US Run 4 Ron '08! Carry the Torch of Liberty!

[RevolutionSD]

Count me in....I'm RUNNIN FOR RON!!!!!!!!!

 

[RPinSEAZ]

I'll run a couple of miles for Ron Paul!!! PS I'm in Arizona. THis is a great idea if anyone can organize it.

 

[AdoubleR]

the idea's 'catchin on... I'm tellin ya!' Thanks to all that volunteered, any more???

 

[Menthol Patch]

How about a walk where people from around the country travel on foot to any events that happen on Dec. 16th?

 

[Second_Tier_My_Ass]

Maybe starting somewhere in California and ending up at the Statue of Liberty would be better? Let's bring liberty home! The media might start picking up on it once we reach the halfway point or so. There would hopefully be a very large media frenzy going on once we reach Lady Liberty, which would be fantastic. I would rather the media pay attention to that location than to California (no offense to those from CA).

I would definitely participate, and being in Kansas, I guess I'd be around the halfway point, no matter which way we decided to run it. How long would it take for us to physically get the torch across the country do you think? Before the primaries? Even if we can move it at 5 miles per hour (average human walking speed is 3mph, so I'm assuming some people will be able to run it, some will walk it), for 24 hours a day, every single day, it would take a little less than a month to go across the country in a direct line. If we stopped by every state, then it would take several times longer.

Just trying to think outside the box here.... What if we could line up the deliverance of the torch to New York on the day that Ron Paul does the Letterman show? My God, if we could do that, then we could bring it to him in person on national television. F-ing epic.

I think this whole idea would help to reinforce that we're real people, and that we are strong enough in number to do something the other candidates cannot ever hope to organize. I think that these ideas are worth proving.

 

[rasheedwallace]

i'd run if it if got enough support, certainly.

 

[michaelwise]

I'm glad to see this idea being rekindled.
http://www.marchacrossamerica.blogspot.com/

 

[dj191]

Great Idea! Just set the route in google maps and break it up into about 600 - 5 mile segments. You would have to number each segment and have a sign up. It would also need to have an approximate time for each person to be there.

Only thing is that there are some pretty big stretches of nothing betwen Cali and NY. There are also the busy highways....need to think about that...but I like the idea..think of the MM attention this would get.

 

[Second_Tier_My_Ass]

It's obvious that we're going to try to avoid the Rocky Mountains as much as possible. They're just too treacherous to run through, and if you follow the highway then it would take too long, as it tends to wind around giant mountains. So we go to the South of them. The only problem is that I don't know if I'd want to run through 5 miles of desert at 3 in the morning all by myself. I'd then have to go 5 miles back to get to my car, and without a torch to light the way. Great. Someone will get bitten by a snake, or get lost, or have a heart attack and die. You folks in Arizona and New Mexico must be really brave. The more I think about this, the less likely I think it is for it to be feasible. But if someone can adequately address these issues, then I'd love for it to happen.

 

[jake]

this will need to be put into practice within a month or so, before theres a foot of snow on the ground

 

[ClayTrainor]

I would love to participate in something like this!

 

[Paul4Prez]

Get more people

The only problem is that I don't know if I'd want to run through 5 miles of desert at 3 in the morning all by myself. I'd then have to go 5 miles back to get to my car, and without a torch to light the way. Great.

Get multiple people to sign up for each 5 mile stretch, so the torch bearer has company. You could also park it at night. A slow walking pace is 3 miles an hour. 3,000 miles / 3 mph = 1000 hrs / 12 hrs/day = 83 days. Might have to step it up a little to beat the primaries, plus there's snow on the way.

That didn't stop the Continental Army at Valley Forge, though....

 

[dj191]

Get multiple people to sign up for each 5 mile stretch, so the torch bearer has company. You could also park it at night. A slow walking pace is 3 miles an hour. 3,000 miles / 3 mph = 1000 hrs / 12 hrs/day = 83 days. Might have to step it up a little to beat the primaries, plus there's snow on the way.

That didn't stop the Continental Army at Valley Forge, though....

Yeah we'd need to step it up to 3000mi / 5mph / 14hrs = about 43 days. Put me down for 2 of those legs...anywhere within a 150mi radius of L.A.

 

[Second_Tier_My_Ass]

I think if someone can get a hold of some good state maps, splitting it up by mile markers would be way better than by cutting it up on google maps. Here's one possible route. Some minor changes could probably occur, but I think it would need to be something like this...

Going from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco, CA to Lady Liberty in Brooklyn, NY

The biggest cities along this route include...

San Fransisco, CA
Modesto, CA
Fresno, CA
Bakersfield, CA
*long stretch of no cities, perhaps volunteers from Los Angeles or Phoenix, AZ?*
Flagstaff, AZ
Albequerque, NM
Amarillo, TX
Oklahoma City, OK
Tulsa, OK
Springfield, MO
St. Louis, MO
Indianapolis, IN
Columbus, OH
Pittsburgh, PA
Harrisburg, PA
New York, NY

Except for the desert portion (which I'm still worried about), I don't think any city would be responsible for more than 200 miles. There are lots of distances of only 100 miles between those cities listed above. But even 200 miles would only require 40 people at 5 miles per person. Surely there are 40 Ron Paul supporters in all of St. Louis, for example, who could run it halfway from Springfield, MO, through St. Louis, and halfway to Indianapolis, IN.

There are several smaller cities lying directly along that route for most of the entire route, and there are lots of very large cities which I didn't list because they were only "near" the route and not directly on it, but they could easily help, so finding people to run probably wouldn't be a problem. Actually the more I look at it as being divided into smaller pieces, the more doable it seems. Just notify the members of those meetup groups as well as the meetup groups of all the major cities which surround that route and we could possibly have enough people to do it. But still, how do we run through a desert with no major cities out there? I drove through it a few months ago, and it's mostly just empty. There are no lights except for the stars for much of that route. I'm still worried someone's going to step on a damn snake or something.

In all, that route linked above is 3100 miles. So that's 620 people needed if everyone runs 5 miles. If everyone can run at 5 m/h, and if we run continuously 24 hours a day, every day, then we're looking at around 26 days. I guess technically if we started very soon, within the next few days, and if we just started a few people off running from San Fran and signed people up along the way, then we could be done before the December 16 money bomb. If we did that, we could pitch it to the media that we're looking for donations to pledge us on our liberty run across the country, and donations could be pledged at teaparty07.com and then actually donated on December 16 at ronpaul2008.com. This would give people who don't know about Ron Paul, or those that don't even necessarily like him, another reason to join in on our money bomb.

However, this is all wishful thinking, I believe. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. I'm a member of a very large forum, and in its premium section I've organized several chain mails, where people from around the country join. I form a route with those people and we share our addresses, and we send some stupid letter or something from one person to the next. Usually about 20 people join at the start. I've organized 3 of them and have only ever gotten 1 letter back. All it takes is for one person to simply not be at the right place at the right time, and then the person who gets there with the torch is miles away from anything and there's no way to fix it, and the entire attempt is a bust. If this entire thing wasn't executed perfectly, with all 620 people, then it would likely fall apart. Sorry to be so negative, but I think I'm also being realistic here.

 

[dj191]

I think if someone can get a hold of some good state maps, splitting it up by mile markers would be way better than by cutting it up on google maps. Here's one possible route. Some minor changes could probably occur, but I think it would need to be something like this...

Going from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco, CA to Lady Liberty in Brooklyn, NY

The biggest cities along this route include...

San Fransisco, CA
Modesto, CA
Fresno, CA
Bakersfield, CA
*long stretch of no cities, perhaps volunteers from Los Angeles or Phoenix, AZ?*
Flagstaff, AZ
Albequerque, NM
Amarillo, TX
Oklahoma City, OK
Tulsa, OK
Springfield, MO
St. Louis, MO
Indianapolis, IN
Columbus, OH
Pittsburgh, PA
Harrisburg, PA
New York, NY

Except for the desert portion (which I'm still worried about), I don't think any city would be responsible for more than 200 miles. There are lots of distances of only 100 miles between those cities listed above. But even 200 miles would only require 40 people at 5 miles per person. Surely there are 40 Ron Paul supporters in all of St. Louis, for example, who could run it halfway from Springfield, MO, through St. Louis, and halfway to Indianapolis, IN.

There are several smaller cities lying directly along that route for most of the entire route, and there are lots of very large cities which I didn't list because they were only "near" the route and not directly on it, but they could easily help, so finding people to run probably wouldn't be a problem. Actually the more I look at it as being divided into smaller pieces, the more doable it seems. Just notify the members of those meetup groups as well as the meetup groups of all the major cities which surround that route and we could possibly have enough people to do it. But still, how do we run through a desert with no major cities out there? I drove through it a few months ago, and it's mostly just empty. There are no lights except for the stars for much of that route. I'm still worried someone's going to step on a damn snake or something.

Any Web / DB Techies out there?,,,,we need a sign up sheet that would "unhighlight" the part of the route as we sign up for each leg? Anyone willing to do this? Can MapPoint interact with VB and do this?

 

[dj191]

If we started in LA....I think that if I pitched the idea to the pasadena, irvine, and san bernadino meetup groups, we could get 50+ volenteers to get us to the AZ border. This has to be done with meetup groups in mind!

 

[Second_Tier_My_Ass]

What I'm worried about is someone from a Huckabee forum or a Thompson forum signing up for a spot on our route, and then simply not show up. Just one of those would be detrimental without proper planning. It would be wise for each member to share their phone number with the two previous and two next runners, just in case a person doesn't show up for some reason and two people need to run an additional 2.5 miles.

 

[AdoubleR]

What I'm worried about is someone from a Huckabee forum or a Thompson forum signing up for a spot on our route, and then simply not show up. Just one of those would be detrimental without proper planning. It would be wise for each member to share their phone number with the two previous and two next runners, just in case a person doesn't show up for some reason and two people need to run an additional 2.5 miles.

Maybe we can chip in to get a cellphone to follow the runner??? And also, I highly doubt the runner woud be in serious danger as I anticpate anyone running to end up having an entourage... I thought about going west to east myself, but thought maybe spreading the liberty back accross the states was a concept... You guys know better then I do, but thanks for all the input while I slept (my time is GMT!). Keep the ideas comming. Any volunteers to set up an exploratory website? Should we get in contact with that blog?

 

[piotr1]

i'm in for 5 miles.

 

[improv241]

I'm in. I live in VA.