As my children grew and my time began to open up, I became more aware of what was happening to our country. I became more and more dismayed. As I became more politically aware, I began to see the politicians in Washington grow older, get richer, and continue to fail us at so many levels. It was no longer just a punchline.
For My Home and Family
I was born in Providence, Rhode Island at the end of the baby boom. My mother was an Irish Catholic child of immigrants, and my father was the child of a blue-blood New Englander and an Irish orphan abandoned at birth. My parents married at a time when Catholics and Protestants were dissuaded from marriage. I know that was always a point of contention with my paternal grandmother. But the love my parents had for each other was so self-evident that any notion that they shouldn’t have been together was simply ludicrous.
I was schooled in both public and Catholic schools before the creation of the Department of Education. I consider my education a good one. I grew up in a time when we were anticipating the bicentennial of this great nation. I also grew up in a time when we were anticipating, the bicentennial of the burning of the British tax ship HMS Gaspee in Narragansett Bay. The neighborhood where I lived was a playground that included the very sandbar used to trap the ship, then attack it and burn it to the waterline.
I have always been very patriotic, not blindly patriotic, but gifted with a love of this country that cannot be understated. Graduating from high school, I quickly learned that college was not for me, and neither was working at Burger Chef. I joined the United States Army to acquire a skill I could use for the rest of my life and that is exactly what I did. However, after 11 years of service, the Peace Dividend rolled around, and I found my services were no longer needed with the Army that I grew to love. Married with two children with another on the way, gainful employment, and plenty to keep myself busy, it wasn’t until the mid-2010's that I became politically aware.
Conservative at heart and not particularly beholden to any particular party coming from Irish Catholic New England descent, it would be very easy to identify with the Kennedy clan. However, being wise enough not to follow blindly. I always considered that my education was the foundation of my citizenship. And I take my citizenship very, very seriously. Up until that point, I was content, making a living, raising a family, playing with boats in Michigan's inland lakes, and enjoying a good roast chicken on a Saturday.
My mentor and one of the best friends that I’ve ever had was my father-in-law. He was a business owner from South Haven, Michigan, where he managed to buy a small business through a partnership, bought out his partners, make a somewhat less than humble living, and raised four loving children. We spent long nights on the patio picnic table, drinking beer and talking about life. He taught me things I had not known and reinforced many things that I had known. He taught me that his employees were the foundation of his business and, that small, humble profits could be made. You do not go too far.
For My Country
I was exposed to the Convention of States somewhere between 2014 and 2015, I educated myself about the Convention of States' mission. Admiring the cause and the Convention of States was the first political entity of any stripe that caused this stingy codger to stand up, pull out his wallet and make a donation. I attempted to get involved early on but life and work conspired against me though I freely admit that’s an excuse. We all know about excuses.
In 2023, I received an email asking if I would like to be a content writer for the Convention of States Action program in Michigan. As a technical writer, I could no longer find an excuse, so I decided to volunteer.
I encourage you to educate yourself about the Convention of States Action plan and what it could do to restrain our government's fiscal responsibility, renew our government through term limits provide new ideas, new direction, and most of all lead us away from the brink of national bankruptcy.
If you’ve read this far, I thank you and encourage you to support Convention of States Action in Michigan. Visit the website to learn more about who we are and what we are doing here in Michigan. Sign the petition and become a volunteer.
Our country is a great one as Ronald Reagan said, a "Shining City on a Hill”, this country and all of its blessings are worth fighting for!
