It was a lovely, comfortable summer evening in 2006, when I was honored to be a guest in the late, great Aaron Russo's home. Sitting with me was the Libertarian California Gubernatorial candidate, Art Olivier, for whom I had met just a couple months earlier at a march I organized in Hollywood. (Based on an impressive forum comment on a political site, I invited Art to be one of the event speakers.) A couple weeks later, he asked me to be his campaign manager. This meeting with Aaron had been arranged by a dear friend of mine, Yahziq, who had worked with Mr. Russo as a camera operator. We went with the intent purpose of an endorsement for Art, however the evening brought the unexpected surprise of a both an education in real liberty and a good friendship from Aaron.
We screened Russo's documentary AMERICA: FREEDOM TO FASCISM (
before the film's theatrical release. The personal anecdotes Aaron shared with us made the screening even more eye-opening. Although 9/11 started my "awakening", it was truly this lovely 2006 summer evening in which my real journey of defending liberty began.Less than 18 months later, I received a phone call from the 2008 Ron Paul for President campaign inviting me to meet with the esteemed doctor at a private event in Las Vegas. Although I had a speaking engagement booked in Sacramento, CA the day before, I jumped at the opportunity to meet with Congressman Paul whom I had learned much about from Aaron. From many speaking engagements, travel and not enough sleep, my voice was hoarse but my spirit up when I met with Dr. Ron Paul! I will never forget this meeting - life changing really. We spoke about many current topics from the Federal Reserve to "right to life" issues. Before the meeting ended, I granted the Ron Paul Revolution an endorsement which was displayed on their campaign website.
One year later, I received yet another surprising call - this time from the Constitution Party asking if I would consider being a candidate for California Governor under their party banner. Frankly, I was mystified on why they would call me of all individuals, but after some serious meetings and much pondering, I accepted the offer. Our campaign was one of the first "Ron Paul" liberty candidate campaigns and we were honored with many important endorsements from many other liberty defenders like Pastor Chuck Baldwin, G. Edward Griffin, (Retired) Sheriff Richard Mack and support from organizations like the Tenth Amendment Center. In the end, our liberty campaign managed to break both state and national third party records. The campaign lead to many opportunities including contributing to the book: “How to Run for Office on a Liberty Platform” (http://amzn.to/2aMSXVs); many public speaking engagements; and for two years the co-host of the Wake Up Mission Show (http://thewakeupmissionshow.com/) which included guests like Jeff Berwick (aka the Dollar Vigilante), Adam Kokesh, Gigi Bowman, Anthony Freda and many more!
Today defending liberty is still in my blood, but I have decided to go a bit different path which includes helping others wake up to true liberty via entrepreneurship and breaking the anti-free-market chains! In addition, I homeschool my children utilizing many sources including the Ron Paul homeschool curriculum. Currently I am completing my own site at www.chelenenightingale.net. (Look I am no tech guru - my head is spinning, but taking the initiative to learn!)
Thank you to the Dollar Vigilante for sending out an alert about Steemit! Looking forward to my education here and meeting more like-minded individualists!
Yes, some FUN times we had :)
Indeed my friend! Happy to see you here on STEEMIT!!