To catch you all up a bit, news of a local gathering: Members of the community of Conservative bloggers in Kentucky were invited to a conference, sponsored by KyConservativeBlogs.com and Conservative Edge, in Lexington last Saturday morning. I must admit that when a pajama-clad, rogue-like activity like blogging begins to get organized, I get a little nervous worrying that the creativity and the independence of expression may become tainted. However, my nervousness was squelched pretty quickly as I began to meet my fellow rogues. While the talks were interesting, I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the social aspect of this conference more. It was wonderful to finally put the proper faces to the writers and the blogs that I've been enjoying these past two years or so.
(yep, I own a pair of plaid pants... what can I say? Others dressed more Conservatively.) A reporter, Frank Lockwood, from the Lexington Herald-Leader (a publication that is not often friendly to Conservatives) was present. It was interesting to read his take on the conference. A fair assessment of the four hours we spent together that day, I suppose. By far, the more interesting aspect of the day was the presentation by Caleb O. Brown from the Bluegrass Institute on their site, KentuckyVotes.org. I am a huge fan of transparency in government from committee agendas and votes to donations and budgets. If you are a Kentuckian, I highly recommend that you spend some time on Kentucky Votes to see how your representative to the legislature is representing you. This is a tool that is needed at the federal level at an even finer granularity.
I came away from the conference chuckling about a statement from Caleb that was something like this: "Send a message by staying home," and again later, "Stay home." Right -- there is absolutely NO way! Even though the thought is valid, it's too hard to sit by and allow Leftists to gain power because those on the Right are not holding true to Conservative fiscal values. I refuse to stay home for two reasons: (1) people died for my right to vote in this representative Republic; and (2) by doing nothing, I allow others to choose for me.
Nice try, Caleb. Instead, I'll be holding my Congressional and State legislators' collective feet to the fire of Conservatism at every opportunity. I'd rather try to herd them back in the RIGHT direction than to sit idly by and watch them graze right off the cliff. Hey, who knows, I might even use KentuckyVotes.org to help me do that!
It was sincerely a pleasure meeting and becoming better acquainted with so many talented and passionate people on Saturday: Bryan from KyConservativeBlogs; Leland, Brian, and Chad from Conservative Edge; David from Kentucky Progress; Steve from Conservative Musings; Jeff from Bluegrass, Red State; Brian from Elendil's Blog (hey, he even taught me Java two years ago!); Steve from On the Right; Johnathan from Cyberhillbilly; Howard from The Pure Investor; and Al Cross who is directing a new endeavor called the "Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues."
I certainly hope that we will do this again; Nice job, Bryan!!
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