I'm Curious. How did you wake up?

It all started with cannabis. It was my body, after almost losing my eye at fifteen, I noticed the medicinal benefits of cannabis at 18. It was my hot topic. I was not a criminal period! So I became politically astute in '94. I was partyless as democrats and republicans didn't serve me.

Then one day, perhaps even July 3rd or 4th in 1996, I was flippin thru channels and landed on C-span during the Libertarian Convention. I watched the whole convention listening to... Dr. Mary Rupert, Michael Cloud, Carla Howell, and Harry Browne (r.i.p.).

I was sold everything they spoke of gave me goosebumps. They recognized that I was an individual who made personal choices which were victimless. They opened their arms to me. I even came around for the gun issue realizing in about two minutes that guns protect our rights.

I continued the libertarian path. Read Ayn Rand's non-fiction works among other publications and was hooked with an objectivist point of view.

I was called a terrorist in 2001 by my girlfriend at the time because I was pro-freedom and didn't mince words when speaking about our leaders.
I came across RP in '02/'03 and I couldn't believe he was a republican.
I wanted him to run in '04. Forgot about him for four years, and then one day I heard these truths coming from the "hypnobox.". It was RP and hr was running for president.

Well I did what any other respectable Libertarian would do... I became a libertarian-Republican.

All this because of cannabis!

I was checking out the comments left on one of Obama's presidential campaign speech. Every so often I stumbled upon a Ron Paul this, Ron Paul that. I was annoyed. However, I decided taking a look at the opposition wouldn't hurt. I remember being impressed with the number of videos and views counts he had considering I hardly heard of him before in the Mass Media. I clicked on one of them, and I literally couldn't get enough. Ron Paul is a man of principle. He makes sense. I woke up, and I have been awake ever since.

I tend to trust my gut about a lot of things. When JFK was killed I didn't believe Oswald did it alone. I later came to believe that Oswald was never directly involved in the killing; nor did he kill officer Tibbetts. There were whispers at the time of the assassination being either a Mafia or a CIA hit. Both groups had many reasons to want JFK out of the way.

Later, the Peace/Protests movements, the radicals, the Black Panthers, all seemed to be fighting against something but I wasn't sure what it was. A lot of people were very angry with the government, the war in Vietnam and the waste of human lives. But many of the young people were angry at arbitrary authority in general. Rebellion was in the air for years, right up to Nixon's resignation. Then the movement sort of stopped.

In the late 70s I was living in NYC and listening to WBAI. Amy Goodman was a cub reporter then (she produces Democracy Now) and there were a lot of fascinating shows. Among them were interviews with Daniel Sheehan and Sara Nelson of The Christic Institute. They were on the cutting edge of exposing corruption in government; notably the drug-running by George Bush Sr., Oliver North, Bill Clinton and others who had been formerly associated with the CIA. That was an eye-opener. They also exposed the 'October surprise' in which George W. Bush arranged for the release of hostages from Iran in exchange for TOW missiles. The hostages were released on Reagan's inauguration day.

Shortly after were the Iran/CONRA hearings on TV, and my gut told me that this was also a whitewash - designed to give the impression of an honest search for the truth. But drugs were never mentioned. It was also during these hearings the Senator Jack Brooks (D-TX) asked about FEMA and the internment camps. (Indirectly, he was asking about REX-84), but Senator Inouye stopped him cold. There were things that they wanted to keep away from the public.

Later I heard an interview with Dr. John Coleman, about the power elite. Most of us have heard about the CFR, the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderburg Society. But few know about the Royal Institute of International Affairs, The Tavistock Institute, or the really immensely powerful and secret Committee of 300. Compared to the Committee of 300, the other organizations are mere farm teams. They are also allied with The Club of Rome, and other ancient and powerful European groups.

The process continues. If I have any question lingering today, it is to whom does Obama directly report? It is doubtful that it is David Rockefeller. Compared to the Rothschilds, Rockefeller is bush league. Who's on the other end of the red phone? We may never know that for sure, but I believe it is one of the Committee of 300; the same person who gave Bush marching orders and instructed Cheney to carry out 911. In case you missed it, Cheney was our president; Bush was just a stooge.

Those have all been 'wake up' calls. I wonder what the next one will be.

What woke me up was the oxymoron of war on terror and wide open unsecured borders. If we were really at war why do our borders remain open, some 8+ years after 9/11? I would think one of the first things a country would do after being attacked would be to close their borders, but that didn't happen.

I don't understand why more people haven't connected the dots on this alone. It makes absolutely no sense to be fighting wars thousands of miles away and yet let anyone and everyone just walk into our country. We have no idea who these people are or where they come from or what danger they may pose.

So how are fighting wars in foreign countries going to keep us safe when our borders are unprotected? Like I said it makes no sense...at least to me.

I was very politically active in my college years and 20's. The first time I voted in a presidential election it was for Ronald Reagan. But as time progressed, I couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right. Furthermore, whatever was wrong seemed to cut across the political divide we have all fallen for... the whole left vs right, Liberal vs Conservative mantra.
It seemed we were very prosperous as compared to most of the world, but I reasoned that this prosperity (as compared to most others) was not something that we ourselves had or were earning. The level of debt amongst myself and almost everyone I knew was growing and growing. And it seemed rather odd that almost everything I bought was made somewhere other than in the USA. How could this go on forever?

Other things seemed skewed. For example, was it really reasonable for the United States to place demands on other nations in regard to their own internal affairs? I knew instinctively that if another nation made such demands towards us, we would be fighting mad. Also it seemed odd - very odd - that we had military bases in so many different countries around the world even after the break up of the Soviet Union. Obviously no other nation seemed to be occupying land here. It wasn't like I could drive to the next state or county and find a Chinese airbase or a German naval port. So why were we occupying other places?

In time, I stopped being interested in politics. I still voted most of the time, but discussing it, hearing it or even thinking about it was a complete drag.

About the time when the last Presidential election was really gearing up, I happened to be visiting a theological site I frequent. There was a political discussion going on that peaked my interest. Someone mentioned Ron Paul with approval and many other thinking Christians I respect echoed their approval. I clicked on a link that took me straight to a You Tube video.

I saw the title, "Stop Dreaming"... the screen started out completely black and then the words of Benjamin Franklin came into focus in simple white letters: "Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools who don't have enough brains to be honest." How odd, I thought.
Then appeared a man who looked like a friendly grandfather type, and the question was asked, "If you were elected president, would you work to phase out the IRS?" and the old man's answer? "Immediately".

I sat spelled bound for 12 minutes. Then I went to another video, then another. I sat in front of the computer screen for an hour or more. Suddenly all my doubts and concerns had names and made sense. Suddenly I became not only interested in politics again, but absolutely on fire for the message of Liberty and the Constitution. A scene in one of the videos sums up what happened in my awakening. There is a man holding a sign that reads "Ron Paul curred my Apathy". Those words fit my experience to a "tee"!