Matthew Hamlett

I joined the Air National Guard in July 2001 at 18 years of age. As many people that join the National Guard do, I joined for college benefits and experience. But I also wanted to support my country and was excited about President Bush's message of smaller military intervention around the world but stronger border defense. I expected I would get deployed to the southwest USA to help protect our borders from an increase in illegal immigration, not southwest Asia to look for weapons that never existed. My views on politics were very infantile and trusting but I still believed in individual liberty and less government intervention. My family raised me to work hard and not to take handouts from anyone even though we were right at the poverty line and could qualify. I remember when I was in grade school my dad was laid off and my mom was working at the cafeteria where I went to school. Because she worked there me and my 2 brothers qualified for reduced lunched which cost .40 instead of 1.25 at the time. My parents decided that they needed to apply for that program because money was getting very tight and feeding 3 boys was very expensive and I remember feeling a little ashamed and didn't want my classmates to know that I had reduced lunch. I was only 10 years old I guess but I remember as soon as my dad found a job he immediately removed us from the reduced lunch program even though we could've stayed on it simply because my mom worked at the lunchroom. This was also during the first Gulf War and all I remember is that I didn't like war because I could watch my afternoon cartoons since all the TV networks were covering the war 24 hours a day. Needless to say, I dislike war for more mature reasons today. I began to really question the entire federal government establishment back in 2004 when so many people were dying in Iraq, Americans and Iraqis, and our economy was booming with record growth in housing and the stock market. I didn’t understand it since I knew how expensive war was being in the communications and technology field. So much money was being spent on a war but people back home are getting rich; seemed at the time like a candle burning on both ends but I didn’t understand much at all. I took 2 economics course and 2 legal courses while I was getting my degree and the questions and problems my professors presented me with made me think beyond just the questions for a good grade. I thought of how legal issues, constitutional issues, and economic issues apply to our supposed free market economy, war, and politics. My views continued to develop until the 2008 election (the same year I was deployed) and I heard about a guy named Ron Paul from a longtime friend of mine that I played music with. His ideas and statements answered every question I had and then created more questions, which he would hear answer 2 weeks later at a different debate. Most of the time this was on YouTube because it would be blasphemy for the MSM to replay sound bites of Ron Paul. His views touched me deeply and I really didn’t know why. Since then my understanding of his views has grown tremendously as has my enthusiasm for the cause of individual liberty. One of the biggest reasons I am against war, specifically the Iraq War which is supposedly over, is that while I was deployed in early 2008 I spoke with an Iraqi that spoke English and he explained exactly what Ron Paul had said about being proud of our land and not want a foreign country to occupy it. I was amazed that he repeated Ron Paul almost word for word. I asked him if he ever heard of the politician Ron Paul and he had no clue who I was talking about to no surprise. Some form of liberty seems to be an inherent trait with all human beings. This was really the turning point where I realized I did not support anything that our military was doing because I was infringing on this guy’s liberty, and even though he was not American, he still has undeniable rights as a human being. I now support Dr. Paul whole heartedly and I am stationed as a civilian in Germany where I have talked to my entire work center about Ron Paul and it is strange how every single one of them that will listen, gets it. It doesn’t take long explanations, they understand liberty and why it is important. I joke with them all the time that in my perfect world Ron Paul will fire me in person when we close down the base I am on. I am not worried about finding a job when he does fire me. I have formally educated myself, received my degree, and have a lot of experience. If I don’t find a job I will feel that it is my fault for not better preparing myself for the future with more education and more experience in fields that will need human resources. So my one wish is for Dr. Ron Paul to fire me in person after he is elected President of the United States of America.