From Cheyenne, Wyoming
Laramie County Republican Dinner
Last night marked the end of the 2001 Political Speaking Tour of the Mullmeister. Looking through my calendar, it was the 63rd political speech or lecture of the year.
The Laramie County GOP fall fundraiser was pretty representative: A United States Senator, a Governor, three other state-wide office holders, a collection of county officials and a hundred-or-so people who just think they should support their political party.
People who buy into the current theory that the power of the two major political parties should be diluted need to attend an event like the Laramie County GOP fall fundraiser. Or the Democrats' equivalent.
Unlike the parties' national conventions where posturing is everything; these events are made up of citizens getting together to applaud their elected officials, complain about their opponents, listen to a couple of speakers, and celebrate their freedom as Americans.
To every group which invited me, thank you. It was a very good year.
On Friday I was invited to a briefing at the Pentagon with (what we like to call in Your Nation's Capital) High Pentagon Officials. It was pretty cool, but that's not what I want to tell you about.
I was escorted in and out by two young men - on a soldier and one a sailor - who looked like they had just left the recruiting poster photography studio.
They were both about nine years old and admitted (after some gentle prodding from your Mullmeister) they had not joined up to be tour guides at the Pentagon. They were both counting the days until this duty ended and they could either "get to soldiering" or "get to sea" respectively.
On the way out the young sailor asked me (having picked me up at the door to conference room of a High Pentagon Official) who I was and what I did.
After I told him about Mullings and the speaking schedule he asked me, quietly, "What to the folks out there think of us?"
An excellent question.
I thought to myself, "Not enough. We debate strategy, we discuss the nexus of domestic and military policy, we argue with the people we see on television, we wonder about opening our mail but I'm not sure we think about kids like these two service members." That's what I thought.
Here's what I told him:
"In every speech," I said, "I talk about what it means to America to have young men like you and all your colleagues preparing to go to war on our behalf. In every speech I ask them to think - not about 'all the young men and women ...' but about one specific young man or one specific young woman. Think about YOUR son or YOUR daughter or grandson or granddaughter or nephew or niece. Think about them as an individual preparing to go into battle to protect YOU - the opposite of everything you've done in raising that son or daughter when a good portion of your waking days and nights were concerned with protecting THEM. Because every one of these kids is SOMEONE'S son or daughter. And every one one of these kids has a mom and dad who are very frightened and very, very proud."
"At that point in every speech," I told this young sailor, "the crowd stands and cheers."
As we walked toward the exit he, if possible, stood even taller than he had been. And he said, "That's good. I've got buddies who are out to sea and they don't know what the people at home are thinking. I'll tell them what you said."
I stood a little taller, too, as I shook hands with him; maybe not the Pentagon's highest ranking person, but to some mother and dad somewhere in America, without question, its most important.
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