WELCOME TO THE COWBOY LIBERTARIAN!
Today July 25th is the National Day for the American Cowboy. I know for most Americans it is just another day in July but for those who work the land from the back of a horse it has special meaning.
The late Senator Craig Thomas first began the tradition of designating a National Day of the American Cowboy in 2005. In his initial floor speech to the U.S. Senate proposing the resolution he said, "Cowboys come in any age, race, marital status, and gender." He knew the cowboy spirit was not about getting dressed in cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. He went on to say that, “Trying to define a cowboy is like trying to rope the wind, but you certainly recognize one when you see one.”
I thought it was only fitting that I launch my new blog, The Cowboy Libertarian today.
I am no cowboy. Don’t claim to be. Cowboy is a title that is hard earned over many years, through hardship and good times, bad weather and good and living each day by the unwritten cowboy code.
But I have met some real cowboys in my time and I can tell you everything you heard about them is true. In a society where we toss around the term “icon” for so-called celebrities, 100 years from now no one will remember they existed---but they will remember the cowboy who is the true “icon” of America.
Unlike self-centered politicians or crooked businessmen, they still make a deal with a handshake and their word is their bond.
Given where this country finds itself today, we could sure use a few more cowboys.
And there is a little of the cowboy in us all no matter where we hail from.
It is my hope that this blog will reach the cowboy in all of us and during these hard times we can remember that the important things in life are not how many things we acquire, but that we live a good life, take care of our families and remember that fixing this country is our responsibility not the governments.
I would like to tell you a little story of how this all came about.
My mother passed away in October 2005. She was saddle leather tough and had a heart as big as the West where she grew up. She raised five children and was married to my Dad for 65 years. She battled cancer three times, but the third time was too much even for her and a few days shy of her 89th birthday she was called home.
Mom spent a good portion of her childhood at the Parkview Ranch owned by her half-sister Kate and her Bryant, in Rand, Colorado. Mom used to say that Rand was just a “wide spot in the road”. She learned to ride a horse from a full blooded Cheyenne Indian and she worked alongside the cowboys. They were some of the happiest days of her life.
For those of you familiar with my writings on POLITICO or the FOX Forum will note that I like to use old sayings and cowboy wisdom to make my point. I learned them all at her knee.
Towards the end of her life I would visit her and sit and talk with her. We would engage in some small talk and that was difficult as her memory was fading.
But whenever I mentioned the ranch and horses and cowboys her steel gray eyes would light up and she would vividly tell me in rich detail the stories she had filled my head with since I was a small boy. And just as before I hung on every word. It is some of the most precious time I ever spent with her and will cherish it as long as the good Lord let’s me.
When she died a large piece of me died as well.
At the time I had a fairly successful career but I was still just a hired hand for other folks mainly politicians and corporations and yes the government.
But I was in a rut and had witnessed too much corruption and politicians talking out of both sides of their mouth using fancy words that meant nothing. They had no ethics or values and had perfected lying to an art form.
A man can master many things in life and be a financial success, but it takes a long time know who you really are inside.
That’s the wisdom that comes from experience—and most of that is bad experience.
So I decided to light out on my own and start my own consulting business. I figured that it was time to put my faith in myself and see if I could make a go of it. That was the first step.
In 2004 my wife Carol had clipped out a book review from the local paper. The title of the book was Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West by Jim Owen. In the article was Jim’s Code of the West.
Carol put it on our refrigerator and there it sat for over a year…getting yellow and faded. I saw it every day and didn’t pay much attention.
I liked what I read but was too busy to explore it any further.
When we came home from my mom’s funeral where I gave the eulogy, I looked at that Code of the West and decided to buy the book.
And that was the day that changed my life.
When the book arrived I read it in one day. The beautiful photographs painted a vivid picture of the places and the cowboy life my Mother had told me about.
And while the words were different the sentiments expressed in Jim’s Code of the West seemed familiar to me. Then I realized it was how I and my siblings were reared by our parents.
At about the same time I came upon a box of old photos that my mother had given me for safe keeping when my parents moved out of the house they had lived in for almost 50 years and raised their family.
I thought I had seen every family picture that existed. But when I finally opened the box I saw many old pictures of the ranch in Rand where my mother had lived.
- There was the old log ranch house just as she described it.
- There was a picture of my mother’s big old Appaloosa horse “Skeezix”.
- Spring roundup and branding. And a picture of the old Mexican sheepherder.
- My Uncle Bryant mowing hay with his horse-driven mower.
- And a picture of my mother with her bum lambs. A story she had told me about many times
All the stories she had told me suddenly came to life.
It was almost as if she had put this aside just for me to open after she had gone.
It was then and there that I figured out what I was going to do with the rest of my life.
I was going to use all the skills I had learned over the years and focus my efforts on the promotion of the values and ethics that are the cowboy way and also the preservation of the spirit of the American West.
Because as my good friend Jim Owen said in his second book, Cowboy Values: Recapturing What America Once Stood For…
“Authentic working cowboys embody the positive qualities that built this country—values such as optimism, courage, hard work, and fair play. These traits are a big part of what makes us uniquely American.
That’s why the cowboy remains such a natural model for our country today. Cowboy values are the ones all Americans can share, no matter what our religion, race, or politics, no matter whether we identify with red states or blue ones. They can help teach us to live with heart and rebuild the tottering pillars of our society.
Cowboys have never been ones to leave behind great fortunes, grand buildings, or thriving enterprises. Typically they owned little more than they could carry in their saddlebags.
The cowboy’s code and quintessentially American values are his true legacy—a legacy we need to draw upon now if we want to restore America to greatness.”
That is how this blog came to be. Somewhere I know Mom is smiling.
I hope you enjoy it and I look forward to your comments.
To find out more about The Cowboy Libertarian, I encourage you to go to the “About Us” section.