We celebrated New Year's Eve in a large hotel room in Des Moines, Iowa. It was a melancholy night. We were excited to be in the middle of the Iowa Caucus happenings, but some of us had left behind loved ones who we had never been away from on a New Year's Eve. We were looking forward to 2012 with hope that each of us could make a difference some way, some how. We were also concerned that 2012 could be the year that a free American republic would cease to exist.
