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Texas Day.

San Antonio, Waco, Crawford, Dallas.

I figured that rather than write little posts about these rallies, I might just make one really huge post. Because that suits Texas, doesn’t it? One gigantic post just like Texas is one big state.

We know Texas is a big state. In fact we burned a whole day of our trip just getting from El Paso to San Antonio. I sure did miss Texas a lot since college. I guess I just really liked this state and I miss being around that culture and being in the heartland.

I mean California is one thing. I’ll always love California because it feels like the center of the universe. Montana is great because it’s so gorgeous, just absolutely pristine country out there. But Montana feels too small and Podunk, whereas Texas has that feeling of country heartland, it’s just too bad that Texas is so flat. Texas has a lot to offer for a guy like me though. I like politics and it’s always a powerhouse player in presidential campaigns. I like Austin for its music scene and young crowd…Austin is just a fun place to live. Dallas and Houston are sprawling metropolises that remind me of Los Angeles. And lastly, Texas is inundated with Hispanic culture which I feel I must always stay somewhat close to. So I think I like Texas a lot because it has a little bit of everything that I like about a place to live.

So our first rally of Texas Day (although it is the second rally we’ve had in the Lone Star State) was in San Antonio at the Bass Pro parking lot. This was an awesome show because the local guys here brought in their vintage jeeps and this one guy had a big transport truck from Vietnam! It was awesome just to see that there! I knew that this would happen too but TEXANS were the most supportive people of the military. I mean who could have guessed that? Duh!

Everyone was going around to everyone else, meeting and sharing stories, and just letting the Move America Forward people know that they were appreciated. We love to hear that what we are doing makes a difference because sometimes when we wake up at 6:30 after three hours of sleep we ask ourselves why we’re trekking across the country like a bunch of hippies. But every supporter that we talk to reaffirms to us that what we’re doing is so important, and so worth our time and 100% of our energies.

Besides all the great responses we got from people in old San Antone I had a chance to speak with a Gold Star Wife.

Jennifer Funkhouser, pictured here with her daughters Kaitlyn (6) and Allison (3) is the wife of Captain James Alexander Funkhouser. “Alex” was Killed In Action on May 29, 2006 in Baghdad. Alex was in the army and stationed out of Fort Hood, Texas. Jennifer tells me that she and Alex moved their family to that area specifically because Alex knew that he could get deployed if he was in that area. He really wanted to serve his country and do the maximum good.

According to a page about Alex on They Have Names, “Alex deployed with 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment of 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. He served as the Headquarters and Headquarters Company Commander and was dual hatted in charge of training the Iraqi Army. According to emails received on May 26th and a phone call on the 28th to his wife, Jennifer, things were going well. Alex was proud of the work he was doing to help the Iraqi people in their journey towards freedom and democracy.” http://www.theyhavenames.com/index.php?item=james.alex.funkhouser

On that day in May, Alex was on patrol with CBS Correspondent Kimberly Dozier and a camera crew. They ran across a suspicious looking vehicle and Alex in particular had a bad feeling about it. He felt so strongly alarmed that something was wrong; he told the camera crew and his fire team to run for cover. Alex stayed behind while his team retreated and he covered their retreat to make sure everyone was safe. It was at that time that the explosives in the car went off and took Alex’s life. Alex was able to recognize the danger and that this vehicle had an IED wired to it. He could have saved himself but he stayed behind because he wanted to be absolutely sure that his whole team got out safely. Kimberly was injured and two of the camera crewmen were killed in that blast.

Jennifer tells me that Alex went out on patrol with news crews often, and he did that because he wanted to tell people the good stories about what went on in Iraq. He wanted the media to see that we are building schools, training Iraqi army and police, remodeling hospitals, etc. Alex was very close to his Iraqi interpreter “Sam.” He wanted Sam and his family to trust and love Americans so he often brought presents for Sam’s wife and kids and talked with them about America.

Alex is dearly missed by his surviving family and Jennifer tells me that his daughters are finally beginning to understand that their daddy is not coming home, and starting to cope with that. I can’t imagine what it’s like for a small child to learn that Daddy is with Jesus now. It has to be one of the hardest things in life to lose a husband, father, sibling, son or daughter, especially when many people in this country have a hard time explaining why.

Debbie Lee tells me that every family goes through stages of coping before they come to and understanding of why they had to lose a family member. Grief, sorrow, anger, depression, questioning, these are all stages one must go through before one comes to understanding and justification. We as a country must also go through these stages, and I think for most of us here in the US we are still stuck in the anger or confusion stage. It will be a long, hard road to make victory long lasting and make Iraq stable and prosperous. Likewise, I think it will take a LONG time for America to understand the importance of what it’s people and it’s military are fighting for right now. In the future, when the histories are written, people will look back on our generation and wonder how we had the strength to persevere through such a world-changing conflict. Let us do all we can and pray hard that there will be a world in the future to live for.

After San Antonio we headed to Waco. On the way we drove through Austin and I started to get all nostalgic for school and living in Austin. I guess I still miss being in college and having that whole… “I’m expanding my mind and improving myself through education” thing. Of course you should always be educating yourself, one should never stop doing that, but when you are primarily a student it is a little different.

On the way to Waco we found out that Ryan’s budget truck had run over a nail or something and we were concerned that it was unsafe to drive. They tried to make it all the way to Waco but the tire was so flat they had to drop back and get a new tire. This is Sunday afternoon in Texas. There weren’t many places open to get a new tire. Luckily they found one so they were only about… oh …and hour and fifteen minutes behind us. And they had all the audio equipment.

One the way to Waco there were two goofballs up on the freeway overpass about a mile from the rally point and they had some signs that said something about war for oil or some other nonsense. I was afraid that meant we were going to have a big problem at the rally point but actually no protesters showed up. So when we got there we had to try and do the best we could without the aid of a microphone or a speakers or a podium. Lucky for us someone had a Ford Explorer Sport Trac, which they backed out into the middle of the parking lot and put the tailgate down so that we could all hop up on it and speak to the crowd below.

Diana Nagy sang her songs a cappella again. I think this is like the third time she’s had to do that and she always does a great job especially when she has to project so much more than usual. She wasn’t afraid either, she got right up there again and sang the star spangled banner, and also Where Freedom Flies.

I’m sitting on the bus right now and Buzz is talking to his daughter on the phone about how sometimes you get a good teacher and some teachers are harder to deal with but you have to be nice and try hard. How cute.

Deborah Johns got up and really got the crowd going! She definitely has a taste for this kind of thing, as she has a fiery attitude and gets the crowd involved and emotionally engaged. Deborah is very clear about her message when she speaks, that we must hold our elected officials in Washington accountable during the next few months as they are deciding how to proceed in Iraq. Deborah always says that we as Americans will not accept anything less than VICTORY.

Debbie Lee stands as a softer-spoken woman who speaks more from the idea that she is just honoring her son by continuing to fight for the same ideals that her son was committed to. The same ideals that he died for. Debbie doesn’t try as hard to get the crowd riled up, pumping their fists in the air, she simply tells her son’s heroic story and gives a little commentary on what it’s like for American families to sacrifice so much for our freedoms. The story speaks for itself, and moves people to action by itself.

I know we had LOTS of veterans, blue star families and some gold star families at this rally but unfortunately I did not get a chance to talk with any personally or take any specific ‘showcase’ pictures. Also we had quite a few people who joined us from San Antonio and were part of the caravan to Crawford also. The most exciting part was when I was running through the crowd at the conclusion of our Waco rally, getting people to come to Crawford with us! I was really amazed as a lot of people caravanned to Crawford with us. Some we picked up in Waco, some had come from Houston to caravan with us, some stayed with us from San Antonio!

You had to have been there to believe what the caravan looked like pulling out of the parking lot! It was breathtaking! We probably had 20 maybe even 30 cars in tow! It was great fun driving to Crawford, and we took it kind of easy because of the number of cars behind us. It felt like it took a while to get there, but finally we were pulling up to the Yellow Rose store right on the corner of the first road you hit in Crawford. We pulled over behind the Yellow Rose and directed most of the caravan cars to park across the street. As soon as we got there we had one agitator carrying around fliers full of nonsense. If I had it handy I would put a little of what it says and rebut, but it wasn’t even significant enough to tell you all. The guy with the fliers also tried to tell us that we couldn’t park there and that we couldn’t rally at the Yellow Rose. People started to get worried but the sheriff personally told me that we could do whatever we wanted so long as we didn’t block any traffic. And that’s what we did, had a rally right there on the corner, Diana sang wonderfully, we had our speakers do their thing and they did so just as excellently as ever. We had cars driving by and honking for us and that was great too!

The owner of the Yellow Rose came out and talked about what happened when Cindy Sheehan had put up Camp Casey and he invited us all in if we wanted to see a video about The President. Inside the Yellow Rose are thousands of little doodads and keepsakes centered on President Bush.

We also had one gentleman in attendance who went to Iraq in the Army and he shared a few things with the crowd. One was that he had brought with him a pair of boots, a rifle, and a helmet. He arranged these in the same manner that American soldiers have been arranging makeshift graves for years now, and explained how that came about and why the soldiers do that. He also shared a story about an Iraqi man who gave him a very special flag in a gift shop. The vendors were allowed to go on US military bases to sell their goods every weekend or so. This one Iraqi man came up to him and offered him this flag that had been specially made to show Iraqi support for America and vice versa.

The flag displays the national flag of the United States flying right next to the Iraqi flag, showing, according to our soldier, that the security and wellbeing of both our nations are tied together. It is in OUR best interest that Iraq become stable and democratic. It is in their interest that the US does not tire or falter!

So there you have it folks. The Waco/Crawford rallies were a huge success!!!

We got right back on the road and headed for Dallas next! It was not too long a drive over and we made fairly good time I think, but we still managed to be late, which is how we are used to doing things now. On the way over I received a call on my cell phone from Melanie Mitchell, a wonderful lady with KLIF radio who had helped me arrange to have their host Jeff Bolten speak at our rally. Melanie was setting up the KLIF booth at our rally point and while there had come in contact with a Detective with the Dallas PD who wanted to speak with me. The Detective called my cell and informed me that we had some protesters, and that since Flag Pole Hill, where our rally was supposed to be, was a public area, he and his men could not legally keep the protesters away from our rally. If they wanted to cause trouble, they could do so, within their legal rights. We said that was okay, hoping for the best.

Well it was no big deal, when we got there I found maybe five or six protesters holding a long cloth banner that just said “bring them home alive.” I spoke with Detective Allan who told me that he spoke with the leader of the protestors and he actually walked me over and introduced me to the guy, Hadi. I spoke with Hadi for just a couple minutes, I told him what we planned to do, and he told me that he planned to just have his people stand there and not to say anything. We both agreed to these terms and it sounded like everything would work out okay. Hadi asked me for some bottles of water, and I felt he had been very agreeable so I gave his group five or six bottle waters to appease them. Everyone seemed happy.

We got our rally underway and Jeff Bolten talked about his time in Iraq. Jeff went to Iraq in March of this year to meet with troops and get a feel for the situation there. He agreed that our military is doing lots of good for the Iraqi people and they are turning the tide against Al Qaeda. 

One thing that Jeff emphasized that I think is really important is for people to take action and call their congressmen or senators and let them know that Americas want to win in Iraq and we don’t want to see our military come home thinking their actions were wasted and that their buddies died for nothing. But to make sure everyone knows we have to take action. I think we need more rallies to support the troops, and I think we need to be calling our elected officials and letting them know that we feel this way. We know that the surrender crowd already does it, and they already rally more than we do. Maybe it’s because our people tend to work more, more often have families or busier lives. Whatever. If that is one’s attitude, there is no hope. We must care more about what happens to this country than in our own petty lives. At least by comparison, all of our lives are petty in relation to this conflict. We are a generation that is changing the course of history, and the ramifications of that change are going to mean the difference between freedom and death to untold billions of people in the future.

After everything was said and done though, our rally was a great success in Dallas. I ended up having words with one of the protesters, who told me I was closed-minded. I think that’s silliness. To be fair I called him crazy once, but I promise that was more of a reaction than a serious supposition of insanity. I really hate when people apologize for the terrorists like these guys try to do. You know he says to me…you know why they hate us? And then he talks all about the western world and how we’ve manipulated the Arabs so much. My thoughts are that you could come up with hundreds of examples of who did what to whom and who used who for what. There is a lot of convoluted history that goes back thousands of years but as we decide how to proceed in the future we can’t get hung up on those issues.

Oh yeah, it was Joe’s birthday too. Pictures.

If this is all about how the Arab people want to lives and how big bad America wants to step in and impose our morals and steal all their oil then what about the Iranian people before the Ayatollah took over? Under the shah of Iran (who may not have been a perfect leader, mind you) the people of Iran were very well off. They could practice their own religion in peace but they weren’t required to. They didn’t have to wear the burka if they didn’t want to do so. They were allowed to travel abroad and women could be educated. So where do people come up with this idea that a, Islam and democracy are incompatible, and b, totalitarian religious theocracies are compatible with the idea of self-determination.

See the left keeps saying we should let Arabs have self determination and that by invading Iraq we are taking that away. But the truth of the matter is that I would like to GIVE self determination to Iran by eradicating those religious extremists so that other religions can practice freely and live peacefully alongside Muslims. That’s what we have done in Iraq, eliminated the totalitarianism and attempted to institute a system that will respect and honor Islam as well as the other religions in the region. Isn’t that a better definition of self determination?

At the end of the day, it’s a class of civilizations, and it isn’t going to go away if we live Iraq. Hell even if we win in Iraq it isn’t just going to go away. Islam is having growing pains; their governments have already been integrating into the global market for years, exporting oil among other things. Now it is time for Islam to become part of the world community and that’s going to be a difficult road. In the end however I think it’s inevitable.