My apologies for being absent and Herschel Smith's advice.

It's been a rough couple of days, and busy as well, so I was unable to get back here and do the posting I wanted to do. My apologies. That said, in the interim I have received, by every means that one can receive communications these days, a lot of advice on the WA trip. Most of it was offered in sincere concern, almost all thoughtfully, some prayerfully, and a tiny minority of it obscene, malign and, of course, anonymous.

One good thing that came of this process (and I would be lying if I said that this wasn't part of my intent from the beginning) was to encourage people to think seriously about what armed civil disobedience means in the present context. Not just for me, but for them, for us all. Your arguments have not fallen on deaf ears -- mine or others. Many of them against going are extremely persuasive. But I did not ask for your opinion just to have an excuse not to go. This isn't about "face-saving," either way. Leaders lead. And strangely enough, to my mind, a lot of folks consider me a leader. Now, leaders are also required to use good judgment in picking battles. But leaders are further tasked with coming to the support of the guys on the line who are in the middle of a fight. If I go, it is because I think that this particular fight -- and these particular people -- deserve my support, need my help and that I have a reasonable chance of accomplishing that AND at the same time, advancing the overall cause of liberty. If I am mistaken, if we fail miserably through own own inattention or stupidity or enemy action or even blind chance, our cause will be set back and I will look like history's dumbest goat. If we succeed in forcing the issue farther down the battlefield, some will call us geniuses. We -- that is, me and the folks in WA state who chose not to back down in the face of this latest infringement -- will be neither, of course. We will just be folks who saw a need, took a calculated risk and won. Or lost. Sometimes (most often if you are smart) you get to choose your battles. Sometimes the battle chooses you. Herschel Smith discusses some of this and has the following advice for me:

That’s what I recommend for Mike. Amusement is appropriate in some circumstances. But if you want to go to WA, do it. If you don’t, then don’t. Here is how you tell folks your decision. You simply tell them. That’s the end of it.

Okay. Good advice. So here goes: I asked for your thoughts, folks, and listened to them, mulled them over and frankly was impressed and humbled by their cogency, loyalty and depth of feeling. You came up with points that I must admit that I hadn't considered or gave too little weight to in the beginning. I asked for your thoughts, but I didn't ask for your permission. It is my call, and only I can make it. I am going, as I always knew I would have to. Through the incredibly generous support of you, my readers, I fly out to Seattle on Thursday and will fly back on Monday. I hope to meet with as many of you as I can when I am out there. Whether I am right, and exactly what happens on the ground on Saturday is subject to enemy action but it is all, and always, in God's hands. Please keep me, and the resistance fighters on the line in Washington state, in your prayers.

LATER: After I wrote this, I received this observation by email from reader James: "You only have one death. Spend it wisely." To which I replied, "I'll try to postpone that as long as possible and make it count for as much as I can. I promise you."