2014, In Retrospect

In hindsight, 2014 was a year that was utterly dominated by my life offline, whether it was due to work, family, or traveling to attend conferences or protests. My blogging on this website was reduced to short posts whenever I was off the road along with huge gaps during the summer and over the last two months:

Family – In June, my wife had our first son whose addition to our family consumed a huge and welcome part of my time in the second half of the year. It was a relief to finally accomplish this life goal and I took a lot of time off to enjoy it. I also traveled back and forth to St. Louis for family reasons in April, October, and December.

Conferences – In 2014, I attended five conferences and spoke at three of them: the 2014 Alabama League of the South State Conference in March, the 2014 American Renaissance Conference in April, the 2014 League of the South National Conference in June, the 2014 CofCC National Conference in August, and The Political Cesspool 10 Year Anniversary Celebration in October.

Protests – In 2014,  I attended and/or helped organize seven League of the South protests over immigration, Southern heritage, and federal court rulings on gay marriage – a Rally Against Marco Rubio in Tallahassee, FL in March, a Southern Marriage & Family Defense Rally in Richmond, VA in April, a Southern Marriage & Family Defense Rally at the SPLC in Montgomery, AL in May, an Immigration Hurts Southern Workers Rally in Wetumpka, AL in June, the March Through Occupied Oxford Confederate Flag Rally in Oxford, MS in August, a Southern Marriage & Family Defense Rally in Little Rock, AR and an Immigration Hurts Southern Workers Rally in Apopka, FL in September.

Health – By the end of the year, all the traveling (I visited almost every Southern state in 2014) and the addition of new family obligations had taken a huge toll on my ability to maintain my exercise regimen. I spent the last two months of 2014 obsessed with exercise which further diminished the amount of time that I had to spend here.

In “Rethinking National Conferences,” I stressed the importance of translating “ideas” into things of real value, whether it was through creating families, friendships, social networks, or organizational strength. I spent all of 2014 trying to do that and I have some great friends and a growing family to show for it. Also, insofar as there was any resistance at all in the South to the calamities befalling our people, I was a big part of it.

I will have some thoughts on 2015 in my next post.