One of the great things about being a Convention of States District Captain is getting to interact with folks that are thinking about joining our effort.
I have lived in rural Highland, Kansas, for 30 years and raised my family here. Like those folks, I want to better our community, our state, and our country. The reason I joined COS is I believe this will be the best opportunity we have to do that. Many I talk to think the same way.
It is, however, sometimes challenging to answer questions about Convention of States. It is easy for me to pull some Founding Father's statement from memory or even quote a section in our Constitution.
Most folks understand it, but it does not relate to them in a personal way. What is most effective is using some old adage or my own life experience to explain how I have come to understand the absolute importance of the COS cause.
Before my wife and I started a horse breeding and training farm, the closest I came to horses was watching black and white John Wayne westerns. She had always been around them and was even a groom for a Michigan harness race stable.
She had all the equine knowledge when we first started out. I was basically in charge of infrastructure, capital expenses, and maintenance. I built the fences, the corrals, and the round pen.
We bought an antique tractor, mower, rake, and a baler to put up hay for the winter months. I learned how to use them all effectively from an old farmer friend of mine down the road. His name was Joe and may he rest in peace.
I installed stock tanks with heaters and flow valves. Along the way I also learned a lot about raising horses (even before Google searches). So when I got an important question about our cause, I went with what I know firsthand.
A gentleman asked the other day, “Well, it is the states that are killing my job. How can fixing the federal government stop them?”
He was concerned that if COS eliminates federal overreach, how can that solve the same problem at the state and local level? This was a very good question.
I told the gentleman a short story about how I learned to wean colts. Take the mare away, and the colt figures out eating grass is better than starving. Colts know how to do it, but the teat is just easier.
At first the colt will even try to squeeze through the corral gate to get to the teat. I had to rescue a few that trapped themselves from the effort. In the analogy states will understand that killing their economies in the hopes that the mare will return is a foolish dream if the COS finally corrals the mare.
States, like a colt, will learn their overreach is also foolish, unsustainable, and counterproductive to our country. It may take a little time, and may be painful at first. But it will happen.
