People sometimes ask me why I wear a cowboy hat. It's not because I particularly like people yelling yehaw at me. I don't mind getting a sunburn on my neck, and usually when it's hot I leave the hat home. It's not like I'm from Texas or own any cows. It's not because I care for the President's wasteful spending or murdering over in Iraq. Nor it's not just for the hell of it. I've never been West of Ithaca or South of Philadelphia, but I can dream of that world in the future.

I wear the hat because I'm an individual. Cowboys are individuals, ones who live outdoors in an often fictional paradise out west. They are figures of rugged individualism. We've had plenty of cowboy politicians, as they spark a degree of imagination in America.

I'm a cowboy in the sense that I believe in Rural America, and I think by working with a variety of people we can do much to get progressive things done. Progress in politics does not require we abandon values or even lifestyles, it instead means presuing policies in government that will make good change happen.

So much of our lives happens in cities. Yet, in New York State far more acrege is devoted solely to cow pastures then city blocks. When we forget about Rural America, we forget about the majority of America. Wearing a cowboy hat somehow takes us back, and forces us to think about the beauty of the majority of our land.

I like my cowboy hat, and nobody's going to tell me I can't wear it. I celebrate that little part of Rural America, every time I put on my hat.