I travel the state of Virginia pretty regularly. I speak in front of groups and I tell them about the mission of Oath Keepers, how I see our role within the state, and what I think the future will look like. During my talks, I allude to the incidents that brought me to where I am now. I think the biggest influences on me are my children and grandchild (hopefully grandchildren) and my former students. When I retired from the Coast Guard in 2003, I went into the teaching profession. I taught in an inner-city school on the east end of Newport News. I saw exactly what my students faced, the hurdles they had to overcome to achieve success. Hurdles placed there, oftentimes by the very government that was supposed to “help” them.

We live in a republic that was designed with the best of intentions, though it was imperfect. There is no doubt that the list of America’s sins is long, but the liberal ideals of equality, freedom of conscience, liberty, and natural rights are things we as Americans should take pride in.

My family immigrated to this nation in the twentieth century. My paternal grandparents came over in the 1930s and my mother came over right before I was born. I was raised a proud American who was also proud of my heritage, a heritage one third of all Americans share. I watched my generation squander the freedoms that we were given by the greatest generation. I saw us trade liberty for security; we actually demanded our oligarchs take our freedom away because we were scared. I have watched Washington, DC pass law after law without any real outrage from the American public. We ascribe things like economic success and charity to government, who truly only gets in the way of such things. We have traded the republic our forefathers and foremothers gave us for a nanny state that provides “security” from the cradle to the grave.

What I want and what I work for is a home that is free, that allows its citizens to thrive in liberty. We cannot change Washington, DC overnight. It has taken a century to pollute it; it will take us a century to clean it up. So what I work for within Oath Keepers is to create pockets of freedom around me. I want Virginians to work together to secure our neighborhoods, to influence our local and state governments. I want us to support Constitutional Sheriffs so we can enjoy freedom within our counties and cities. We must work together to Reach, Teach and Inspire those who have taken the oath to honor it. Government is tied down by the chains of freedom to prevent it from encroaching on the rights of humankind, it is time you and I worked together to get that beast chained down once more. The answers are not in DC, Richmond or in your town, the answers are in your heart.

MK