The Who, the Why, and the How

Of all people to start being more politically active I am the last person anyone suspected. That change seemed abrupt to my friends and family but it had been cooking inside me a very long time. I am an ex paratrooper with the 82^nd airborne where I was a combat meteorologist for seven years. I have watched our country change while we were all fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have watched helplessly as our politicians changed the rules of engagement over and over until we had no chance of winning. And I have watched powerlessly as the people we send to Washington to represent us stab each other in the back, lie to us, steal our money, drive up the deficit, and one by one chisel away our freedoms.

So what changed me? There were two defining events that took place in my life side by side. On September 11, 2009 I marched on Washington with the Tea Party, and on September 13, 2009 my wife and I learned we were going to have our first child. I went to Washington not so much to be an activist but to find out if the Tea Party was real or if they were the kooks the media made them out to be. While in D.C. I learned I was not at all alone in my worries over the future of our country and that they call it media bias for a reason. When I got home I knew there must be something I can do about it; but what? Then two days later after learning we were going to bring a child into this mess my need to do something became a shadow that followed me everywhere. I knew I could not change Washington outright, but I also knew I couldn’t sit back and do nothing any more.

And now we skip ahead 16 months into the present day where I find myself writing my first blog post with only the smallest inkling of an idea about what I am doing. My seven month old son gave me the idea. You see; while I may not be able to change Washington, I can instill strong morals in my son and bring him up to do the same. I can give others ideas about how they can change themselves and those around them for the better. I can change myself to be the kind of person I want in Washington. And if I and we change enough people around us we can change an entire culture. We can make sure that our next generation of leaders hold themselves accountable to their actions and words. We can make sure our next generation of leaders doesn’t just pretend to uphold the Constitution. And we can ensure our next generation of leaders knows why they are patriotic and not just how to throw patriotism around for personal gain.

And so I start with this first blog post and pray there will be many more to come and that someone might care enough to read them. Changing a country is a tall task but you’ll never get there if you don’t change yourself first. From there it’s just one person at a time.