CPAC 2010 - My Story

6:15 – Sparta , NJ (my in-laws’ house) – Shower in the world’s worst shower. Don’t even wash my hair – it would take three weeks to rinse the soap out. Since my haircut on Tuesday my ‘doo can survive a night’s sleep.

7:45 – We’re on the road. After an intense discussion involving several maps, a laptop and a GPS system larry has chosen his route to the den of iniquity, the whore house of all whore houses, Washington D.C. We’re driving the back roads of NJ but I know we’re on the right road because we turned left at a sign that read “The Land of Make Believe,” then drove through a town called “Hope.” I’m sure “Change” is just around the bend.

1 p.m. – Washington D.C. – Smooth drive and we’re here with an hour to spare. We pull up to our hotel, the Omni Shoreham, which was part of the Campaign for Liberty package. Nice place. Much too nice for a couple of country bumpkins like us. We don’t know how to use the valet service – we’re chain motel people. We settle into our room but I’m anxious for our bags to arrive since my leather jacket is among them and I realize I can’t wear my ski jacket over to the convention without looking like the dorky Vermonter I am. Turns out I really don’t have the wardrobe for this life I’m trying to live. Finally I give up on the jacket because I’m supposed to be at the convention for my volunteer training. I see our valet cart next to the front door as i leave – I guess we were supposed to give him our room number (yeah, that makes sense). I grab my jacket and give him the room number. I’ll get this hang of this some day.

2:05 – I’m at the C4L exhibition table getting my conference pass and asking about the training. They haven’t even started yet – in fact, it will be another twenty minutes before they do start, and then it’s just a matter of “Here, take these flyers and hand them out to people as they come in.” I can handle that. In the meantime I go cast my vote in the straw poll. One more for Ron Paul!

2:40 – We’re handing out flyers advertising tonight’s “Liberty Forum” with Ron Raul and Judge Andrew Napolitano. The girl I replace at the top of the escalator warns me – “If they say ‘no’ real mean-like it means they hate Ron Paul.” Okay. I meet a few of these people but also a number who take an interest. One young man passes me wearing a red shirt with the word “Capitalism” spelled out like the Coke logo. I admire his shirt and he stops to talk. Turns out he is from New Hampshire and we discuss the Free State movement. One of my fellow C4L volunteers, a high school kid from Connecticut, comes over to join the discussion. This kid is the most enthusiastic worker of our group. I wish I saw more of his passion in other teenagers, especially my own.

Most of the conference attendees have already received the flyer we’re trying to give out and I feel like a pest. . My team leader, Jonathan, recognizes this and says we can quit after we’ve finished our stack. I take him up on this and take off. Charlie, my young friend from Connecticut, however, is still enthusiastically handing out flyers, brochures and dvds. Great kid.

I head toward the exhibition hall for a look around and run into Steven Vasquez. This is amazing because there are thousands of people here and we’re not even at a C4L event. I ask if he has dinner plans and since he doesn’t invite him to eat with Larry, Elizabeth and me. Then I head back to our hotel room to regroup for tonight.

5:00 – Early dinner to beat the rush and since all we’ve had to eat since breakfast are fruit and snack mix. Now we’re looking forward to good Italian food at Café Paradiso. I’ve called and texted Steve Vasquez but haven’t been able to reach him so it’s just the three of us.
Dinner is expensive and mediocre. Elizabeth doesn’t care for her four-cheese fettuccine, which is heavy on bleu cheese, not a favorite of hers. My fettuccine with grilled chicken, artichokes, basil and tomatoes looks better than it tastes, which is kind of bland. Doesn’t even compare to a similar dish I had in Bennington when Larry and I went out for our anniversary. Sigh - there’s no place like home.
We head over to the convention and finally I get to walk around the exhibition hall, though it has emptied out considerably. Elizabeth is gathering candy, I’m picking up literature and bumper stickers. A friendly guy waves his sticker at me – it says “Recycle a Liberal” and I laugh and take one. I tell him I this is more apropos than he realizes because I’m from Vermont. At that his partner in the booth shoves a few more at me. Larry is anxious to put one on our ’85 Audi, where it will have the most credibility.
The best exhibit is put on by the NRA. It’s a lazar gun target shooting booth and finally we see Elizabeth smile. When she shoots 71-percent her first round Larry starts dreaming of a future Olympic biathalon champion.

We head back to our hotel room so Larry can catch the first half of the Georgetown-Syracuse basketball game. I head to the lobby to take advantage of the wireless internet down there (I’m NOT spending an extra $10 to get it in our room, not when I get it for free at my beloved chain motels!). I sit down across from a young man who is looking at the very flyer I was handing out earlier in the day. I tell him the forum will be awesome and I hope he will attend. He says he probably will and when I tell him I’m with C4L he wants to ask me a few questions.

What follows is a great discussion with another great kid. We talk about Ron Paul, who interested him for a number of reasons, not least of all because Dr. Paul attended Gettysburg College, where my new friend, Matt is a freshman. We talk about the upsurge in libertarian thinking, which has actually been very apparent at this conference. We talk about his hope to become a lobbyist working for renewable energy, especially nuclear. We agree that becoming self-sustaining in energy can only be good for America and shouldn’t be an idea Conservatives automatically reject. We talk about my involvement in this movement and my highest motivation – saving this country for my kids. Matt understands that it is his generation that will be most adversely affected by the policies being enacted today.

Now is a good time to make an observation of a situation here at CPAC that has been surprising but most welcome. By far, the majority of the people here are young. YOUNG! I am so used to seeing middle-aged and old people in Vermont everywhere – in the stores, on the streets, at our meetings and rallies. The only time I see young people in abundance is when I stop by the high school. But here at CPAC, young people are everywhere. Their energy and passion for this cause shines on their faces and rings out from their conversations. They get it, Thank God, they get it and they are doing something about it. They will take what they are learning about activism here back to their college and high school campuses and help build this movement from the ground up. The combination of knowledge and experience we oldsters bring in along combined with this energy and passion should prove unbeatable.
I encourage Matt to visit the Vermont Campaign for Liberty website to read our blogs. I promise him he will find interesting, intelligent and thoughtful writing. So Hunter, would you mind not posting for a while? Kidding, I’m kidding, reaching across the digital sphere to tweak ya buddy, you blog away.
Matt and I part ways but before we do I remember my son’s best friend’s brother Chris is also a freshman attending Gettysburg College. Does Matt know him? “Red? Yes, he’s one of my good friends!” Matt tells me. It is indeed a small world.

I return to the room to get Larry and we head back over to the conference for the Liberty Forum with Ron Paul and and Judge Napolitano. We get there early and are about a third of the way from the podium. I look around and notice that we are, once again, surrounded by young people. Just judging by our row and the two in front and behind us, I would say the ratio of twenty somethings here compared to those of us 30 and older is nine-to-one. Awesome.

Once Thomas Woods introduces the Judge and then Ron Paul, the atmosphere in this room is more like that of a rock concert than a serious political debate. The standing ovations come fast and furiously. There are whoops and hollers. I expect them to pick Ron Paul up and pass him overhead to the back of the room any minute. The judge’s rousing reminder that the opportunity to fight for freedom comes to very few generations but it has fallen upon this one is met with deafening applause. In this room one can feel safe and confident that our nation as we know it will endure because it is obviously in very good hands.