A few weeks ago, I challenged a lot of people to get active in making a dent in the way their states and districts handle politics. Especially in the states that are traditionally red.
Two years ago, about this time, I lamented the movement of my state to basically criminalize mental disabilities and to strip funding out of needed programming.
In the past few months here we've seen stories about Kansas doing everything from denying funding from the feds to get up Health Insurance Exchanges to stripping money from programs...
In Missouri, we've had Todd Akin, the rise of a conservative south that has taken the state out of the swing state category.
In Kansas we have the Westboro Baptists.
There are a lot of things that make people who are on the outside dislike this area of the world as some backwater hell. There are times I agree with them. But for all my thoughts about it, I also know it to be unbelievably beautiful country with some good, hardworking people who haven't had a chance to really get an opposing argument
So for the next five days, I'm off. I'm off to look for America.
I'm taking some time and I'm going to hit the road. Over the next five days, I have over 900 miles to cover, all in a car. Meetings with 6 house of representative members. 2 states. 4 Town Hall meetings.
As well as two stops with people who are interested in running in traditionally Republican districts.
I won't be able to post as much, but in the end, for all my thoughts on so many other things, if I have time I can take away from work, this is how I'm best to spend it.
What will I discover? Well, I can tell you what I'll see. I'll see the Ozarks and the beauty of south central Missouri. I'll see far western Kansas where you can see out into the Rocky Mountains.
I'll get to meet with a lot of farmers and friends. I'll sit through a few terrible town halls hosted by members of congress who have never, not once, had to really answer any questions because most of them either go unchallenged. I'll drink a lot of bad lemonade and make my way through a lot of drive thrus.
I won't get to post my quippy thoughts as much, at least not until Saturday or Sunday, depending on how much sleep I need.
I hope I'll have some good video, my Flip camera can join me along my way.
But, most importantly I'm going to see the things I love about both states the sky at night, where you can see forever without obstruction and the stars surround you. I'll see the people who make small communities what they are. And I'll shake a lot of hands with people who want what I do: a better Kansas and a better Missouri.
Not everyone can take a few days away and say: what is really going on. But I can. And while I'd love to be lazy, stay at home and watch through a marathon of Justified, tomorrow AM I'll start driving instead.
Maybe I'll get some answers. But even if I don't, it's worth asking the questions.
Wed Jan 30, 2013 at 5:14 AM PT: Minor note because when I wrote this I didn't think about this interpretation. This has nothing to do with any TTFN. I was really using the song as just a device to backup my thoughts on a 50 state strategy and the need to fight in every district. It seemed like a cute way to say to my fellow Kansas and Missouri Kossacks that this week contains a lot of elected representatives giving town hall meetings, and I figured I would actually attend, see "America" as they see it first hand.
I'm sorry for people who took this as some sort of ttfn. Anyway, I -am- "off", in the sense I'm driving today in some snow to go out to Western Kansas, but I'm not gone in the sense of gone.
I'm sorry for the confusion here. In the end, I was trying to imply if we want to fight the fight for all the districts, we've got to get up from our keyboards now and again, not referring to anything meta in any way.
I've tried to revise the title to reflect the concept.