I think.
I could be wrong.
To tell you the truth it could have been yesterday, or the day before, or a week before that. When you are spending your whole life doing one thing it is easy to lose track of little annoyances such as time, day, sleep, food, water, and memory. It can make a week seem like a day. It can make a day seem like a week.
For about the last week and a half I, and this dude Ryan, have been helping out Move America Forward with the last planning stages of this Fight For Victory Tour.
This is the first time I've done such a thing. And now that I'm halfway through it, I find myself asking why I thought it was something one should do for the first time, or the second time, or ever!
Now don’t get me wrong, I like what we're doing here, it's totally worth it and it's absolutely rewarding. At least it will be by the conclusion of this tour when I meet all the people who come to our rallies. But also, let it be known, that they work us like dogs. DOGS.
So yes. We are used, abused, malnourished, overfed, overworked, under-slept (real word? eh, let's just say it is). But this is also some inspirational and powerful stuff we are working with. And I have just begun to understand that with our first day of actual TOURING.
So yeah. I get up at like 7 today. I'm not packed. I take a shower and try to relish it, because I know the rest of the week my showering will likely be rushed and under a deadline. Now I'm ready and start packing. Halfway through Ryan calls my cell, it’s about 7:30ish and he's downstairs in the lobby waiting.
Little punk is always on time.
By 7:45 I make it downstairs and we drive the Tahoe to the office. Ryan always drives. He's the kid so I let him drive. But he's a maniac. No offense Ryan but you know you are!
We get to the office and I set down to continue the relentless barrage of e-mail and phone call and facsimile that our responsibilities consist of. Ryan, additionally, is helping ready all the audio equipment and mobile networking for our mobile war room ( ie. the rented RV that has all the snacks in it ). So he goes to do that and I continue emailing and calling everyone I possibly can. But hey it's Sunday morning...of course...my efforts feel futile, but that’s the name of this game. For every action you take you get possibly a 1-5% return. So its a lot of effort. Not a lot of result. More and more action means you might get a little bit of result, and that’s all we're after.
Finally it's time to start moving boxes.
Cookies. Beef Jerky. Sudoku puzzles for the wounded vets to occupy time. Pins. Bumper Stickers. Little camouflage wrist bands. Bags full of fun size candy. T-shirts. T-shirts. Books..Melanie and Catherines, and Buzz's. More T-shirts.
It's crazy. Hectic. Everyone is trying to remember a million different things and we all know we're forgetting something. Finally we're ready to take off. The office looks like we abandoned it. Almost like a deep, dark, damp underground bunker filled with classified documents and the enemy is closing in. You burn everything. Nothing is left behind. That was what our office resembled.
So we are finally on the road and only an hour behind schedule. I feel accomplished. Debbie Lee is with us. A Gold Star Mom. She knows the real meaning of sacrifice, as only very few could.
The caravan charges up the 80 towards Debra Johns. With us are 2 rental trucks, an RV and a Chevy Tahoe. But they have been outfitted with awesome looking MoveAmericaForward decals.
Debra's house is really nice. Gated community and such. She is a blue star mom. Her son did 3 tours in Iraq and he's now back stateside, still active but not deployed. She has two sons at home still, but I forget their names. I can only bet that the are very proud of their brother. I know I am.
Eventually we make it to Carson City. The drive over is absolutely gorgeous. Reminds me of Montana. I can't believe I only lived there a year and it still feels like I left part of 'home' there. In some ways I did.
We meet Buzz, Melanie and Catherine at this Mexican restaurant, but the kitchen is closing and we can't get food. Everyone is starving. We eat at a bar. The waitress is cute, and she’s really friendly. We get hot wings....my favorite. I eat too much. Had a few Mexican beers. Muy Bueno.
We're on TV! Channel 2 did an interview with Melanie, Buzz, Catherine and Don Alexander...a local of Reno I think, he's been helping us organize. I will meet him tomorrow and I look forward to it a lot. He's in a suit. Professional minded. I like that.
So we're watching the TV and we're excited about our prospects for tomorrow morning. This guy notices and come up. He's had a few to drink, but he engages us in a conversation. He's not for the war, and the conversation goes like most conversations on this topic. Whether it's on Cable News between two commentators or at this bar between us and this loud guy, or in the classroom where twelve people are trying to get their views across. In any case it always happens the same way. Everyone talks over everyone else. Everyone uses the same tired lines. The message gets lost.
I get the opportunity to try and get this gentleman to calm down and listen to me. We have an actual dialogue. It lasts only a few moments but It's well worth it. A temporary oasis of sanity in a sea of 'bumper sticker slogans'.
I ask if he would come to the rally and we can talk more. He might. If he does I think I can change his mind or at least make him see the merit in our point of view. This is what it's all about. Winning the hearts and minds. Our soldiers are so good at it. I wish we could say the same. Senator Harry Reid was wrong, but maybe he was on to something. The war is not lost, but if it is to be lost, it is lost by us back home. Not by the troops. The troops are winning. The military is winning. I know what the troops are fighting for. They know it too. That’s why they're winning the war.
But we are not committed. We are not focused on the right issues. I can say this is true of both sides, but I think the left is just lost completely and hopelessly lost. They have no idea what's at stake or what it is that we're fighting for. They say it's for Oil or for President Bush or to support some advanced conglomeration of corporate interests they refer to as the 'military industrial complex'. Rubbish.
When people know what we are fighting for, what is at stake and what the conflict in Iraq really MEANS for Americans and Iraqis. Then the answer becomes clear. But the real WAR for most Americans means trying to understand this simple fact. It is tough to grasp and hard to accept.
I feel like I am the one who is losing.
But that's what this is all about. That’s what we’re all here for. That’s what I am here for. That’s what the Fight For Victory Tour is all about. Hearts. Minds. Hope. Optimism. Determination.
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