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MAF Blogger Danny
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After Oklahoma City we moved on to Wichita, KS. This rally was to be held at the Keeper of the Plains memorial center. Basically it’s this local landmark that has a gigantic statue of a Native American and lots of information about their customs and traditions, etc. I never did find out what tribe though. That was too bad because it was pretty interesting stuff. The same kind of thing happened when we were in Dallas and we were driving down the freeway and Buzz points out “hey there’s the book depository that Oswald shot Kennedy from. Were we able to go up and see it? Of course not, no time! We also didn’t have time to see the memorial for the Oklahoma City federal building. 

Well that’s just the nature of this beast I suppose. Our rally in Wichita was really cool for a couple reasons. First of all the Keeper of the Plains was an awesome monument and it made a great backdrop to have a rally at. It’s like this enormous statue in tribute to Native Americans and then the whole area around it has all these little kiosks with information that showcase different facts about the tribes of the area.

There was only one problem with this location, its right a bend in the river so the only way you can get out to it is by taking one of two long bridges that extend out from the surround park. So we had to lug all our stuff out onto the island in the middle. It could have been a lot worse though, because we didn’t have to do it ourselves, everyone who was there at the rally already waiting for us asked if they could help bring stuff out from the trucks over to the spot where we were setting up.

We had a good crowd too, one couple followed us up from Oklahoma City, and another couple came all the way from Colorado to meet up with us for the Gathering of Eagles on Sept 15. Then there were those guys from the Marine Corps League and I was very impressed with those guys because they had so much energy. It was a fun rally to attend because they kept yelling ‘hooah’ when one of our speakers said something they really agreed with. I talked with those guys a lot because they not only seemed to be some of the most appreciative people I have talked to, they also enlightened me a lot about their own lives, their experiences in the marine corps and a little bit about what it’s like to be in the corps and some things about certain traditions.

My favorite part of these rallies is the end when our ‘rally’ is over, but people stick around to connect and talk. Because that’s what this is all about, people coming together with like minds and common goals. That’s how we’re going to evolve from an organization to a movement. It’s already doing so. Individuals cooperate to make an organization, and organizations cooperate to create movements. But I think that the pro-victory crowd has not organized nearly as tightly (so far) as the whole anti-war, surrender crowd. They’ve got Code Pink, MoveOn, various “peace” groups, far-left groups, socialist groups, young activist democrats, etc etc etc. We on the other hand have a few elements such as Move America Forward, the Free Republic crowd, Vets for Freedom and some others, but we have a long ways to go in order to challenge the structure that MoveOn and the Answer coalition has. They seem to have the advantage of young, naïve members who have lots of time on their hand, coupled with big name donors and fat donation checks. Then they’ve also got the media which seems to want to cover everything they do. We do have one advantage though…we’re right. And we know we’re right and our people know we are right.

But I have learned in my study of history that being right doesn’t always mean you win the debate. It’s going to take a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication and a lot of donations but I think that history is going to look back at this period in time and think how remarkable it was that this war in Iraq was won despite having been shaped so much by whimsical public opinion, the media, and endless micromanaging by a congress led by individuals who are not educated about war but still think they know better than the military.