Turning Point’s 2023 Action Conference Gave Me Hope
We have not lost our country, but it’s the 4th quarter and we need a rallying cry. We have one.
It’s hard to convey the energy I felt being at Charlie Kirk’s 2023 Turning Point Action Conference live this past weekend. Looking back, this photo below is one of the most powerful images I took from the floor. Hope.
Taken on the TPUSA floor of “Hope” on Saturday, July 15th, 2023.
Hope that as I tire and take wounds from the fight, that there is another generation of activists ready to backfill whatever small path toward the flag that I’ve been able to cut.
I don’t know her name, only that she is why we need to stand up for our country. If she is willing to stand up and wear his name like a cape, we should be able to do more. No more hiding.
My “X” generation has not upheld our end of our burden to uphold true freedom in the greatest country in the world. We’ve let it slip away as we bask in our riches and modern conveniences. While the left plotted, we became docile. Life hasn’t been hard enough for many of us…yet.
By then, it may be too late. We must do more. All of us. For them. We have not lost our country, but it’s the 4th quarter and we need a rallying cry. We have one.
There is no option that provides a path to victory in 2024, other than Donald J. Trump.
Those were my feelings as I wrote my tweet at about 8:30 am, Tuesday morning after the event, through clouded vision after taking the last leg of my journey home into my own hands. I’m not sure if I was tired, if it is that I am a parent of girls her age, or that I was just overwhelmed with emotion, but tears flowed down my face when I wrote it. Go ahead, call me a wimp, that’s ok…more emotional depth is what we all may need right now.
This politically conservative “Woodstock” is what it felt like to me as the weekend progressed, as I’m not sure if in our lifetime we will see a bigger group of more powerful, influential and conservative speakers on the stage. Maybe calling it a “Conservative Ozzfest” would make more sense for my generation?
Featured speakers at the TPUSA Action Conference July 15th and 16th, 2023. A packed lineup, for sure!
Now, this is going to be a long article, and those of you who understand my attention to detail will know that I want to convey much of my entire weekend with you and avoid just writing some 750 word “fluff piece” that most will do about the event. I want to give you the opportunity to live vicariously through me so to speak. I believe if you can make it to a TPUSA event it may change your views on politics, youth and relationships; possibly for the rest of your life.
If you stop reading here…I have still accomplished my objective: President Donald J. Trump is the only option to support in 2024 to course correct our country. Get over it.
First, I had some amazing patriots step up and donate to cover my travel expenses to get to this event. Most people don’t know, but I’ve been unemployed for over two years. I took some time off initially to refresh and recharge after a lengthy battle in Cumberland, ME over exposing my twins school district which was teaching Critical Race Theory. Then I got pulled into hearing about more evils being pushed in our local school district here in Hampden, ME which is my hometown. This has blossomed into a calling to help other parents understand the issues in our educational system. It’s a full-time job…just without the benefits.
That initial exposure about CRT has turned into speaking up about the hyper-sexualization of minors, the horrors of Social Emotional Learning and the Marxist ideology inside our K-12 public schools here in Maine. Full transparency, I earn $250/month with Maine First Project as Director of Special Projects, focusing on educational freedom and the Forgotten Parents Initiative. This is one of the only organizations in Maine willing to step up and fight this culture war inside our schools. That is also my only income. Any donations go toward expenses in this fight.
If you wish to chip in, please go to www.GiveSendGo.com/ShawnMcBreairty
To those who donated funds to send me to this TPUSA event, I will always be indebted to you and I hope you know I won’t put a dime in my own pocket. Thank you! I live a comfortable life in a beautiful house, but I won’t use my children’s inheritance to fight for Maine parents. So far, I’ve cost my family $250,000 over these two years by forging forward with this battle, as opposed to returning to a regular JOB. That’s my choice, but it won’t last forever, and anyone saying I’m doing this for fame and fortune couldn’t be more wrong.
Suffice to say, I didn’t sleep much the evening of Thursday, July 13th. As like a kid all jacked up on Mountain Dew, I was eager to get to my 5:51 am flight out of Bangor (BGR) airport. I woke up at about 4am that morning and roamed around; packing the last of my overly-prepared carry-on and backpack full of camera equipment, and a sweet new microphone touting Maine Source Of Truth, my podcast and Facebook page. After getting out of the shower, I received an alert from American Airlines that said my flight was pushed back until 10 am-ish. Here we go, the joys of air travel in Joe Biden’s America. I figured I’d head to the airport anyway, so my lovely wife drove me over in the wee hours of a beautiful Maine morning.
Once I went through security check in with the one person in front of me in line, I glanced up to see that former RSU22 teacher and 2022 MDOE “Groomer of the Year,” Kelsey Stoyanova was in front of me about two positions, going through security. She was waiting for her luggage to go through the x-ray belt.
I let out an audible laugh, as Ms. Stoyanova has been the subject of much debate here in Hampden, ME where I live, being an 8th grade teacher in the Reeds Brook Middle School. She’s headed to the Bangor, ME High School this fall to groom older students, with 11 year olds not posing much of a challenge. Bangor is a ripe spot for someone of her ilk, a school already approving of paying a trans-stripper, groomer-clown to come into the classroom to add mental illness to the list of curriculum choices, instead of teaching the basics of education.
Ms. Stoyanova has made no apologies for her near constant hyper-sexualization of middle school students, with a Reeds Three Book List that contained anti-father, anti-police, LGBTQ+/-$, Critical Race Theory and hardcore kiddie porn books, with no age restrictions whatsoever. They even provided students with “daily announcements, prizes and incentives'' to read these perverse books. Not one member of the RSU22 school board would take responsibility for what Stoyanova was pushing with it being promoted by our tax dollars. It’s just sickening what our public K-12 schools have become and what “useful idiots,” like Stoyanova, think education is all about today.
Kelsey Stoyanova, the MDOE “Teacher” of the Year in 2021/22 loves kiddie porn.
I don’t think Ms. Stoyanova saw me, but I was ready to say to security, “Hey, check her bag for kiddie porn,” at a moment’s notice. After being delayed some 8 times on the way down from BGR to Philadelphia (PHL) and to West Palm Beach (PBI) my arrival to the Hotel Evernia, an eclectic, 98 year old building ended up being at 9:30 pm at night, instead of my original expectation of 3pm. I wouldn't be seeing the beach today. I unpacked and crashed in my modest, yet comfortable hotel room.
After a brisk, yet humid morning walk to Publix for some water, bananas and yogurt and a needed Monster Energy drink, I cleaned up, put on my game face and had my Lyft driver drop me off at the West Palm Beach Convention Center. I was on the wrong side of the building, so a small group of us walked around the back and toward the front section, where the Secret Service was queueing everyone up into two lines. I thought I was arriving early, but there were already hundreds of people there in a mass of patriotic humanity. There was a wide cross section of people there, some wearing cowboy hats wrapped in the American flag and other people dressed like they were attending the Kentucky Derby.
I asked around and because TPUSA was nice enough to legitimize me with a press pass, I was told to get into the “executive/sponsor” line, which in theory was to be a much diminished wait time in comparison to the general public line. I started chatting with people and early on the theme was that Ron DeSantis, “America’s Governor,” of Florida who has recently thrown his hat in the presidential ring, was not the main focus of attention from the crowd. DeSantis was also notably absent from speaking at the event.
In fact, one could say DeSantis was often murmured under the speaker's breath as being “too soon” on his Presidential aspirations and many Floridians simply expressed wanting him to continue doing what he has been doing, which is making Florida a conservative sanctuary state. Some even said his eye is currently off the ball and criticized DeSantis for jumping into the fray. Even further, others said he was afraid he would be “booed” on stage in his own state, with Trump being the main attraction.
Our line, which also contained very well dressed executive sponsors, was a half an hour wait, as they only had one metal detector inside the door on our side. Later, I heard Charlie Kirk had requested 8-10 metal detectors, but Joe Biden’s weaponized DOJ only provided a total of 3. That’s right, 3 metal detectors for 6,000 -7,000 people attending the event. With my limited public school education, I figured an average of 1-2 minutes per person would quickly create a log jam. But, the DOJ knew what the lack of providing these resources would do. This is Joe Biden’s America. If you are a conservative group, you are being targeted in one way or another, simply to make your life as miserable as possible.
While I met with some of my fellow line hostages, a lady who’s husband recognized me from the news showed me her shirt, which stated, “Vox Populi Vox Dei” which translates into “The voice of the people is the voice of God.” I took a picture of her shirt displaying the message and quickly realized my first picture as a legitimate member of the press was of a woman’s rather large bosom. I’m not sure if she understood how embarrassed I was, but we both laughed about it.
After getting my credentials, I got upstairs for the first @TPUSAEvents @TPUSA @TPAction_ conference and we had four new media folks on the panel, Savanah Hernandez, Jack Posobiec, Libby Emmons and Charlie Kirk at the first breakout session called “How New Media will lead conservatives to victory!”
Some of my notes from that panel:
Almost the entire room put their hand up when asked if they are no longer watching Fox News since Tucker was fired, myself included.
We are winning on the trans issue because of the liberation of Twitter - Charlie Kirk
They talked about the important documentary What Is A Woman, in which I wrote an article about for The Flame USA.
Tucker is getting an incredible 80M to 100M views for his “Tucker on Twitter” segments.
“Tucker is the best communicator today.” - Charlie Kirk
Techniques to make items go viral. Jack Posobeic says, it’s about riding waves on Twitter. But it is content plus distribution combined.
Turn the other cheek. Charlie Kirk was talking in the micro. He doesn’t like to hold resentment, but God also has a heart for Justice.
There are three types of people, predators, infants and the protectors of infants.
It’s Christianity that will protect the innocent.
It drives the Democrat party crazy when you bring up the children.
Turning the other cheek doesn’t mean being a pacifist. - Jack Posobeic
Do what you do…the next Charlie Kirk might be here. - Jack Posobeic
After this breakout session, I went down to the exhibitor’s area to see what was going on. On the floor there were a number of people selling MAGA merchandise, Christian merchandise, a number of political party groups, some even running for President! I made a “b-line” for media row, as I wanted to understand what organizations would be here to cover the event.
Sherronna Bishop, America’s Mom on the TPUSA set for FrankSpeech and Lindell TV
I walked over to see my friend, Sherronna Bishop, who is America’s Mom on FrankSpeech and she ushered me in, impromptu, to the Lindell TV booth. We did a nice interview, and it was the first time I have been able to see her in person. She’s a warrior and such a hard worker. She has been great at exposing what is happening in our country and deserves a follow on Facebook. I got to speak with Mike Lindell, the “My Pillow Guy” for a moment and thanked him for platforming Sherronna. (He may not be aware, but I also grabbed one of his books from behind the counter and will have a surprise for America’s Mom next time I’m on her show.)
There were so many amazing speakers, and I was there on the media platform that was located in the back of the large room for most of them. I wanted to capture the best comments that I heard during the weekend and here are just a few of them:
Charlie Kirk kicked off his meeting with,“This is an event of action.” I’ll paraphrase his words, but he spoke about the failed old strategy of showing up on election day doesn’t work anymore. The Republican Party is now a grassroots party and a party of the people. The majority of Americans do not approve of what Joe Biden is doing and the government is totally out of touch with reality. But the democrats and the leftists are so confident their machinery is so good, they could run anybody, even a brain dead idiot like Joe Biden. If nothing changes in November 2024, we will be excited election night and the same thing will happen. We’ll wake up, having lost and wonder if we could have done more. It’s 5-10k votes in each state and they could flip important states.
Then, Kirk provided some of the most powerful messaging of the weekend. They (the left) are afraid of you, they hate you. They are counting on your surrender. If you give up, they win. They are fragile, press them. This has been my experience over the last three years, you push back, they don’t know how to even react. They can’t defend their position, so they jump to name calling and you know you won. Kirk finished his speech by saying “There is a volcanic eruption that is about to occur, about to explode.” But, we need action now!
Harmeet Dhillon was up on the stage next. She’s the founder of Dhillon Law and founder and CEO for Center For American Liberty which, for full disclosure, has assisted on my two legal cases against Maine school boards. Harmeet officially kicked off the stacked speaker series Saturday morning by stating the odds today look a bit like they did to the founders of our country. The deck is stacked against us, like it was then. She said, “This is a battle between good and evil. A war for our children, our culture and our faith. Our enemies are socialists, communists, Maoists, racists and democrats.”
She went on to say “Sin once tolerated, seeks acceptance. Acceptance seeks celebration.” These comments are so true and powerful and I have used very similar discussion points to let parents know that once you go past tolerance, the left will want more and more and more. They always want more. Harmeet believes the tide is turning. I sure hope so, but in Maine, it feels the tide may be paused…needing more of a kick to turn. We need more action.
Byron Donalds, Congressman from Florida, came out on stage like a boss. I am still catching up on the political scene and I had seen him in a few interviews, but paid more attention when he had a segment before mine on Steve Bannon’s War Room a couple of months ago. I was very impressed with his courage to stand up for our country.
On stage at TPUSA, he spoke about having to “break some eggs in the House” [of Representatives.] He has one goal in mind, America First policies. It’s interesting that not all of our elected officials think this way and it seems so very basic. Donalds goes on to say that the radical left continues the culture war driving a wedge between a child and their parents. Man, have we seen the left double down on this approach these last few years.
Donalds had one of the best discussion points of the weekend, “We can no longer be passive…It takes activism to make change…It takes going to school board meetings and standing up for your children.” As I stood there taking all this in, I began to well up with emotion as I wondered why more Maine parents don’t get to these school board meetings to stand up for their kids.
Matt Gaetz, who recently hammered FBI Director Chris Wray at a Capitol Hill committee hearing, who as Gaetz stated is, “blissfully ignorant” to what is happening around us with the weaponized Department of Justice, stepped on stage. Matt stated that, “If you are not an online warrior, become one. I need you sharing videos, creating content, knocking on doors like your life depends on it. Know and accept that you will be targeted.” He went on to say, “Are you ready to confront the left? Confront with vitality when you mobilize.”
Shawn McBreairty US Congressman Matt Gaetz with at the “Tucker” book launch on July 15th, 2023
Gaetz goes on to say, “The Bible tells us to be not afraid, ask the tough questions and demand answers…Join the ranks or get out of our way.” Representative Gaetz is also planning to sponsor a national prayer in school law coming soon! Won’t the left have a spaz attack that day!
I’ve been doing some homework on Vivek (pronounced Viv-vake) Ramaswamy, the biggest underdog running for President in 2024, but also the guy gaining the most in the polls. A graduate of Harvard, he founded a biopharmaceuticals company and is an example of the American dream. He has been a critic of CRT and big tech and has answered questions with very thoughtful remarks that provide an actual solution to the problem.
His biggest message of the weekend was, “Start running to something,” which to me means, you need to get involved. Get involved in something! Sitting around is not going to get things done and one day, when evil walks up to your door, it’s too late. Hoping others will do the heavy lifting for you isn’t going to work! As he was speaking, one of his campaign people came over to say he would hold an impromptu press conference in the back hallway after, so I went out, having prepared for this very moment with a few questions about education.
What I asked him was, “You recently stated, “If you’re a public school teacher, who exactly are you unionizing against” and you talked about shutting down the US Department of Education, can you tell us a little bit more about that, please?”
2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, interviewed by Shawn McBreairty, Maine Source Of Truth at TPUSA.
Vivek responded, “I believe that when public school teachers are unionizing, they are unionizing against the very public, that is the kids, they are supposed to represent and I think that that is wrong.” I of course believe that also to be 100% true. His plan is to, “...shut down the US Department of Education, using that $80 billion dollars in funds to fund underfunded school choice programs…States will have to adopt school choice programs in order to receive those funds.” Horra! Horra! He’s nailed it! Why can’t others grasp this concept?
The other aspect that sets Vivek apart from many of his other presidential hopefuls is that he’s willing to go head to head with the NEA teachers unions. He wants to ensure that “...they (the schools) write their contracts in a way that ends teacher/employee union protections. Now you have true competition, true choice.” Again, ask yourself why the MEA, the Maine teachers union doesn’t want you, a parent, a grandparent, a taxpayer, to utter the name of a teacher at the podium? You can hear the entire interview when I get my podcast rolling again soon.
I had been texting back and forth with Steve Bannon at the event, trying to see if he had 5 minutes to interview him for my podcast. But, observing him on media row, he was being pulled all over the place. I thanked him via text for my prior experience on War Room and to my surprise, he texted me back by inviting me to a “book signing” that night. It was supposed to start at about 8pm, so I formulated my escape plan to beat the other 7,000 people that would be leaving the venue later that evening.
But, not before hearing the next two speakers.
Tucker Carlson had the crowd eating out of his hand. The second biggest pop over the weekend on the main stage was for the man who is a “free agent” right now, after being unceremoniously fired from Fox News this past April. He had a number of spots where he laughed and as with me, when Tucker laughs, you can’t help but also laugh, as it’s infectious.
He dropped lines such as, “Easy things are not rewarding and you don’t feel good when you beat your 5 year old in soccer,” referring to his Iowa Presidential conversations from the night before when he officially ended Mike Pence’s political career. He had this zinger, “No one is punished for lying, people are only punished for telling the truth.” We’ve seen this in our two-tiered system of the law today.
Then, after Tucker finished his comments…the crowd was worked into a fervor awaiting President Donald J. Trump to step up to the podium. He was supposed to go on sometime around 6:45 pm, though I don’t think he went on until closer to 7:30 pm. We had several false alarms as they played music videos, as we expected his “walk up video” to play instead. Every next music video was met with…darn, he’s not ready to rock it yet. The anticipation was effervescent and you could feel the crowd ripple with excitement.
It was a “rock concert” level of excitement prior to President Donald J. Trump going on stage.
The entire floor had their cell phones out to record our President, Donald J. Trump, as he finally stepped up to the microphone. Trump got to a few people he gave shout outs to, then several times, “Trump, Trump, Trump!” chants broke out. This was the biggest crowd that TPUSA ever had, stated Trump. Much of what Trump spoke about I had heard before, election interference, border crisis, out of control spending, but the crowd was just so energized; hanging on his every word. One of his most electrifying statements continues to hang with me, “The days of subsidizing Communist indoctrination in our colleges will soon be over.”
He then followed up with, “We have the worst education system, just about in the world and we spend more per student than double and triple than any other country, yet we are ranked at the bottom of the list.” He recognizes that the current system of these teacher unions and departments of education is failing our next generation and has been for decades.
Trump is crushing the rest of the presidential field by huge margins and will continue to run away with the GOP ticket. He is the ONLY option that gets our country back to a place of normalcy. I’ve had people close to me say, “I don’t like Biden, but I don’t like Trump either.” Get over it.
Trump is the person to win this country back and the others are just pretenders.
I thought I’d head out sooner rather than later to make sure I could get to the “book signing” on time and figured Trump was ready to wrap up. I jumped in another Lyft and when I got to the event, I heard Trump spoke for a total of an hour and 26 minutes! Resident Biden can’t even go 2-3 minutes without getting lost. The energy that Trump brings is second to none.
Upon entering the party, I was surprised to learn that the book which was the subject of the launch was on “Tucker” Carlson. I glanced around and I was a bit out of my pay grade at this event, so I went to the bar, got a Miller Lite and decided to sit down on the couch in the Sailfish Club. After being on my feet all day I was running on fumes. I just so happened to sit down with two interesting people, one who connected me with the author and one who connected me with some other people who might be able to eventually help our political efforts in Maine. This work, just like in any line of work, is all about building relationships and sometimes it just is divine intervention. Sitting down at the right spot can plant seeds for the future, if you take the opportunity to listen.
I finally got to see Steve Bannon in person, shook his hand and had a brief chat. That guy is going 100 miles an hour all the time and I’m amazed by his show War Room. The amount of guests and interesting content he has is like no other I’ve seen. Every day, they bang out truly amazing, patriotic guests from all over the world. He does two shows, one usually at 10am and one in the evening. It’s very informative and something I’d recommend. You can catch them on audio podcast also if you miss the video segment.
Shawn McBreairty with the War Room’s Steve Bannon on July 15th, 2023.
I was so thankful to meet Chadwick Moore, the “Tucker” book author in person. Chadwick was on Tucker Carlson Tonight several times and developed a relationship with Tucker Carlson, leading to Tucker giving him the okay to do the book. I’m about ¾ of the way through reading it and the neatest thing is I have been able to text back and forth with Chadwick about some of my insights after also being on Tucker Carlson Tonight and we shared some similar experiences. I’m going to do a breakdown of the book at some point, when I get a moment. Another article to write up! He signed my book, “To Shawn - Keep up the good fight.” I’m very proud of his kind words in writing that for me.
Chadwick Moore, Tucker guest and author of “Tucker” available August 1st.
After the party wrapped up, about 10pm, I saddled up with another Lyft driver who dropped me back off to my hotel. I needed to try and get some sleep as tomorrow would come early. The problem was that now I was as amped as a kid in a candy store after meeting all these very cool people from the jam packed day that had my head spinning. I’m guessing I got about two hours of sleep before the alarm woke me up for the morning. Is sleep really overrated?
Sunday seems like a bit of a blur. I did manage to do some more interviews for the podcast and also did a 12-15 minute sit down interview with The Epoch Times that I haven’t had a chance to see yet. I bounced back and forth from the main stage to media row and caught up with some very nice folks and had some very refreshing conversations. I got to shake presidential hopeful Ryan Binkley’s hand and get a couple of his campaign hats autographed, my favorite hat just says, “WTF” on the front. It stands for “Way To Freedom,” but my 12 year old mind thought otherwise.
That’s how I think about my home state of Maine all day. WTF is going on here!?
On the floor, I caught up with friend of the podcast Tony Kinnett for a moment and did a quick interview with him as well. Anna Gary from Waterville, ME was there for a leadership summit and I did an interview with her, as I think she was the first TPUSA chapter in Maine and it just happens to be with a bunch of homeschool students. I did a sit down interview with Dr. Marina Hofman of Partners For Family Values and ran into who I’d find out later to be “Patriot Barbie.”
Dan Bongino is a guy I’ve listened to for years. I was actually listening to his podcast when I got the call to be on Tucker Carlson Tonight, back a couple years ago, while I was mowing the lawn. (That’s an entire chapter in a “to be determined” book I may write one day.) Bongino’s podcast is just about the same amount of time, a little under an hour, that it takes me to take care of the yard. He was the last speaker I had on my list to make sure I got to see before I made a run for the airport to head back home.
As soon as Bongino stepped out on stage, to probably the third biggest pop of the event behind Tucker Carlson and President Trump, I instantly chuckled about his choice of tee shirt. I had wondered listening to his podcast a few episodes back when I might have the chance to get one as he had hinted about it “coming soon.” The fact he debuted it at TPUSA was outstanding and made a lot of sense.
Ex-Secret Service Agent, podcaster, Dan Bongino and his “Don’t Get Dead” tee shirt he wore at TPUSA.
Dan’s messages are pretty simple and to the point, which is part of the reason I like him, it’s a no “BS” approach to life lessons. His message this day to the crowd was, “Liberalism gets you super dead very quickly.” He was also very clear that, “These liberals are so stupid.” Bongino’s advice for voting in your next big election, “Get dead, or don’t get dead when you vote in November 2024.” It’s not that hard to figure out people. Vote correctly like your life depends on it, influence friends and family, or we are all going to get dead, way sooner than we want to.
“Get dead, or don’t get dead when you vote in November 2024.” - Dan Bongino
Bongino has been talking about the Marxism for quite some time that is proliferating our public schools and he stated, “Socialists know, you can’t have communism without the kids.
You need to feed them sex, which kids don’t understand. Your parents are old and just don’t understand, they divide the family. It’s a long game plan.” It’s all about division folks.
His clear message to the crowd, “None of this is by accident.” Dan is a man of action and has put himself on the line more times than most to help protect our country. I shot out a tweet once I got home and made sure I ordered up a shirt and what a surprise, Bongino not only retweeted it, but he follows me now on Twitter! I’m honored. I’m anxiously awaiting my delivery!
Dan Bongino not only retweeted this post about his “Don’t Get Dead” shirt, he followed me on Twitter!
Now, I have to be honest, I had a similar plan as last night to beat the traffic and the mass of bodies leaving the event, so I figured I’d head out shortly after Steve Bannon was on stage as he was the last speaker before Charlie Kirk wrapped things up. I lined up my Lyft ride, zipped back to the hotel to pick up my suitcase and had the timing perfect to get to the West Palm Beach Airport just in time for the thunderstorms to roll in and interrupt my flight. Silver lining, I made friends with a lady sitting next to me and we had a good talk about her upcoming wedding. I wasn’t even that mad about being delayed, as I had already pre-programed myself to have low expectations of air travel back home.
By the time I finally got to PHL, my suitcase had been stowed in the belly of the plane by the gate attendant and it was headed for the baggage conveyor, so I decided to leave it and ran up to the connecting flight to BGR, which had also been delayed. But I was just two short minutes late to get to my Bangor, ME connection flight. The door was closed. I wasn’t going to make it home that night.
At this point, the fun was wearing thin. My options were limited, stay over and not get home until Monday night, which was the next available flight from PHL to BGR, or control my own destiny and get a rental and drive home. But first, I checked my options at the airport Marriott and the nice lady at the desk said rooms were $350 a night. But, they were sold out. So, I walked across the street towing my travel suitcase behind me and Avis gave me a rate $100 less than Budget. My Texas license plate 4 Runner was now my chariot. The Cannonball run was on!
At 12:30 am Monday morning, I left Philly and hammered down the throttle getting to the Bangor, ME airport at 7:30 am. I averaged 77 mph and stopped only twice, once for gas, once to hit the restroom. I had an amazing time overall at the conference, but I was worn out. This past week things caught up to me and I became ill with a bad cough, some of the reason I didn’t turn this write up around sooner. But, it was all well worth the effort and something that could pay dividends down the road. My patriotic batteries are charged for a while.
I want to provide a special thank you to Tyler Bowyer, the Turning Point Action Chief Operating Officer, who provided me this great opportunity to view an amazing event filled with what may go down as the most impressive speaker list in history.
It’s official, I’m a member of the “press!”
Shawn McBreairty is the Director of Special Projects at Maine First Project, a non-profit organization offering grassroots advocacy training in multiple areas. For three years, Shawn has been exposing CRT and the hyper-sexualization of minors (“aka” grooming in the classroom) as well as many dangers within the programs, teachings and curriculum of Maine and this nation’s public, K-12 schools. Check out Shawn's Podcast, “Maine Source Of Truth,” which can be found anywhere you listen. Follow the podcast page on Facebook and @ShawnMcBreairty on social media.