I would like to take a moment and focus on a couple I met this week, some would say have nothing, I think they have everything.

John Bell, Trina Tubbs, and their dog Bandit set up the Skull Shop on the vacant lot at the corner of Alameda and Jefferson for the last few weeks selling an eclectic selection of flags, belts, necklaces and other items.

John is from Anchorage Alaska. Trina is from Dillingham Alaska, Bandit joined up in one of the towns they set up in when Trina fell in love with her.

They are getting ready to start their second year in business; they started last year when gas was over four dollars a gallon and have been traveling from town to town setting up for a few weeks or a month and selling their wares.

In days past they would have been known as peddlers, or traveling salesmen, John is a veteran of the Unites States Marine Corps; he has seen service in the Gulf War and Afghanistan. He and Trina went into business for themselves when John’s mother passed away and left him a small inheritance.

The reason I met them is because I needed a Gadsden Flag, (recent government documents have identified me as a “right wing extremist” a label that I do not necessarily object too, and a “domestic terrorist” one I strenuously object too), I have wanted one for a long time to fly below the Stars and Stripe in front of my house. They had a Gadsden flag and sold it to me for a very reasonable price.

So what makes John and Trina so special?

In these days of economic chaos they are not sitting on their buts asking for anyone to do anything for them. They are making a living for themselves, slowly sometimes barely, but they are doing it on their own. They ask nothing from you or me other than the right to set up their shop and sell to the public.

They only ask for Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

They don’t want the government to give them money or to subsidize their business. They just ask the right to be in business for themselves.

They are not asking for anyone to bail them out if they move into a town where no one wants to buy what they have to sell, they will move to somewhere with people who do want to buy what they have to sell.

They are not asking the government to buy their product if the market becomes depressed for some reason, they will find a market that is not depressed and sell those things.

With the government deciding which major companies are “too big to fail” John and Trina make a living doing what they want to do, sometimes it is costly, some towns charge them over $250.00 to set up.

They have had some hard times, Trina said she got scared last December when things were a little tight, but they got through it and are still going strong. When they leave Pocatello this weekend they are on their way to Rock Springs for a while.

What is unfortunately becoming more unique about John and Trina is their desire for two things, independence, and the right to make their own way with a minimum of government interference.

They possess the type of spirit that caused people to leave Europe on small ships and hack a living out of the wilderness on the Eastern Seaboard 300-400 years ago. The courage that caused people to pack everything they owned into a wagon or hand cart and settle this area 160 years ago.

I wish I had their courage.

Our country will come out of these hard economic times and it will not be because of anything that has been done in Washington. We will recover as a country in spite of Washington D.C. and because of all the Johns and Trinas.