jesse the political operative?

So there's this March for Life event coming up in D.C. on Tuesday. I've heard of it before and even considered going last year, but of course my laziness and lack of initiative scuttled that idea before it led to any action. But, despite the expected frigid temps (43 high) and afternoon showers forecasted, I'm seriously considering trying to squeeze a day off into a dreadfully busy week of work and heading up there to check it out. The catch is, I wouldn't exactly be "marching" but rather politicking.

I got an email from the Ron Paul camp last week explaining their need for volunteers to hand out promotional stuff and probably just mingle with the crowd. This struck me as a neat opportunity to get involved in something I've never seen first-hand or from the inside before and might not have too many chances to jump into in the future. I'm not exactly the mingle-with-people type though. I'm not annoyingly talkative, a skilled orator or debater, a good first-impression guy, gifted with an endless supply of energy, or otherwise possessing of attributes that would be of huge benefit in political activities. In other words, I'm not exactly cut out for this stuff. But my take is, something is better than nothing. Ron Paul needs all the shows of support he can get. Heck, I can at least wander around holding signs or passing out fliers, and I figure I can memorize enough of his position stuff to carry on a few conversations. And given that Paul has an very solid pro-life record, that last part shouldn't be too difficult from a facts standpoint. But since I'm not sure I can go I didn't even email back until today, so who knows if I'll be able to get in on any of the action.

I'm not really sure what to expect. For one, let's just say I don't usually think of evangelicals as the deepest of thinkers, and I expect them to make up most of the crowd. So I might drive myself insane if I try to address political topics on a root-cause level with too many of them. But then again, I've never really tried so I might be pleasantly surprised at the amount of thinkers I encounter and I'd surely learn a thing or few. I might also have to restrain myself pummelling any fools sporting Romney, McCain, or Giuliani gear, and thus scoring some free room and board for an extended stay in D.C., but I'm willing to see what happens if I put my patience and tolerance of idiocy on the line and throw myself out there. (Yeah, I know Jesus said to not put the Lord to the test, but he also said we grow through trials so I'll bank on the latter over the former here.) And I can just bring a blowtorch or two to take care of any traitor signage I see. The weather is another thing...I've never been too bothered by rough weather in the past, but I'm not in top health these days and a day in cold and potentially freezing rain never sounds appealing. But heck, chalk it up as conditioning for future adventures.

For now, I hope to just head up there Tuesday morning. If I can get on the Paul team then I'll do that; otherwise I'll just find the March For Life folks and join that. It'd be a cool and unique experience either way, not the sort of thing that's available often or outside of this area. Might as well take advantage of it...

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P.S. Talked to a fellow ESL volunteer at church this evening, and when I mentioned my idea she said her son (an economist about my age who lives/works in D.C.) is all about Ron Paul. I'm not surprised; anyone with a rudimentary understanding of macroeconomics can surely see that our propped-up system of faux money and ever-increasing debt and deficits is in bad need of some major repairs. For the record, this guy also says the housing market shouldn't be touched for at least another year. I'm confident he's right on the first and hope he's right on the second.