Jefferson City 9/12 Event

Sadly, this thing was slapped together with only two weeks to spare. I can't complain ... I didn't do any slapping of my own, and many thanks to those who did something where I did little. I thank the organizers for organizing. Thanks to Diane and Phil for all they did.

I seriously considered going to DC. I could have. I could have spent the money and it would have hurt, and I'm not sure I shouldn't have anyway. But I do have a job, and my wife had been gone for several days, and we had a chance to babysit my grandson (which I took three hours out from to go to this thankyouverymuch) and ... I know. I would have liked to be one more head in the headcount at DC. Excuses.

But I wasn't. I had to do SOMETHING. So Larry and I drove down to the Jefferson City, MO event... I would guess at least 200 people, probably no more than 300 people, showed up on the south lawn of the Missouri Capitol on a pretty evening, where we had respectfully and thankfully defer to National Guard Graduation Ceremonies in the afternoon AND compete with a Missouri football game....

It was pretty nice anyway. Like the Columbia event last spring, the people there were polite, sincere, regular Americans who know something's terribly wrong with the way the country is being run, and it ain't because there aren't enough social programs, laws, and taxes.

If you think this movement isn't grass roots, you believe it because you've been instructed to and you want to believe it. This is real grass roots. Nobody's being paid to be there. ACORN knows it. It embarrasses them. And all the other tax or Soros funded psuedo "grass roots movments". This is regular folks, plain and simple.

We had everyone there from History professors, to IT workers, to a guy who runs a small computer business who is running for office in SE Missouri. Lots of women and kids. A teacher. Retired vets. Disenfranchised Christians. Recovering Progressives. It ran the gammit.

There were a few of the "Ludens Cough Drops" crowd there. But as my friend Larry said, it goes to show that Conservatism has a pretty big tent. The principles are consistent if some of the fringe beliefs wander. Belief in the liberty and sanctity of the individual and his capacity and personal -- not public -- duty to his fellow man reigned supreme.

This lady, though ... the one with the "Stop Wasting Our Money" sign ... I really identified with. She stood and listened and occasionally applauded like we did for about an hour and a half and then left, apparently by herself. I thank her for showing up. I could easily imagine like me, she was fed up and just had to do something.

Just hold up a sign that says "stop". .... "stop" .... "stopppppp" ...

I talked to several people, who, like me, really wanted to go to DC and add a head to the head count. For whatever reasons, we couldn't. Usually having to do with employment and family obligations. So the rest of us came here.

Larry made a donation to a grassroots organization and collected a copy of "The 5000 Year Leap" ... a book I have bought but haven't yet started.

I intend to start it soon.

Sorry about the bad panoramic stitching. I left my wide angle lens at home and stitched this from three shots at a bad angle. The three shots were taken within 5 seconds. Best I could do with what I had.