Co-blogger Sheila has been telling you about the highlights of her recent trip to Israel. One thing she hasn’t told you is this:

That’s a closeup of one of the niches in the Western Wall or Kotel — what Americans not-so-respectfully refer to as the Wailing Wall. The slip of paper on the upper right contains the names of each TZP founding member and blogger, the names of our families, and TZP’s name.

I was so moved when Sheila told us she did that. A famous quote connected with the Western Wall is: “There are hearts and there are hearts. There are human hearts, and there are hearts of stone. There are stones and there are stones. There are silent stones, and there are stones which are hearts.” And I must say that what Sheila did melted my sometimes-stony heart.

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Life has taught me to be cynical and unsentimental. Aside from having a soft spot for dogs, I tend to be one who avoids or questions things I find to be vague, “soft,” or emotional. I’ve become a “just the facts, Ma’am” sort of person when it comes to claims that can’t be well-defined or proven through a rigorous examination.

Reading novels, I skip the mushy scenes. I’m baffled when people make religious arguments based on their feelings and quotes from scriptures (just as they’re baffled by my expectation of hard evidence). When a salesman or a preacher wants me to “experience” something before I gather the data about it, I’m instantly on guard. When Dumbledore tells Harry Potter that “love” made his baby self invincible against the evil power of Voldemort, I cringe and hit the fast-forward button. In fact, the dreadfully overused word “love” is in general enough to set my BS alarm clanging. Give me the facts, Ma’am. Just the facts.

I’m not really that cold — I hope! I’ve merely learned through a lifetime of experience that feelings sans facts are often a trap, nothing more than a form of manipulation and deception.

Our gun-hating opponents are excruciating examples of this. Their wild emotional rantings, their claims of sentiment toward the victims of shootings (victims in whose blood they gleefully dance), their stubborn choice to remain ignorant about firearms, their complete refusal to sit down and think about how the laws they demand would actually work in the real world, their bizarre lack of reasoning … all are perfect examples of why feeeeeelings should aways be suspect. Especially when someone uses their emotions (or tries to manipulate the emotions of others) as an excuse to get something they want.

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Of course, feelings can be plenty useful. That hinky sense you get when you see a suspicious stranger or enter a dangerous place. That inner voice that screams, “NO!” even when a course of action seems otherwise perfectly reasonable. That warmth that floods you when you realize you’ve met someone you can truly trust. That rush of satisfaction when you know you’ve gone the extra mile and done good. All great, all needed.

But when it comes to discovering truths that lie beyond our immediate realm, feelings are no substitute for accurate, checkable data. Give me the facts, Ma’am. Just the facts. I’ll decide for myself what to feel about them, thank you.

So when I saw Sheila’s photo and heard her describe what’s on that piece of paper — a prayer placed in an ancient wall for the people of TZP — at first I didn’t know why I felt so moved. I don’t believe there’s a god standing behind that wall, seeing, hearing, and above all caring about us (fellow blogger Y.B. will differ, of course). I don’t believe that the stones of the wall or the words on those slips of paper have any mystical power. Yet I felt a power just knowing what Sheila had done. I felt the power of the stones and the words and Sheila’s action in placing TZP in such an ancient holy place.

But why?

Many reasons, I think. But here’s the core thing: We who hold fast for gun rights and the human rights to life, liberty, and individual sovereignty ultimately do what we do out of love. Yes, that mushy, highly suspect word. There it is: love.

Oh yes, we have facts and data and knowledge on our side. Unlike the overwrought, screeching enemies of freedom, we analyze the data, we look at the facts on the table, we project the consequences of proposed laws into the future. We ask, “How does this work? Or would it work?” Some of us know the physics (that is, the facts) of the making of steel or the ballistics of a shot. Some of us have studied the history of firearms or firearms laws. Some of us can cite firearm statistics or crime statistics off the tops of our heads. Some track and analyze upcoming laws or regulatory actions. We have different areas of expertise when it comes to guns and gun rights. But generally, we tend to be people of the fact. We’re passionate about our commitment, but many of us got here by looking at the data or studying the history and knowing why we’re here.

Yet of course we don’t do what we do — we don’t join and stay in this endless struggle for freedom — because of facts alone. That wouldn’t be enough.

We stand here against all manner of hate and all attempts to smash our freedom. We stand like the stones of that ancient wall not only because we know we’re right. Being “right” is never enough; any moron can think he’s “right” about anything and still run for the hills the moment things get tough. We stand because we love life and liberty so much that surrender is inconceivable. What we do, we do for love.

It has been said of the Western Wall:

Secure and invincible with its Divine strength, the Kotel holds its own — throughout the generations of change, transformations and vicissitudes, the horrors and the shocks, which visited the land and its inhabitants. The Kotel is in them and with them.

…. [L]ike a stone fortress, it stands guard, without moving and without allowing its inner dignity to be sullied. It remains pure and exalted in the strength of its very essence…

There are hearts of stone and stones with hearts. Those who stand for gun rights are a wall, a fortress. It was right that Sheila placed TZP names in that niche in the Kotel. The words on that slip of paper aren’t just our names, individually. Our names stand for everyone who cares unyieldingly about self defense, the defense of others, and the undying principles of liberty. Our names in that wall stand for the love that holds so many great hearts so strong in this crucial cause.