For the third year in a row, I was invited to attend Freedom Fest, but this year was different.
Normally, I’m asked to attend panels as part of breakout sessions, but this time, I was given the opportunity to speak on the main stage by myself.
Before I dive into the speech, I’d like to express my gratitude for being considered and advocated for by the organizers, who gave me a platform to express myself.
On my flight back home, I reflected on all the amazing things that happened during the four days at the conference.
Several attendees approached me to share how much they enjoyed Black Victim to Black Victor after purchasing it from my booth at last year’s Freedom Fest.
I couldn’t imagine doing this event without my wife by my side, managing the Wrong Speak booth and sharing these proud moments with me. It was even better having Wrong Speak author Lisabeth Lange and my friend Jen helping as well.
I gave several interviews while there, including with C-SPAN’s BookTV,
, and .Conferences like this are great for reconnecting with people who live far away but whom you genuinely enjoy, like Spike Cohen.
Funny story: We both thought we were being interviewed for a scheduled interview, but we showed up asking each other what we wanted to do. Imagine the confusion!
I also caught up with James Lindsay, whom I first met at my initial speaking engagement in Wisconsin in 2021. I was nervously standing on a stage in front of about 600 people and somehow made it through, receiving a standing ovation.
Friday night was the speaker’s reception where I met Dr. Cornell West. We spoke for about five minutes, telling him the premise of my book “The Children We Left Behind” to which he completely agreed and shook my hand. He told me that he wrote a book about this in the late 1990s “The War Against Parents” and noted that the problem has only gotten worse since.
After the reception, my wife and I were invited to a private dinner with notable figures like James Lindsay, Dr. Jay Richards, Bret Weinstein, Del Bigtree, and Corey DeAngelis. It was my first proper conversation with Bret, and he was as genuine as you’d imagine.
We were there for about three hours, eating, drinking, and chatting about various topics. James cracked jokes to make my wife laugh while I had a conversation with Lyn Ulbricht, Ross Ulbricht’s mother. It was a night I’ll never forget, to say the least.
This brings me to Saturday morning, the day of my big solo speech on the main stage. Thankfully, despite having a couple of drinks the night before and getting to my hotel late, I felt refreshed for my speech.
Nerves are normal, so I wasn’t worried about it because I knew once I started talking, they’ll go away and I’ll feel comfortable. Normally, I have bullet points and a podium but went for the challenge by opting out of both so I could speak from the heart.
While backstage, I got to meet Michael Malice briefly and chatted up with Kennedy and her husband.
It was surreal to be introduced by Kennedy, someone I remember from the MTV days and she was incredibly comforting and gracious with me.
I’m working on getting the video of my full 20-minute speech, but to quickly summarize:
At Freedom Fest, we engage in conversations about our freedom, rights, and individual liberty. However, freedom allows us to both succeed and fail. We don’t talk enough about the failure side of freedom and how we are free to fail not only ourselves but also the children we bring into this world.
The obsession with our freedom as parents sometimes leads us to overlook our responsibilities. My father was free to be an absentee parent, and he had the right to not love his children, but he clearly ignored his responsibility to do otherwise.
After the speech, a number of men approached me thanking me for giving the speech and telling me their stories.
One man in particular came to me and said that I made him cry. He was a father who has some regret for working too much and not spending enough time with his children.
Unfortunately, two of his children died, one from suicide after struggling with PTSD stemming from his military service.
These stories are why I’m glad I took the time to write this book. I think it will help some people move forward and parents re-adjust their priorities for the sake of their children.
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