PERSEVERANCE

Some of you have seen me do it.

I plunk my air guitar, summon my best country western accent and sing the song I wrote. It goes like this:

I was born in Tennessee
In the Veerans family
Percy was my daddy’s name
And they christened me the same
Percy Veerans!
Percy Veerans!
Percy Veerans is my name
When the rest have given up
I’ll still be in the game.

There was a curio shop a block or so from the University of Detroit Law School. In the window, a plaque displayed a chronicle of Abraham Lincoln’s career. A tale of failure and frustration that culminated in the Presidency of the United States.

I passed that shop every day on my way to the street car. And I read the plaque. It was the most enduring lesson I learned in law school.

And so, I have persevered, often against wise counsel. I lost five elections before winning a seat on the Common Pleas Court of Detroit. I spent decades battling the American Bar Association to establish the Thomas Cooley Law School.

As the years have piled up and the testosterone diminished, I have learned to resign myself to the impossible.

But still…

Still, there is the flickering flame way down deep that says, “It’s the right thing. It can be done. It must be done.”

Two years ago, I launched a website called ConventionUSA. My idea was to provide a place where ordinary citizens, the good folks who save their money, pay their taxes, register and vote, could come together and talk about the future of our country.

Maybe even do something constructive.

Anybody who doesn’t think there’s a lot to talk about must be comatose.

The demonstrators who have camped out on Wall Street have inspired flash mobs in other cities.

Yesterday it was Oakland, California. We were treated to pictures of riot-geared police trying to stem an attack on city hall. It wasn’t London or Madrid, Egypt or Syria. It was right here in the good old U.S. of A.

Social networking on the Internet has gone bananas. Over 800,000,000 people on Facebook? That’s nearly three times the population of the United States, and almost nine percent of the population of planet earth!

Calls to action go viral in seconds. We are literally living in a tower of babel.

But the miracle of the silicone chip can work both ways.

The people out on the streets do not represent 99% of the citizens of our nation. The majority is still as silent as it was in 1972 when Nixon coined the phrase.

But things are different today. Today we have the Internet. We can talk to each other. We can speak up without ever leaving home. We can make ourselves heard without bull horns.

My vision for Convention USA is that it will become a permanent institution. Not just another think-tank or advocacy site for the Right or the Left, but an assembly open to all men and women of goodwill and civility, who want to protect and defend our constitution and prosper out beloved Republic.

Is that such a bad idea?

Is that something beyond the realm of possibility?

Is it an undertaking that can only succeed with a huge investment of money and vast array of hired hands?

Or is it a dream that can come true with commitment and perseverance?

I’m 82. I’ll keep at it a while longer.