"Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who had been an important part of our lives for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in a mountain or bureaucratic red tape.

Common Sense will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain; understanding why the early bird gets the worm; recognizing that life isn't always fair; and that sometimes we're to blame for things that go wrong in our own lives. His health began to deteriorate repidly when well-intentioned, yet overbearing, regulations were set into place.

Common Sense lost ground when parents began demanding that schoolteachers become babysitters instead of educators; when six-year-old boys were charged with sexual harassment for innocently kissing a classmate on the cheek; when teens were suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and when teachers were fired for reprimanding unruly students. Common Sense saw his health decline ever further when schools were required to obtain parental permission before administering an aspirin, sun lotion, or cough medicine to students; yet, schools could not inform parents when a teen-ager got pregnant and wanted to have an abortion. Common Sense lost the will to live when the Ten Commandments became contraband, churches became big business, and criminals received better treatment than did their victims.

Common Sense took a beatng when you no longer could defend yourself, your family, or your property from a burglar who broke into your home, and who then had the right to sue you for assault. Common Sense didn't understand how a woman could sue a restaurant for serving coffee that was hot, and receive a handsome settlement. It didn't sit well with Common Sense when he saw our nation's highly-esteemed elected officials involve themselves in criminal activities, immoral conduct, and self-serving interests.

Preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. Common Sense is survived by three stepbrothers: I Know My Rights; Someone Else is to Blame; and I'm a Victim.

Not many people attended the funeral, because so few realized that Common Sense was gone."

This 'obituary' was posted on the wall of the Viroqua, Wisconsin City Hall as O.U.T.R.A.G.E. members stepped down from their motorhomes and went in to meet the town manager. The small community had no VFW or American Legion Post, there were a good number of war veterans who wanted to participate in the "National Parade of Honor". For that reason, Jil Adams made the decision to include Viroqua on the tour. Even the most calloused of the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. teams found that posting to be a most profound document. It embraced the very thing O.U.T.R.A.G.E. stood for: common sense and less excess in the way our government functioned. The 'common' citizen - with his 'common sense' - was finally taking back his country, and taking it out of the hands of the corrupt and hubris-laden politicians. Laws would be lessened; freedoms would be restored; lawyers, lobbyists, and political dealmakers would not be invited to run government into the ground any longer. Government would be transformed into what it was intended to be: a servitor of the people.