“I want to know what’s the top of the line with students right now, when we talk about justice, what are they thinking about?” That was the first thing Senator Buckner-Webb had to say after we sat down in her office, prepared to interview her, when in fact she began with interviewing us.

As the Boise High Summit “And Justice for All” day gets closer and closer on the calendar, we sat down with this year’s keynote speaker, Idaho state Senator Cherie-Buckner Webb, to discuss what she plans to talk about for her keynote address.

Senator Buckner-Webb attended Boise High school back in the day, along with her two sons that recently graduated. She’s always been in touch with the Boise High community, but when she stated,“I didn’t know what the title [of the summit] was, I wrote my speech and the title was And Justice For All.”, it further showed us how she is the perfect fit for the keynote speaker this year.

Becoming a politician was never the plan for Senator Buckner-Webb, but circumstances arose, and she was best-fit for the job.“I never thought in my life- I’m gonna be a politician. I’m an impatient person. In fact, my [slogan] used to be ‘cut to the chase.’ One of the things I’ve learned is that I have had to slow my roll and really be cognizant of what’s going on around me and to hear what those things mean.”

Sitting down with Buckner-Webb, we couldn’t believe that the woman in front of us never planned to be a politician. With her fiery remarks and well-thought out ideas, Senator Buckner-Webb adds the perfect amount of spice to a group of politicians that rarely, as Buckner-Webb calls it, brings out the triple threat.

She calls herself the triple threat, in fact, stating,“I’m a triple threat. I’m a black woman of a certain age and a Democrat.”

The unlikely politician sitting before us stressed how important it truly is for students to be politically active in today’s world. Boise High students have created tremendous change in the community, from last year’s student walkout to each summit that has happened at BHS, students are making themselves and others aware of important issues in the Boise community and around the world.

Although the walkout last year didn’t exactly remove Betsy Devos from her position as Secretary of Education, Boise High students still made a change in the community that made people sit up and listen

Buckner-Webb was in awe of the actions of students last year in the walkout.

“You raised awareness, you caused people to realize that you’re politically active, that you’re knowledgeable about what’s going on, and it should make people step back and say- ‘How am I showing up?’

As a student it may seem discouraging to bring light to an issue but not see much come from it, but Senator Buckner-Webb reveals that Idaho’s leaders are listening.

“That’s what we have to understand, we have to know that your intentionality is absolutely correct…Know that the immediate response that you would like to have may not be the one that you get. Oftentimes you have to get the incremental change to get the big change.”

“You really make a difference, I want you to know that.”

If there’s one thing Senator Buckner-Webb wants to impart on Boise High students at the summit, it’s that, “I want to help them understand what their place is in the universe. To understand what justice means, what it looks like, and to realize that justice can have an ‘and both’ answer, not an ‘either-or.’ Justice appears in lots of different ways. I just want to heighten your awareness and actually, I want to learn from ya’ll.”