USF RTWH2024 Tyler Williams

LIZARDS THICKET     Originally, we expected to meet Lindsey Grahm at Lizards Thicket for Fox and Friends with Ainsley Earhardt. However, we ended up meeting so many more interesting people. We got breakfast there, but we saw  Ainsley Earhardt walk in and start interviewing South Carolina Voters. She eventually got to our table and asked us questions. We got to be on National Television! This was a really cool experience. Sean Hannity - Right after the interview had concluded, Sean Hannity (who no one was expecting to show up) showed up and walked in the back door. Now, think what you want about Sean Hannity, he is still a very popular national news anchor. We waited in line and got to take a photo with him which was a cool experience.  Jimmy Patronis -   Probably the coolest of all of the surprises during our breakfast was that we were just happening to sit next to the Chief Financial Officer of the State of Florida. He was having breakfast with the Treasurer of South Carolina. He spok

\ BEFORE ELECTION DAY NIKKI HALEY EVENT      Before we left Charleston, we had to attend a final Nikki Haley event, this event was her final event before the primary election the next day. She spoke so confidently and wore an American flag weave crewneck. I had mentioned to some of my peers that we admired her outfits and at this point, we would speculate what she would wear to the next event. This was the most dramatic of events of all of them, as she had entrance music and was met by a huge round of applause. We were in the audience and had signs and we were  all so hyped for the election. We ended up being the most hyped people in the audience, which was surprising considering a large part of us were left-leaning and not Republicans. We once again recognized her stump speech, murmuring what her rhetoric before she said it. Something we all thought was very interesting and funny. But our hype would fade as a wave of tiredness fell over us. Many of us left the event early due to this,

CHARLESTON     We headed out early to do the about an hour drive from Columbia to Charleston, where we would go to the College of Charleston, where we would meet Knots and Regusa, the authors of one of the books we read for this class. We got the opportunity when we arrived to look at the campus, which was so well integrated into the city layout if you were to look on a map you would not be able to point out where the college was. This was a really interesting aspect of the college.     After we completed the lecture from Knots and Regusa, we all went to their dining hall, ate lunch, and were allowed about two hours to check out downtown Charleston. I was with some of my friends and we immediately knew where we wanted to go, King Street. King Street had a lot of outlets and shops for us to shop at. I ended up picking up a crewneck which I begrudgingly spent $40 on. It was worth it, as it will be something I always remember this trip with. But I couldn't help but appreciate how narr

THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATE CAPITOL     On our sixth day, we toured the South Carolina state capitol. This was such a beautiful building, having been completed in 1903. Having of course classical architecture, it still maintained southern charm and unique southern architecture on the inside of the building. We met many interesting people in this building and had the opportunity to go where the lawmakers go and be where the lawmakers work and discuss legislation and current events.     We heard from  State Reps Mike Neese and Micah Caskey, who spoke about their positions and their roles and took questions from the students. Some of these were pretty tough questions, and I felt like they did a good job of answering them. The South Carolina legislature is a Republican Super Majority, like Florida, and they expressed their frustration with what they called the crazy caucus, the extreme conservative Trump-supporting caucus of the Republican majority.    

VIVEK SPEAKS     We had an opportunity to watch Vivek speak at a local brewery near Lexington, this was something that I was excited about, despite the fact that I very much did not like him or his policies. He was being interviewed in a talk show style by a conservative talk show host in a small event room, so we were pretty close to him. The entire time it was very interesting to hear him use very interesting rhetoric, which made many people in our group very uncomfortable and we were uncomfortable with the very aggressive rhetoric.  There were some very interesting things he said in his speech. He said that Nationalism doesn't have to be a bad word and multiple times he discussed abolishing our federal law enforcement, FBI, and CIA. Trust me, I have my fair share of quarrels with both organizations for the way they handled things in the past, but never would it ever make any sense to abolish these organizations that play such an important role in stopping crime of so many kinds.

THE GOVERNORS MANSION     On the fourth day, we woke up and immediately hopped on the bus to go see the Governor's Mansion. As we entered the main gates, I was taken aback by how beautiful the building was and how well-kept the grounds appeared. Beautiful manicured lawns and ferns. A beautiful fountain complimented the front of the building. A big beautiful style portico opened up to a  black painted door. Inside this door, was a beautiful grand staircase leading up to the residence section of the mansion, we could only be on the bottom floor but we ended up meeting Mack, the first dog! Which was really exciting and he followed us around while we  toured the mansion. The walls in the state dining room were a beautiful satin blue fabric embroidered with the state tree which is on their flag, the palmetto. We learned more about the history of this building, which was originally a military academy. The entire place was such a beautiful historical building and so interesting.