue in Nevada and how this sexualized culture affects marriages and families and how diminishing those factors and as well as having sexual integrity solves this issue.
Once inside, UPF and CARP were able to setup a booth near the entrance and immediately began attracting attention from people who were walking by. Marcus played guitar and sang christian hymns with Ilya, gaining the ear and approval of many faithful assemblymen and senators on their way in and out of the building. Assemblyman John C. Ellison even played a song himself with Marcus’ guitar. An intern from Las Vegas also played along, strumming his ukulele to Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours”. Though some passersby disagreed with the importance of family values, most were quite excited to have met UPF and CARP.
Seeing the strong support of the legislators, Akira and Leslie suggested that the team research the various bills being put forth in the session. From this the team learned that many legislators were fighting the battle for family values and sexual integrity in their own way.
Left to right: Akira Watanabe, Assemblyman Chris Edwards, Leslie Rigney, and Marcus O. Fuller Jr.
Chris Edwards, a senator and longtime supporter of UPF and friend of Leslie Rigney expressed his frustration with the slow bureaucratic legislative process, but also expressed his hopes for the success of Campus Talk as well as future UPF events. Senators, Assemblymen, secretaries, and staff alike were inspired by the passion and determination of the team, who went door to door meeting with them. UPF and CARP look forward to collaborating further in the future.
Another senator who champions virtues even agreed to attend the April 13th Campus Talk in order to support the noble cause, and plans to bring his family.