Editor’s note: Linda Hanney, a fellow of the Citizen Journalism Academy, co-sponsored by The World Company and Kansas University’s William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, was invited by the editors to visit the state Capitol for a day. Here is her report.

Health Care, agriculture and utilities. Just a regular Monday at the Kansas Legislature.

Admittedly, I am not a Kansas political junkie. News media and occasional casual conversations are the extent of my participation in the legislative process. I decided perhaps it was time to learn my way around, so I accepted the challenge to take a day off to watch and listen.

The Capitol itself is familiar. The dome, rotunda and renovated chambers – especially the Senate with its ornate art work – are Kansas treasures.

Eight o’clock Monday morning finds me at the lower east entrance, where a guard assesses me harmless. I locate the press room and Lawrence Journal-World’s Statehouse reporter Scott Rothschild. We pick up a Senate and House Calendar from the Document Room on the first floor. I scan the calendars of both chambers, circle the committee meetings of interest, and then fit them into the day.

Scott is off to the no-smoking debate while I attend the meeting of the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. There are at least 15 interested people waiting with me. At the stated starting time, there is an unexplained cancellation, and they quickly disperse.

I slip up a floor in time to catch the Senate Utilities Committee meeting before it is on to the House visitors area to wait for the call to order. Following opening formalities, there appears to be general disorder on the floor. I happen to sit next to a person who knows the procedures well. He informs me much of the talking is, in fact, a way of getting things done, even if the person up front is formally reading a bill or an amendment.

It is obvious from the debates that legislators spend many hours working in committees before a bill or amendment comes before the entire House. They speak persuasively either for or against, often quoting constituents in their district.

The House session spends a great deal of time discussing a bipartisan health care bill that includes a program to fund insurance for poor families, a plan that enables workers to deduct premiums, longer interim insurance in a job change and dental care for pregnant mothers. Politics are present when members point out for the record they are making compromises for the good of the entire bill and the people of the state.

Listening to the debate lets me know the state is seriously looking at this important topic.

The House works through the lunch but at members’ adjournment, I still have time to rush to the House Budget Subcommittee on Agriculture and Natural Resources. From there it is on to the formalities and business of the Senate.

My assessment is the political health of our state is good. While I feel a little impatient with the procedure, our elected officials talk and work together – and apart, but that is the process. Certainly if I feel strongly about an issue, I can speak. On the other hand, if I write or call, they listen.

Young people were present in the halls and chambers the entire day. They are there as pages and groups on tours. Their participation is encouraging for the future of Kansas as well.