My Journey to Conservatism

My Journey to Conservatism
Once upon a time, I was oblivious to the greater world around me. This is the case more often than not
with people, I think. I lived my life, went to the ball park and worked. A normal life, by any account. My
husband and I had both served in the US Navy, he as an Operation's Specialist and I as a Cryptologic
Technician. We began our family as he was just getting into the Navy. I had just gotten out.
Time went on and the boys got to be three and four years old. All of my days were spent at work and
my evenings, invariably, would find me at some youth sports practice or game. I had a great life. A busy
life. I thought that I had the world licked right about then, but I was a bit deluded. I took for granted the
protections that our unique form of government offered. I never thought much about it. That was until
my world was rocked in a way that shook every one of my beliefs away from me like wind sweeps away
the dead leaves of a tree.
On December 8th, 1999 at about 4:30 am, I found myself awaking to a phone call that would change my
life forever. On the line, was my husband's thirteen- year-old-sister. She was crying uncontrollably and I
realized that my husband wasn't home yet. What she said next destroyed my world.
"My brother passed," she said as she tried to gain control of her emotions, to relay the information.
"Don't play like that." I said. But, she wasn't playing. My husband had worked a double shift at the jail
that night. He was tired when he left and had fallen asleep while driving, running off an interstate bridge
and ending up on the avenue below the bridge.
As I struggled to grasp the magnitude of what she had just told me, I gave the phone to my father,
because my sister-in-law had called so that we could give the chaplains directions to our house. They
arrived shortly thereafter, with Teddy bears and prayers. My husband of nine years, 27-years-old at the
time of his death, was gone from us. I was a 29-year-old widow, with three small children aged Three,
eight and nine.
After this tragedy, I could barely get out of bed for two years. I thank God every day for my parents, who
allowed me to place a double-wide mobile home on their property. They agreed to be my
reinforcements and to help me raise my now fatherless children. I accepted. I needed their help.
My monstrous battle with depression ended on September 11, 2001. As I sat on the couch, wrapped up
in a sorrow that would not let me be, I watched as the World Trade Center was obliterated by an attack.
As I watched people rush to help others, losing their lives in the process, the sorrow grew exponentially,
but this was only to last for a solitary moment.
After the tragedy, I saw an outpouring of love and compassion unlike anything that I had ever seen
before. People helped people out, cared for each other. Volunteers flooded to New York City, to help in
the rescue and recovery efforts. Valiant firefighters, reminding me of my dad, worked day and night, in
conditions that would ultimately lead to their own demise, to rescue victims and then to recover
remains.
Watching this, I decided that my pain was nothing. And even if it was something, it wasn't as bad as
what the whole country was feeling at the time. We had been violated, attacked and it hurt dreadfully.
But people weren't laying down. They were sucking it up and giving everything that they had, even
though I knew their hearts must be so devastated. I remember the Saturday after the event. My boys had a ball game that day and it would prove to be one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
Mostly everybody who attended displayed some type of red, white, and blue, whether it was a shirt,
ribbons in the cheerleaders' hair, or the flags that many were carrying. The football team and
cheerleaders of both teams met at center field for the National Anthem. All of the attendees crowded
the field around them, holding hands with the opposing team's fans, and unity was the order of the day.
I will never forget that day or the unity that I felt with everyone there. This became the basis for my
involvement in the 9/12 project.
My battle with depression came to an end as I rose up out of my pain, like so many others were
demonstrating, and vowed to move on with my life and to thrive. Within two weeks, I had applied to a
community college and to their nursing program. I was accepted and within six months I embarked on
and my training to become a registered nurse.
After completing nursing school at the top of my class, I went on to become an ICU/ER nurse and I loved
it. Up until this point, I still hadn't realized how tenuous our freedom really is, how it needed to be
protected. With the candidacy of Barack Obama, I began to look at the political realm, realizing that I
knew absolutely nothing about our government or politics.
My journey to conservatism began with reading the book "Obamanation" by Jerome Corsi. When
Obama first announced he was running, I thought "This is awesome!" but oh, how mistaken I was. When
I read the book, it ignited a love in me for our system of government, as I learned more and more about
it, researching for hours upon hours every single day. After I was finished with the book, I researched
the facts and found them to be verifiable.
I began to learn about conservatism, limited government and everything else that the movement
espouses. I began to mold and shape my values and principles to fit with my newfound love for the fact
that when we begin to adopt principles, and live them, our lives are so much more free. Decisions
became more easy, as I finally had a core set of beliefs that I could live with and conform myself to.
I immersed myself in The Federalist Papers and conservative themed books such as The 5,000 Year Leap,
by Kleon Skoussen. I fell in love with the idea of our representative government. I admired the founders
and the sacrifices that they made to give us this grand republic. The thought that the government
answers to us, and not the other way around was beautiful, indeed and the idea of constraining the
government to its wisely allocated minimum of power was appealing.
When the announcement was made about the 9/12 project, and a weekend of rallies, I made my way to
DC, along with millions of other Americans, afraid of where the country was heading. Obama was now
president and he was taking a wrecking ball to the Constitution at an alarming pace. We went to protest
and we went to learn.
A coalition, greater than any I had imagined to be possible, emerged. We are all simply citizens, who
understand our government, and the ideas upon which it was founded. We volunteer our time, money
and many times even our very reputations to be the guardians of the liberty that others have given so
much to provide us.
Since then, I have greatly expanded my knowledge of politics, history and economics. I am able to
effectively make the case for conservatism. The general idea of many who do not understand
conservative principles is that these principles restrain us. To the contrary, they are the tools which will free us. When one assumes personal responsibility for their own actions and their own lives, they gain
the ability to rise above any circumstance, if only they are willing to work hard, find opportunities and
never give up. Conservatism is a beautiful idea, indeed.