It’s been a very long election season for all of us.  I first want to thank every one of you for all of you time, effort, blood, sweat and tears.

It would be very easy to become discouraged today.  I will admit I was not the happiest of campers this morning when I woke up.  But I’ve had a little time to reflect on everything that’s happened in the last year and a half, and I have to say I am far from disheartened by what I have seen.

It’s easy to dwell on losses, forget the positive in the negatives so forcefully put in our face last night and this morning.  And, you know what?  It’s okay to be mad, to be angry, to be a little down.

But, once you’ve done that, I ask you to think of the following things:

1.  Just try to count how many people you have met in the last 18 months who share your political views.  I can’t count them all.  Almost every time I step out of my house now, I run into someone I’ve met in the past year.  I’m continually meeting new people who are dissatisfied with how things are going and want to learn more.  I’m always writing down web addresses and other information for people.

2.  How many of those people do you count as friends?  How many of them have been truer friends to you in the past 18 months than all the friends you had in years prior?  I have found so many people that I know would be willing to help out on a moment’s notice.

3.  How many things have you learned about the world and politics and how it all works?  We understand the primaries, how they work, why it’s important to vote, even if it’s in protest.  How to work a polling place, how to canvass, and how sometimes all it takes is just going and doing something.  Even if you do it wrong the first time.  It’s always better to try and fail and learn something, than to sit back and do nothing.

4.  How important education is, and how hard it is to do sometimes.  But then someone new “gets it”, and you start the process again.

5.  I believe every one of us, no matter how discouraged we are some days, have a burning desire, a need, to do something about what we now know.  Haven’t you felt this yourself?  Do you look at your friends and family and know that you must continue because you know things that others do not?

I consider myself a much more enriched person now than I was 18 months ago.  My life, while it has it’s ups and downs and certainly some new stresses, is more rewarding and full than I could have imagined 18 months ago.  And, no matter what happens, I can say that I am doing something meaningful with my life.  That I did not give up when things did not go my way.  That I stand by my friends and family, even when sometimes they don’t understand why I do the things I do.  I do all of this because I believe with all my heart, that we are not meant to live as slaves.  I believe we are meant to be self-determining human beings, able to live our lives to the fullest potential possible, and in so doing, enrich the lives of those we love around us.  I believe we are meant to think, to laugh, to love, to grow and be willing to take what’s given to us and make it better for ourselves and the people around us.  We cannot sit idly by and watch as the world around us changes for the worse.  And I know, that when the time comes, the people that I have met in the last 18 months will stand firm against the encroaching tide of tyranny.  And that we will fight until the end, because in good conscience we cannot do anything else.

Now is the time to catch our breath, fill our reserves and start the next battle, because the war is not over.  One thing I have certainly learned in the last year – we are FAR more effective locally than nationally.  We know what the overall agenda is, and we must face the fact that we cannot fight everyone’s battles for them. But we can certainly fight our own, and we are obligated to.  What exactly that’s going to be next, I don’t know for sure.

I encourage every one of us to stay active, stay informed and aware and stay in touch.  Join other liberty minded groups – TAGTexas.org is just one of many.  Network. That is where my time and effort is going to go.  We cannot play partisan politics.  We must be willing to find the people who agree on our issues and work with them to build coalitions.  This is how we can get things done, right here in central Texas.  When we stop it here, we stand as a beacon to other people around the country and the world as a testament to the will of a people who stand for Liberty, Freedom and Justice.

I look forward to continuing to work with you all.  I hope that each of you will find the resolve and courage to keep fighting, because I know it is in each of you.

Nothing is worth having that you didn’t have to work for.

In Liberty and Love,
Nancy and Katie