Late last night, The Much Younger Trophy Wife and I drug ourselves in from our weekend at The Conservative Leadership Conference in Reno, NV. It was an incredible time both personally and professionally. We made new friends, experienced new things, learned new information and are already excited about next year!
Beyond the new and exciting, underlying it all, was that I came away with from the conference renewed in my conviction that what is most important of all is the people! It sounds hokey, I know, but so be it. Many of us start out our blogging careers because we want to say what we want to say. Hopefully, we move beyond that selfish place, sooner or later, to a place of service where we blog because those around us have a need for the things we write about.
Caught up in the demand and the tyranny of the urgent it’s easy to forget. Being with so many people this weekend, the vast majority of whom have spent years serving their fellow travelers, reminded me of that point. Allow me to say thank you to them for doing so.
(L to R) Ed Morrissey, Duncan Hunter, Andrea Shea-King, The Muse, The Much Younger Trophy Wife
And so - to Mitt Romney, Duncan Hunter, Wayne Allen Root and Alan Keyes …
To an incredible group of bloggers - Ed Morrissey, CLC’s Blogger of the Year, at Captain’s Quarters, Warner Todd Huston at Publius’ Forum, Andrea Shea-King at The Radio Patriot, Doug Bandow, Eric Odom, Chuck Muth at Muth’s Truths, Richard Disney, Joe Enge at EdWatch Nevada, Jenn Sierra at Ft. Hard Knox, Adam Graham at Adam’s Blog and Joe Eiben …
To an outstanding group of activists, some famous and others laboring behind the scenes - Grover Norquist at Americans for Tax Reform, Paul Jacob of Citizens in Charge, Gary Schneider of The New Media Alliance, Scott Cleland of Net Competition, all the great folks from The Sam Adams Alliance, Israel Teitelbaum of Parents for Free Choice in Education, Amanda Hydro of Reason Foundation, Richard Viguerie of ConservativeHQ, John McJunkin of Avalon Podcasting and Chris Simcox of Minutemen Civil Defense Corps …
To public servants past and present such as Congressman Dick Armey, Congressman John Shadegg, Governor Mark Sanford, Congressman Bob Barr, Congressman Dean Heller and Congressman J. D. Hayworth …
To the folks I met with and without websites - Charles, Mark, Sean, Rowan, Randi, Paul, Ken, Marlene, James, Rick and the staffers and volunteers for so many of these people and groups …
To all of these and more - thank you for your years of service, thank you for your thankless labor, thank you for your unwavering courage and integrity, thank you for your character and perserverance, thank you for taking time from your family and lives to enrich mine, thank you for your offers to teach, to befriend, to serve, to enlighten, to encourage, to welcome, to lead, to sacrifice, to support and, most importantly to never surrender.
Not only did you inspire us all these last few days, but you reminded me that it is not just this man or that - no one individual - that accomplishes the goal of protecting and defending our Constitution, our country, our values and our way of life. Rather it is all of us, rich and poor, famous and anonymous, young and old, veteran and rookie - men and women from all walks of life and across the entire spectrum of abilities, interests and experience - it is We The People - together - who make up this fantastic experiment in governance which we call The United States of America. I am honored and privileged beyond knowing to have walked with you and have come away refreshed and renewed.
Understanding, at last, how the whole really can be greater than the sum of its parts …
Blue Collar Muse
Popularity: 24% [?]
Entries (RSS)