What if they threw a party, and the owner of the House didn't come?

House Seat, that is.

What do you like to do on Saturday (or just on your day off, if Saturday is not it)? I generally like to spend time with my family. I think that is important. Particularly as our still-at-home children get older, our schedules during the week rarely coincide, so Saturday and Sunday are usually the best days for us all to be together.

Sometimes I work around the house on Saturday. I think that is important too. If you are a homeowner, you know there is always something that needs fixing or maintaining or improving.

I did not do either of these typical things this past Saturday. But what I did do was just as important, probably even more important. This Saturday I joined approximately 150 other Western North Carolinians who love their country, and have an opinion on its current political direction, and I attended a rally at Congressman Heath Shuler's office in Asheville.
I met some really neat people. All kinds of people, all kinds of backgrounds and professions. Shuler's district covers quite a bit of geography, so there were lots of people there who had traveled an hour or more to be there. People like me I suspect, who care enough about their country to forfeit what they would really like to do on a Saturday, and place their voice and their body in a place to hopefully be heard and seen.

Several people had the courage to take the podium and pose a question for the Congressman. Several others added statements about how they believe the current political direction of our country is not wise, or sustainable.

One individual who took the podium expressed views which were 180 degrees in opposition to most or all of the others there. I wish he had been as informed, as he was passionate. I admired his courage for being willing to come to the event, and I think expected to be treated with the same stereotypical attitudes that he was espousing. He was treated with dignity, in spite of the poorly informed basis of his verbal combativeness.

There is one thing though that might have made this event at Congressman Heath Shuler's office even better than it was: Heath Shuler's presence. The Congressman chose not to attend, even though Congress is in recess, even though Asheville is the largest population base in his district, and even though he was given several weeks notice of the event. Does something about his absence not seem right to you, too? Does it seem right to you that Mr. Shuler held zero town hall meetings during the current recess? What value courage, Mr. Shuler? What value the will of the people? What value the influence of out of market campaign contributions?

The event was sponsored by Asheville Tea Party. A year ago, a tea party in Asheville would have involved, well, tea, not political issues. A year ago, I had never attended a political rally. Since April 15th, I've attended three, and I plan to be in Washington DC with my 15 year old son, at our expense, for the National Tax March September 12. Why this change in behavior for me and literally hundreds of thousands of other Americans? Simply and idealistically put, for me, its because I love my country, I recognize arrogant, politically reckless behavior when I see it, and I do not want to have to answer to my children when they ask what did I do when our economic freedoms and life liberties were in the balance.