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| Courtesy of Wikipedia |
The phone rang. I jumped up... "Hello?"
In my ear, I heard, "Jarrod, how are you? It's Congressman Franks."
Wow. How many 16 year olds answer their cellphones and have a sitting United States Congressman on the other end? So cool.
I got to interview Congressman Franks on October 24th. I had been trying unsuccessfully to set up an in person interview for several months. When I saw him at Governor-Elect Doug Ducey's event in October, I made a beeline for him and told him that I was being stonewalled by his office staff as I was trying to set up a time to interview him. Imagine my surprise when the congressman wrote something on a business card, handed it to me with instructions not to give it to anyone else, and told me that it was his personal cellphone number, where I couldn't be stonewalled! He told me to call him the next day, which I did. Congressman Franks returned my call and graciously took time out of his day to make the phone interview possible.
Congressman Trent Franks is Arizona's 8th Congressional District Representative, which covers much of Maricopa County. He has been in Congress since 2003. He has time and again shown his staunch support of rights outlined in the Constitution. The National Journal labeled Franks as one of the "most conservative" members of the House. He is the chairman for the House Constitution Subcommittee, which examines pieces of legislation and reports its findings to the full committee. "It is one of the most important subcommittees in Congress because it's committed to preserving the foundation architecture of this republic," Franks stated during the interview. Typically the full Constitution Committee will assign legislation to the Constitution Subcommittee to have its constitutionality examined.
The purpose for the interview was to satisfy my homework requirements for Level 3 of the Center for Self Governance curriculum. I needed to interview an elected and a non-elected government official. As part of the Center for Self Governance curriculum, I need to become subject matter expert on an issue. My issue is the preservation of second amendment rights. I chose Franks because he spoke about that during the Western Conservative Conference. "It is not government's place to meddle and handicap law-abiding citizens - especially in an area where the Constitution has already explicitly made its case," he states under Issues on his federal congressman's webpage. "More citizens should even be encouraged to own weapons and to become more proficient in the weapons they own."
"I believe the function of government is to protect people's lives and rights," says Congressman Franks, on the purpose of government. I asked him why he identifies as a staunch supporter of the Constitution. He replied that "I believe the whole function of government, especially the American government, is to protect peoples' lives and their Constitutional rights. If we do that, it would absolutely be a paradigm shift in the right direction." Our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, define personal rights as inalienable (God given, unable to be given or taken away by people). That means the government can't decide who gets them and who doesn't. Government's only purpose is outlined in the Declaration: "To secure these rights, government was instituted among men," and it is supposed to be impartial in the protection of all people's rights.
Congressman Franks entered politics to serve. He said that his entry into politics started many years ago as a child's advocate, where he represented the interests of children caught up in the justice system. "When I was in high school and growing up, children's issues were very important to me," Franks stated. He was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives when he was 21. As a member of the Arizona Right To Life organization, he successfully campaigned heavily in favor of stricter child abuse laws. He defeated his opponent, Glen Davis, by a mere 155 votes; every vote counts.
During his tenure in the Arizona House, he served as vice-chairman for the Commerce Committee and as chairman of the House Subcommittee on Child Protection and Family Preservation. As Vice-Chair for the Commerce Committee, he dealt with legislation pertaining to Arizona's industry. Governor Evan Mecham appointed Franks as head of the Arizona Governor's Office for Children, a cabinet level post, in January of 1987. The Governor's Office for Children is a division within the Governor's Office responsible for the supervision and direction of Arizona's policies and programs affecting Arizona children. The Arizona Legislature and the Governor's Office was just the beginning for Franks' political career. He entered the federal stage when he was elected to represent the 2nd Congressional District in 2002. Since then, he has won reelection seven times. In 2010, the national census gave Arizona additional seats. Franks' district was cut up and essentially reduced to Maricopa County. However, due to the size of Maricopa County, he still retained over 90% of his constituents.
Throughout his career in politics he has been given numerous awards, including the Guardian of Seniors Rights Award from the 60 Plus Association, the Small Business Advocate Award from the Americans for Tax Reform, and the Education Freedom Coalition bestowed upon him the Friend of Education Award.
Again he demonstrated his belief in children's issues that when I asked him how he thought we can fix our country. He responded with, "If we do the right thing by our children, we will eventually be okay. If we don't, then there's no hope." I think he's right.
