speciallyblend
09-04-2008, 03:45 PM
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/politics/17375980/detail.html
BLAINE, Minn. -- After her opening song, rocker Aimee Allen addressed the crowd gathered in a Minneapolis-area stadium Monday.
"I'm from Los Angeles, Calif., but I had to come all the way to Minneapolis, Minn., in order to find my people," she said.
Her people were a few thousand screaming and cheering supporters of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who had gathered at the Blaine National Sports Center Stadium for the Ron Paul Nation Celebration. The concert was part of the buildup to Paul's Rally for the Republic that was held at the Target Center in Minneapolis on Tuesday.
Paul's rally could best be described as a counter-convention to the Republican National Convention, which was taking place at the same time over the Mississippi River in St. Paul. Paul ran an unsuccessful bid this year for the Republican Party's nomination for president, but in the process earned a loyal band of followers drawn to his outspoken nature and libertarian views.
Looking out over the crowd in Blaine Monday, it was apparent that Paul has attracted an eclectic and diverse group of supporters. Older men in suits and ties danced next to young women in summer dresses and bearded college-aged men waving flags of the American Revolution that read "Don't Tread On Me." Children in the rear played Frisbee next to seniors sitting on lawn chairs who fanned themselves to keep cool on the unusually humid night.
"There's people from all walks of life here," said Mary Lou Van Houten, a Paul volunteer that traveled from Atlanta. "He's attracted independents, Libertarians, Democrats, people who have never voted, Republicans. It's great when we get together. There'll be an evangelical and a new age person. It's really neat."
Like his supporters, Paul has a diverse set of views. He wants to abolish the Federal Reserve and the IRS, pull the U.S. out of Iraq, and opposes the Patriot Act and the Real I.D. Act. He has spoken in favor of many hot-button issues -- such as abortion, same-sex unions and capital punishment -- being legislated on a state level instead of federally. He opposes the war on drugs, raising taxes, affirmative action and federal regulation of gun ownership. He has constantly spoken in favor of a smaller central government and a disengagement of the American military from overseas conflicts and commitments.
Trying to pin down the tie that binds his group of supporters together is difficult. A common theme is personal liberty and freedom, which many of his supporters said they believe are being trampled on by the government.
"I want the maximum amount of liberty with minimal regulation of people's lives. I want everybody to be free to make the choices that they want," said Earl Bell, who was handing out copies of an alternative newspaper called USA Tomorrow, of which he is the media director. "I would say (Paul) is the Thomas Jefferson of our times. I believe if Thomas Jefferson were alive today, he would speak just like Ron Paul."
Kenny Karolchick-Griffin, a bearded and ponytailed Paul supporter, drove from Colorado and helped organize Ronstock '08, in which a group of about 80 to 100 Paul supporters camped out on a farm in Goodhue, Minn., which is about an hour southeast of the Twin Cities.
"The government is overseeing everything, when in reality the government shouldn't oversee anything," said Karolchick-Griffin. "I don't need them to take care of me. No American needs it. For some reason people think the government should be taking our money so they can take care of us. Keep your money and take care of yourself."
While Karolchik-Griffin said he agreed with "99.9 percent" of Paul's views, he believed that a desire for an unobtrusive government was a major issue that attracted many of Paul's supporters.
"What people don't understand is they are slowly being choked," said Karolchick-Grifin. "If you turn the oxygen level off slowly, you just won't know it until it's too late. That's what's going on in this country. And Ron Raul wants to change that."
Karolchick-Griffin also said he and other Paul supporters felt ostracized at a Republican caucus and bullied by supporters of Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, which caused him to become a more rabid supporter of Paul. Many other Paul supporters reported the same thing.
"I was a delegate to the Republican district convention, and I got pissed," said Paul Reese, the farmer that hosted Ronstock '08. "The final straw was when we got half a delegate. The Ron Paul supporters were dropped from the national nominating committee. Shortly after that, Kenny put the word out that he was looking for some place to camp, and we thought it would be cool."
For Reese and his wife, Emily, it was Paul's opposition to the Federal Reserve that initially turned them on to the former presidential candidate.
"It really appears that the Federal Reserve was designed to be anti-sustainable, to funnel the real wealth in this country into the hands of a few," said Reese. "Even when banks fail, it's always a bigger bank that gains. We're all losing except for the power of the few."
Following the concert in Blaine, roughly 80 Paul supporters at Ronstock '08 hung out around a large campfire grilling food and talking politics in small groups into the wee hours of the morning. The mood stood in stark contrast to the violent protests that had gone on Monday in St. Paul at the RNC, where nearly 300 people were arrested, many for acts of violence and vandalism.
At the Ron Paul Nation Celebration Monday, the Blaine Police Department reported no arrests or violent incidents. At both the concert and Ronstock '08, the mood was one of mellow contentment, which seemed counter to the message of a candidate who authored a book titled "The Revolution: A Manifesto" and generally calls for a complete overhaul of the federal government.
Reese said he went down to the protests in St. Paul on Monday but was taken aback by much of what he saw.
"We went up there to the march, and I was kind of defensive. You don't really know, 'Do I support this? Are these people on the same page?'" said Reese. "If you look at the anarchists, the green people, a lot of people that are angry, they're up there, they're trying to sabotage, they know what's wrong, but they don't know how to fix it. But with the Ron Paul movement, we've studied, we really know what's wrong and we have an idea of what needs to be done to fix it. And there's a peace that comes with that clarity. A lot of the other groups just don't have that, even though their hearts are in the right place."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I love you ALL, i cannot read this without tearing up. RON PAUL FORUMS AND ALL OF YOU, GOD BLESS:) ps it is a happy sniffle
BLAINE, Minn. -- After her opening song, rocker Aimee Allen addressed the crowd gathered in a Minneapolis-area stadium Monday.
"I'm from Los Angeles, Calif., but I had to come all the way to Minneapolis, Minn., in order to find my people," she said.
Her people were a few thousand screaming and cheering supporters of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who had gathered at the Blaine National Sports Center Stadium for the Ron Paul Nation Celebration. The concert was part of the buildup to Paul's Rally for the Republic that was held at the Target Center in Minneapolis on Tuesday.
Paul's rally could best be described as a counter-convention to the Republican National Convention, which was taking place at the same time over the Mississippi River in St. Paul. Paul ran an unsuccessful bid this year for the Republican Party's nomination for president, but in the process earned a loyal band of followers drawn to his outspoken nature and libertarian views.
Looking out over the crowd in Blaine Monday, it was apparent that Paul has attracted an eclectic and diverse group of supporters. Older men in suits and ties danced next to young women in summer dresses and bearded college-aged men waving flags of the American Revolution that read "Don't Tread On Me." Children in the rear played Frisbee next to seniors sitting on lawn chairs who fanned themselves to keep cool on the unusually humid night.
"There's people from all walks of life here," said Mary Lou Van Houten, a Paul volunteer that traveled from Atlanta. "He's attracted independents, Libertarians, Democrats, people who have never voted, Republicans. It's great when we get together. There'll be an evangelical and a new age person. It's really neat."
Like his supporters, Paul has a diverse set of views. He wants to abolish the Federal Reserve and the IRS, pull the U.S. out of Iraq, and opposes the Patriot Act and the Real I.D. Act. He has spoken in favor of many hot-button issues -- such as abortion, same-sex unions and capital punishment -- being legislated on a state level instead of federally. He opposes the war on drugs, raising taxes, affirmative action and federal regulation of gun ownership. He has constantly spoken in favor of a smaller central government and a disengagement of the American military from overseas conflicts and commitments.
Trying to pin down the tie that binds his group of supporters together is difficult. A common theme is personal liberty and freedom, which many of his supporters said they believe are being trampled on by the government.
"I want the maximum amount of liberty with minimal regulation of people's lives. I want everybody to be free to make the choices that they want," said Earl Bell, who was handing out copies of an alternative newspaper called USA Tomorrow, of which he is the media director. "I would say (Paul) is the Thomas Jefferson of our times. I believe if Thomas Jefferson were alive today, he would speak just like Ron Paul."
Kenny Karolchick-Griffin, a bearded and ponytailed Paul supporter, drove from Colorado and helped organize Ronstock '08, in which a group of about 80 to 100 Paul supporters camped out on a farm in Goodhue, Minn., which is about an hour southeast of the Twin Cities.
"The government is overseeing everything, when in reality the government shouldn't oversee anything," said Karolchick-Griffin. "I don't need them to take care of me. No American needs it. For some reason people think the government should be taking our money so they can take care of us. Keep your money and take care of yourself."
While Karolchik-Griffin said he agreed with "99.9 percent" of Paul's views, he believed that a desire for an unobtrusive government was a major issue that attracted many of Paul's supporters.
"What people don't understand is they are slowly being choked," said Karolchick-Grifin. "If you turn the oxygen level off slowly, you just won't know it until it's too late. That's what's going on in this country. And Ron Raul wants to change that."
Karolchick-Griffin also said he and other Paul supporters felt ostracized at a Republican caucus and bullied by supporters of Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, which caused him to become a more rabid supporter of Paul. Many other Paul supporters reported the same thing.
"I was a delegate to the Republican district convention, and I got pissed," said Paul Reese, the farmer that hosted Ronstock '08. "The final straw was when we got half a delegate. The Ron Paul supporters were dropped from the national nominating committee. Shortly after that, Kenny put the word out that he was looking for some place to camp, and we thought it would be cool."
For Reese and his wife, Emily, it was Paul's opposition to the Federal Reserve that initially turned them on to the former presidential candidate.
"It really appears that the Federal Reserve was designed to be anti-sustainable, to funnel the real wealth in this country into the hands of a few," said Reese. "Even when banks fail, it's always a bigger bank that gains. We're all losing except for the power of the few."
Following the concert in Blaine, roughly 80 Paul supporters at Ronstock '08 hung out around a large campfire grilling food and talking politics in small groups into the wee hours of the morning. The mood stood in stark contrast to the violent protests that had gone on Monday in St. Paul at the RNC, where nearly 300 people were arrested, many for acts of violence and vandalism.
At the Ron Paul Nation Celebration Monday, the Blaine Police Department reported no arrests or violent incidents. At both the concert and Ronstock '08, the mood was one of mellow contentment, which seemed counter to the message of a candidate who authored a book titled "The Revolution: A Manifesto" and generally calls for a complete overhaul of the federal government.
Reese said he went down to the protests in St. Paul on Monday but was taken aback by much of what he saw.
"We went up there to the march, and I was kind of defensive. You don't really know, 'Do I support this? Are these people on the same page?'" said Reese. "If you look at the anarchists, the green people, a lot of people that are angry, they're up there, they're trying to sabotage, they know what's wrong, but they don't know how to fix it. But with the Ron Paul movement, we've studied, we really know what's wrong and we have an idea of what needs to be done to fix it. And there's a peace that comes with that clarity. A lot of the other groups just don't have that, even though their hearts are in the right place."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I love you ALL, i cannot read this without tearing up. RON PAUL FORUMS AND ALL OF YOU, GOD BLESS:) ps it is a happy sniffle