The trophy wife and I zipped from Montana through eastern Oregon and back last weekend and the countryside was green beginning to end.  Because I am a country kid, whenever I see baby calves frolicking in the spring sunshine on green rolling hills, framed by snow-capped mountain peaks, I praise our Creator.  Spring always sparks enthusiasm; signaling a new beginning for those in agriculture.   

In Cove, Oregon I stepped to the podium to address a barnful of liberty-focused country folk reminding them American freedom is a just cause.  Ironically, it is the life stories from strangers at these red, white and blue events, which inspires me.  The trophy wife and I left the barn thinking this weekend could not possibly get any better, but it did.   

Along with the 225 other attendees at this Union County GOP rally, were five patriots who share my last name along with my love of country.  My great-uncle, Tom Kerns, left his six older siblings in Wyoming’s, Big Horn foothills in the late 1930s to farm and ranch in Haines, Oregon.  His was a bountiful branch of the family tree and over time the Blue Mountain area filled with Kerns descendants; all of whom were strangers to me until Saturday.  We graciously accepted an invitation to share Sunday morning breakfast at the home of Tim and Jan Kerns.  Interestingly, we stepped into the kitchen of a house we had never seen, to break bread with 25 shirttail cousins we had never met, yet within ten minutes we felt like we were home.  The conversations bounced from family to cows to running to helicopter crashes; typical topics for this Montana cowboy.  Our visit was all too short due to 727 miles of scenery needing moved from our windshield to the rearview mirror, so after breakfast we regretfully said our goodbyes and headed east.  Driving along, the trophy wife remarked how much we all looked, talked and laughed alike.  It was the end of a great weekend, but there is nothing unique about my family.   Our great republic is filled with thousands of families with similar stories and this brings me to my point.

 Faith, family and freedom are the pillars upon which America was founded; principles progressives must weaken, or destroy to advance Marxism.  We patriots cannot let leftist terrorists, such as Antifa, snatch these blessings from our grasp under the banner of fairness or social justice.  We either engage them now or forever wish we would have.