"Oh the places you'll go . . ."

Campaign season is almost over; which means it is in full swing, using a full-court press, making a goal-line stand. Candidates are giving their final push into the larger voting markets while making bigger and better promises. Campaign offices have the lights on later and later as they attempt to persuade the names in their phone banks and hit the addresses in select neighborhoods. Volunteer staff eyes are red and burning, heads are aching, and feet are throbbing. So I ask, "What's the point . . .?"

This past Saturday, my wife and I arrived at the local GOP headquarters at 7:45 a.m. We had breakfast and then jumped in a truck with an older couple to canvass the area with literature. We knocked on 79 doors in state-university neighboring areas. A progressive area; a low-income, rental property area; and an educated area. We saw a number of different types of people. We interfaced with as many ideologies as we saw people. We were surprised with the stratified support.

Even for an attorney with nerves of steel never at a loss of words, there is a discomfort that comes with knocking on someone's door at nine in the morning to remind them to vote for my party member. Even in the Red State we live in, we were in a remarkably blue neighborhood. This added to the discomfort. Then there was the self proclaiming unable-to-vote-convicted-felon. This too added to the discomfort. Then there was the 3.4 mile walk to hit the doors in a logical order. The discomfort continued to mount. I become acutely aware of my tiring, stiffening legs. More discomfort . . .

Back at the ranch, we decide to get to calling the phone bank calling list. On the other end of every other call awaits an uninvited berating. Then the hang ups. This job is not for the sensitive or emotional. The cold and stoic win.

What a way to spend a half-day! If I would have known what my wife and I were in for . . . I would do it again every single time. Why? Not because I'm a masochist. Not because I'm a self loathing martyr. It is because I care about the current and future state of our culture and society. Because I will not stand idly by and watch our county be given over to traitors and terrorists. Because I will not complain about the poor choice of candidacy after the election without doing all I can to provide a better choice for candidacy before the election.

We are all subject to the same duty: the duty to keep freedom in America. There is only one way to keep freedom. By fighting for it. Whether by proactive campaign measures or on the front lines of battle, it will be fought for. Let's ask former President Ronald Reagan what he thinks and let him wrap us up.

LION HEARTED: "Mr. Reagan, how can we keep freedom and why it is important to do so now?
MR. REAGAN: "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."