The “Short and Sharp” or the “Long and Tough?” A Veterans Day Missive.

Veterans Day Reflections, 2022

I thought most everyone knew of my time in the B-1 before finding myself in this mission to save our kids and empower parents to do so (it’s been mentioned in most of the articles that include me). I realized this week, that there are some who did not know.

So as I reflect on Veterans Day, as your humble chapter chair, I thought I’d share a little bit about my past life in the mighty “Bone” (spell out B-ONE). See? Now you know some of the lingo.

In some ways, the fight for our children (while being a mom to three of them) is far more difficult than dropping weapons in Afghanistan. Both callings run on little sleep, a firehose of information, and energy drinks. At least in the B-1, they gave us “go-pills” (amphetamines) to keep us awake. Both can be emotionally draining.

There is one very important similarity that I would like to point out… both missions require brothers and sisters in arms to stand with you #shouldertoshoulder. There is no putting weapons on target without the rest of the crew, or the crew chiefs that maintained the jet, or the weapons loaders who put the bombs in the bay, or the Intel shop who briefed us on the threats and targets, or the airspace controllers that cleared a path for the weapons fall, or the tanker crew that refueled us twice in a 12 hour mission…or the inevitable fire truck crew who scrambled to meet us upon landing (bc the B-1 had a special affinity for creative in-flight emergencies).

It’s the same for this mission. For these 101 seminars, the website, the chapter meetings, all the events, there is a team of people working behind the scenes that you don’t see. I get a lot of credit for these things, but I could NEVER do it without them. Just as I could never have presented “Let’s Talk Wit & Wisdom” without the 30 parents behind the scenes who read 1200 hours worth of books. They fulfill the often thankless tasks that make this organization run, and I am so grateful to them.

And that leads me to all of you. We as a chapter have been on this mission for a year and 8 months now. I’ve often it said it feels like a long deployment, because real life often gets suspended in order to do the job. Just as families strain when a parent is deployed, my family has strained as this mission regularly pulls me away from them and steals my focus from my kids. (That’s the most emotionally taxing part for me.)

Our chapter is not without its own challenges. Our FB page is being severely throttled, and any post by an admin is often shadow-banned. The other part is battle-weary parents. That’s why we need you and word of mouth.

At this time last year, kids were still in masks, and that was very real and visible thing to stir parents to action. And we had action. In 2022, the masks are gone and the vaccine fervor has died down (for now).

But all of those things that we founded this chapter to fight are still there. In fact, they have only escalated, as the digging in of the WCS Central Office, the apathy of our governor, the toothless legislation that has yet to protect children from anything whatsoever (and now they’re drafting more toothless and politically expedient legislation for “gender affirming care”), the apathy of voters…. All of this has only emboldened the left to double-down and keep pushing these ideologies into our schools and onto our children.

We may have stopped a DEI policy from being implemented in WCS, but the toxic curriculum, toxic ideology and the toxic work environment driving off good teachers creates a toxic brew for our kids. Now is not the time to surrender the cause.

It’s just as important now as it was then to remain active and engaged. We implore you to talk, text, call, email, and engage with new neighbors, old friends, and community members about our mission. Please invite them to be a part of our mission. In reviewing the speech by Winston Churchill, I found this quote:

“But we must learn to be equally good at what is short and sharp and what is long and tough.”

We appreciate you and your engagement. Come when you can, but please come. Speak up when you can, but please speak up.

Williamson County has the “short and sharp” down very well, as evidenced by the 2000 parents that showed up to the August 2021 school board meeting. But do you have the long and tough? It’s the “long and tough” that wins the war for our kids. “Short and sharp” grabs headlines and makes cool videos, but that’s not what will turn the tide. In the words of Congressmen Mark Green at our last chapter meeting, we are fighting a “10, 20, 30 year war.” And we as conservatives are generally not good at that.

So, Williamson County, please keep your resolve. We must keep fighting this #shouldertoshoulder. Only together can we hold the line. Holding the line is not an hours, weeks or months thing. It will take years.

If you continue to stand #shouldertoshoulder with the MFL-WC team, then we can forge ahead….together. We absolutely need you, yes YOU reading this, to make a point to come to our events and be the watchmen in our community so that we can see your face, hear your concerns and connect with you.

To wrap up, I will close with the most famous part of Winston Churchill’s October 29, 1941, speech:

“Never give in, Never give in, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”