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MAF Blogger Danny
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Move America Forward holds press conference

Duncan Hunter shows up to speak!

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MAF Blogger Danny
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Pittsburgh’s post will be delayed in lieu of BREAKING news

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MAF Blogger Danny
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In Indianapolis we had an absolutely superb location to hold our rally. It was right downtown in the middle of the city, there is an intersection with a gigantic obelisk memorial in the middle and a loop around that surrounds the memorial.  So we get to use this huge monument that is in honor of Indiana’s fallen soldiers in order to hold our rally that honors the soldiers and praises the troops.

I don’t know what the actual name of the monument itself is called but it appears to pay tribute to several different conflicts such as the Mexican American war, the Civil War, and others, but those were the only two sides that I took the time to read. Unlike many memorials that I have seen, which are somber and sedate, this one makes use of statues, imagery and symbols of violence. It is much more a romanticization of war than with some of the more modern memorials such as the one I was describing in Cedar Rapids. This one in Indiana had cannons and guns all over the top sections of the obelisk and statues of soldiers and Greek gods all swirling around this giant, tower, hard edged structure. It was all very impressive.

We had a guest speaker today, Congressman Mike Pence who represents the 6th congressional district of Indiana, which his aide told me is just to the east outskirts of Indianapolis. The congressman gave a great speech, it was filled with lots of imagery and just great lines that were so epic, I thought I was listening to one of the great orators throughout history, like Reagan, Churchill, Thomas Paine or Pericles. Later that night, Robert told me that he was impressed with Congressman Pence, that if he decided to run for President right now, he would vote for him. And usually Robert doesn’t like anybody! Ha ha okay just kidding, but Mike Pence definitely left a lasting impression on most of us here and I will definitely be watching him in the future so see where he goes.

Congressman Pence and Deborah Johns.

Congressman Pence calls all blue and gold star families to come forward and be recognized.

I liked doing this rally here because it was a central location with a lot of foot traffic too. I think that’s good for one obvious reason, because it allows you to snag some passersby who might agree with us but just haven’t heard about us before. Also some people are just curious and will stop and watch or listen for a while just to see what’s going on. At least with those people you can get them thinking and examining their views on this subject. Although you run the risk of getting protestors or people that want to argue with you, to be really honest I have only met a tiny handful of dissenters throughout this trip. I remember in Carson City we had maybe 15 of them come down to where we were doing our rally, we had maybe 6 in Dallas and 5 in Oklahoma City. Other than that I think that in a couple rallies we had one guy show up with a ‘bring them home’ t-shirt on but they never really engaged us.

I’ve only had the opportunity to argue with a couple people this whole trip and to be honest I am hoping to see some action and some debate! I am not holding my breath though, because I know for SURE that we’ll definitely catch some of the other side at the Sept.15 rally. I am expecting that we will be outnumbered but not outgunned and DEFINITELY not outclassed.

Today we have Pittsburg, and then tonight we should be in DC!!! I can’t wait!

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MAF Blogger Danny
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It was September 11 and we wanted to do something special to honor our troops and those who died as victims or terrorism. It would have been great to do something right in Chicago but we could not arrange a permit for any good locations.

We did however find a spot in Niles, a suburb of northern Chicago that was a great place to hold a candlelight vigil. It was just an intersection across from the Niles police department building with a lot of room on the street corner and a big fountain behind us.

There was a great little crowd there and we started pulling out our shirts, Diana’s CDs, the victory blanket, and we started putting little tea candles into the paper cups we brought. Several people from the crowd wanted to help out with that too, so we had a few people putting candles into cups and setting that up while the rest of us put together the normal set up.

Diana Nagy got on the microphone and everyone in the crowd got their candles ready, Robert and I were lighting them like crazy, then Diana sang the spangled banner and everyone stood in silence for a moment to remember the fallen. It was a somber moment and then Deborah and Debbie got up to tell their sons stories. This time when Deborah Johns and Debbie Lee told their stories though, they took out anything that had a political undertone to it.

Deborah Johns told us all about when her son first started talking about wanting to join the Marine Corps, how worried she was about his decision and how he basically sprung it on her by surprise and took her to the recruiting office and put her on the spot to sign even before he had turned 18. Deborah also talked about how Will had always played baseball and that he actually got a scholarship to Arizona State to play baseball for them and then at the last minute he decided he preferred going into the USMC.

I can’t help but think about Michael Moore and his ridiculous Fahrenheit 9/11 movie and the segment where he goes to film the Army recruiters out in front of Wal-Mart. The point is to show how dishonest recruiters prey on disaffected or low income youths to join the military. Buzz talks about this concept that the public has in his book War Crimes.

In it, he talks about how the media and movies and elements on the left try hard to characterize the military as a socially skewed organization that only sends the son’s of the poor and minorities to war. Buzz rebukes these myths in War Crimes, here are just a couple supporting facts and figures but you can read about it extensively in his book; 51 percent of Air Force officers have at least a Master’s Degree, three out of every five people who join the military come from families in the top 20% earnings bracket, and 99% of people in the military have at least a high school diploma versus only 80% of the general public of the same age group.

So when Debbie Lee talks about her son Marc, when Deborah Johns talks about Will and when the hundreds of blue star and gold star moms and families that I have met on this trip across the country talk about their sons and daughters who have joined, we mustn’t allow ourselves to think of that liberal stereotype of the disconnected kid who is looking for a group to belong to and needs the signing bonus because his family has no money. These boys and girls who enlist in our armed services could have done anything with their lives, anything they wanted, because they are achievers. But they all felt a call to service, to be a part and support something much larger and greater than themselves.

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In Cedar Rapids we went to a memorial park and held another rally to support our troops and their missions in the War on Terror.

I got to say I REALLY loved this park! I thought that the memorials were all really great, with the black dark stone all smoothed out it reminded me of the Vietnam Memorial. Also the way everything was laid out from a central point was nice. I just thought it worked…everything kinda had equal importance and you don’t necessarily think of wars as a continuum of conflicts, some minor and some great, but more of just…I don’t know its hard to explain. In contrast to thinking of wars as just little dots along our nations history, it makes you think of wars as each one stemming from something greater, like protecting our country and its freedoms. That country, our freedoms, symbolized by the flag in the middle of the park, and each conflict that is connected directly to that central idea are all pivotal and equally important to protecting our freedoms. Basically it’s kind of like saying that whether it was all out warfare such as in WW2 where our whole existence as a nation was threatened, or a policing action in Kosovo where we worked with UN peacekeepers…all were equally important in protecting our people’s freedoms and our nations security.

Another thing I really loved about this park was the howitzer and the tank on display! I wanted to climb up on the artillery and sit on the barrel so I could take a picture with an old Jane Fonda pose. Didn’t have time though.

As for the rally we had assistance from another Marine Corps color guard to help honor the flag and fly the colors while Diana sang Where Freedom Flies.

Deborah Johns and Debbie Lee made mention today and the day before of General Patreus and his report, but most notably the criticism that Patreus was getting even before he made his report! All of us here and MAF just found it shocking that MoveOn.org could publish and advertisement saying Patreus is betraying the American public before even listening to what the man has to say. We all agreed it was very disrespectful and uncalled for, especially the way he was treated in that hearing by all the D’s who didn’t want to hear the good news that Patreus had.