I have moved on

[Warbird]

I haven't checked in for a while, but since I do have a few contacts on here I thought I would drop by.

A number of years ago I left the northern Virginia/Washington DC area after becoming tired of the traffic, the people and the mixingbowl known as the nation's capitol. My wife and I wanted to have children and we wanted them to have the same Tennessee roots we had had. Well my wife I must say had hers late as her father was retired from the NYPD and moved them down here when she was a teen, but she's adopted southern now. It was risky for both of us to move as she was an attorney in a city that loves attorneys, hey it's the only one.

I was an Executive Director of a lobbying organization with two and a half million members, had written many published op-eds and speeches for well knowns as well as contributed to several books, testified before many legislatures, all before I was thirty. Pretty much everyone thought I was nuts to move. I continued to work during most of that time for organizations based there, but had managed to live in Tennessee. It did require that I traveled a tremendous amount. It also required several lateral moves along the way. With each passing year I had fewer connections in an industry that thrives on connections and networks to succeed. All along I knew I would have to move back if I was to continue moving up in the world of policy and ideas, but I tried and tried to put it off.

I spent the last few years doing a ton of hunting all over the world, taking and teaching some tactical courses and throwing lead in some other interesting spots all while doing work for a very large, well known and bureaucratic DC monolith. This past summer I decided it was time for a change. I needed to get back in the fight. I sent out a couple of feelers that I might be ready to move back into the mixingbowl, known as the capitol beltway. Kind of to my surprise several organizations made offers and it just became too much to pass up. The opportunity for executive leadership for a very well respected organization, full of classical liberal thinkers such as myself, was just too much to pass up. To sit in the chair once held by the likes of FA Hayek and Milton Friedman is a great thrill for me, though the names may not mean a lot to most.

So I packed up and headed to northern Virginia. My family had to stay behind while my wife found a new job up here and while I found a new home for us to all live in here. Last month everything came together and they were able to join me and I am thankful for that. The kids have easily acclimated to new environs without skipping a beat and my 9 year old son is hounding me every weekend to take him to a different battlefield or museum.

So now instead of rolling out of bed into my office I am taking the bus to the Metro, subway, every day. And I look at concrete and buildings from the office window instead of a nice rolling hill where I am about to go kill off some critter. But it's OK. I don't have to travel as much as I did which means more tie at home and the frequent trips to places in the east like NYC can easily be a day ride on a train back and forth instead of the hassles of air travel, which I am doing less as well.

And in the end we actually have a nice home in a rather rural area of the burbs, at the end of a cul de sac, with no traffic and lots of trees. A nice little spot surrounded by the traffic mayhem of the area.

If ever in the area of the District pm me and let me know when you'll be around, maybe we can meet for a beer.

And that is where I now hang my hat.

Best of thanksgivings to my Tennessee gun totin' brethren.

Edited November 24, 2011 by Warbird

[MacGyver]

Hey, congratulations!

There are two things in life that I truly appreciate, and am always conscious of that appreciation. Those things are seeing someone get to do something they love to do, and as a direct follow on, getting to watch and as a consequence learn from someone who is absolutely on top of their game. I don't care if you're a master orator, shooter or plumber. If you're on top of your game, I relish being around while you're doing it.

We need more voices of reason in Washington from folks who actually have the stomach for it. It's easy to lose heart amongst the incompetence and indifference, so I'm glad to see you getting back in the saddle.

Good luck and Godspeed. Check in with us from time to time. You've always got friends here.

Edited November 24, 2011 by MacGyver

[LagerHead]

Glad everything came together for you. I hope your move is everything you hoped it would be.

[7dogguy]

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours also.

[mav]

Congratulations. Best of luck on your new endeavor. I am rather envious.

[TGO David]

You know, one of the nice things about the Internet is that you can still visit us here on TGO from all the way over there in NOVA. I hope you'll continue doing so as time permits.

[Guest Sgt. Joe]

Hey, congratulations!

There are two things in life that I truly appreciate, and am always conscious of that appreciation. Those things are seeing someone get to do something they love to do, and as a direct follow on, getting to watch and as a consequence learn from someone who is absolutely on top of their game. I don't care if you're a master orator, shooter or plumber. If you're on top of your game, I relish being around while you're doing it.

We need more voices of reason in Washington from folks who actually have the stomach for it. It's easy to lose heart amongst the incompetence and indifference, so I'm glad to see you getting back in the saddle.

Good luck and Godspeed. Check in with us from time to time. You've always got friends here.

^^^^^ I simply can not say it any better than that. ^^^^^

Just remember to place feet into backsides as required, you are going to get tired doing so as there is a whole lot of need for that where you are.

Wishing a Joyous Holiday season back-at-cha

[Guest pfries]

I could not agree with MacGyver more, I for one (and I would safley bet most here) will never hold it against a man for bettering himself or his family.

Good luck I hope your endeavor goes even better than you anticipate. Happy holidays to you and your family.

P.S. we do not discriminate by state boundaries so stay in touch.

Pat

[kb4ns]

I agree with the others. Best of luck and we hope to see you around occasionally!

[Warbird]

You know, one of the nice things about the Internet is that you can still visit us here on TGO from all the way over there in NOVA. I hope you'll continue doing so as time permits.

You are right David, it is one of the nice things about the internet. I am still reading TGO, just haven't had the time to post. And yes I have only moved in terms of my residence, but am still a Tennessean, by blood, birth and culture.

[Magiccarpetrides]

Great to hear from you, have a great Thanksgiving!

[Guest WyattEarp]

congrats on the new job and good luck in your future endeavors. Sounds like you're doing what you love, and that's what's important!

Take care of your family, and talk some sense into some of them knuckleheads up there on on Capitol Hill

I hope to get a chance someday to visit D.C., I could have a real field day with my camera, I hear the photography is amazing up there with all the things to see.

[Warbird]

Hey, congratulations!

There are two things in life that I truly appreciate, and am always conscious of that appreciation. Those things are seeing someone get to do something they love to do, and as a direct follow on, getting to watch and as a consequence learn from someone who is absolutely on top of their game. I don't care if you're a master orator, shooter or plumber. If you're on top of your game, I relish being around while you're doing it.

We need more voices of reason in Washington from folks who actually have the stomach for it. It's easy to lose heart amongst the incompetence and indifference, so I'm glad to see you getting back in the saddle.

Good luck and Godspeed. Check in with us from time to time. You've always got friends here.

Thanks! Even though I still worked for groups up here I was able to somewhat separate myself from it living in Tennessee for several years. I still travel a considerable amount and have always found it very energizing.

Way too many people in this town live in a bubble. They only interact with others who cloister themselves in the beltway and end up losing touch. Traveling keeps me from forgetting what I fight for and why.

Like you Mac I like to watch people who are good at what they do and I am very impressed with the level of competence, energy and knowledge represented in many of the youth now in the freedom and liberty movement. I had grown skeptical of whether anybody worthwhile was going to come along to be the future of our fight to preserve liberty. But I am energized by, not just their exuberance tinged with at least some reality, but by their humility that they indeed have a lot to learn. There are many more young people in the movement now than there were 20 years ago when I started. There are also many more legitimate organizations on solid footing providing them with good jobs and experience than there were back then. I have been very fortunate to be able to do work that I love and feel like I am making a difference. I was very lucky in that I worked for excellent people at the beginning of my career who were great mentors. They provided me with guidance, gave me enough rope to nearly hang myself a couple of times, then told me what I had done wrong. I had lots of opportunity to work in, and gain knowledge in, different areas. A good mentor or two can make all of the difference between a career that flourishes and one that languishes.

I myself feel like I am on a learning curve again as well. Though I have been doing this for a long time I had stepped away from the more policy and intellectual side to work on the mobilization side for some time. I have to discipline myself again to the more intellectual and thought provoking side of solving problems and the brain draining aspect of writing and managing again. And of course the constant necessity to engross myself in primarily economic issues. In the past I knew my issues so well I could go on far longer than anyone would want to hear me on the issues I was involved with at the time, which included labor policies and issues and later I knew gun rights issues backward and forward. Now I focus nearly all of my time on budget, spending and taxes, national and state regulatory issues and free market issues in general. So even though I know a tremendous amount about all of those issues I have still felt for the last couple of months like I am drinking through a fire hose.

Edited November 30, 2011 by Warbird

[MacGyver]

I really think that our grandchildren and great grandchildren will look back on this time, right now as the moment in time where a major change occured. There are so many forces at work right now that all have the potential to do a lot of harm. We're at a definite fork in the road. We have to choose whether we will languish as we go down the road to a European style debt-laden serfdom, or whether we the people in this great American experiment will actually think and innovate our way forward to something even better. I think it's too early to tell which way it's going to go, but like you I am encouraged by some of the people, especially the young people who are starting to take notice and want to do something about the problems we face.

If there's anything good to come from this most recent administration in Washington, I hope that it is that people realize that they can't base their hopes on one individual, but rather they have to get involved and be the catalyst for that change. The next generation is poised to do some fundamental work and some heavy lifting that will shape this country's future for generations to come.

In some respect, they're lucky, too. There are some great problems to work on, and some great tools available. While I'm comfortable in my late 30's, part of me would love to be graduating from college today. The world is ripe for innovation! Freedom and liberty, 10th Amendment issues, gun rights, taxes, governement spending - there's a whole host of issues on which there is really exciting work to be done.

We need to bring good voices to the front. This isn't a partisan issue. Rather, it's a matter of needing intelligent representation on both sides of an issue. The liberals seem to have found their voice, or at least an audience of late, and the conservatives need to be able to counter them with reasonable arguments. Our whole political system seems to be stacked against reason right now, but in our two-party government, it's exactly what we need.

Whether it's Cato or somewhere similar, we need strong reasonable voices out front. We're pulling for you, man. Have fun out there.