Glad to have met you John Randolph

In an hour I'll be heading back home to Arkansaw, Wisconsin after a wonderful weekend of camaraderie at the 17th annual meeting of the John Randolph Club hosted by the Rockford Institute.

Many of the Institute's events like the JRC or their summer schools or its international trips have a coterie of people that makes paleoconservative movement almost like semi-large, extended family of cousins and second cousins in many ways. There were people I had met five years ago at the summer school that I talk about in my book that I became reacquainted with again, not to mention meeting the Rockford Institute staff after a long, long while.

The theme to this year's club meeting was "Global Problems, Local Solutions" and it really sums up what the Rockford Institute and paleoconservatism is about. You can't get more local as a think tank than TRI. It's right on Main St. itself in Rockford, Ill. which is a industrial Midwest town, the "heartland" so to speak. It's in a small two story home that blends into the neighborhood and not in a glass tower. It is not a Washington or New York or Los Angeles institution and thus allows itself to think of practical ways the average citizen can affect global issues right where they live and they don't have to even "think globally," they just need to love they place where they are.

Thus the discussion topics ranged from immigration to the judiciary, to the culture at large, especially as it is being affected by open borders immigration, abortion and the state of American manufacturing and the economy. All of these questions have local angles or ways to deal and think about these issues from a local perspective. The most important aspect of "paleoism" is not basing one's hopes on an "election," or a session of Congress, but trying influence where you live first and foremost. It is a way to break through the political paralysis and deception about issues that has crippled the nation's politics and policy. The Minutemen movement is a perfect example of this, border residents in Arizona doing something about illegal immigration when the federal government clearly would not. If it was not for them, then George Bush II would not have stationed National Guard troops at the border. It is a simple as that.

The JRC also celebrated the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Rockford Institute and the founding of Chronicles Magazine. Institute founder John Howard, the former president of Rockford College, was on hand during the banquet dinner to give a speech on the history of the institute and reasons for its founding. As he said, the cultural upheavals of the 1960s had changed the ethos of the nation that Howard felt threatened the College's ability to fulfill its mission to its students and that the College needed to develop a cultural institution to maintain and fight against the trends that were damaging higher education. Needless to say the Rockford College Institute was not successful in that calling since the College severed all ties to the Institute sometime later. But it was successful in incubating a movement that right now is the only thing out there that willing to defend and promote the traditional conservatism against its bastard children (literally and figuratively).

The founding of the institute as a place to help maintain the mission of Rockford College to its students comes to mind as I reflect on my first JRC meeting. There clearly were a good number of young paleos around my age and a little older and younger who attended and who have maintained contact and correspondence with each other over the past couple of years online. You could see the old and new generations clearly marked in the lounge off the Cliffbreakers Hotel where all gathered after the traditional JRC debate. Clearly for us there is a movement to inherit but are we as young paleos going to value that inheritance or spend it as foolishly as the Prodigal Son did even if we don't intend or mean to. Sometime after the election, after I finish a couple of articles in mind that I wish to write, hopefully on a regular schedule again, I wish to start a dialogue of young paleos who both were here at JRC this past weekend and around the country and the world starting with an article entitle "Reflections of a Young Paleo," about my hopes and concerns about the Generations X, Y (and maybe even Z too) as they, like all young generations, rise into prominence. Are we going to continue on with what has been started, or are going into different directions affected by our own experiences and education? This is what needs to be discussed.

Thanks again to the Rockford Institute, Cliffbreakers Hotel and the wonderful people I met and met once again for a wonderful weekend.

--Sean Scallon