Why am I doing this?

The truth is, I dont really know for sure. "Jumping on the bandwagon" might have something to do with it. But with the exception of a brief period of my life wasted looking for Beanie Babies (Yes, I know...) the bandwagon has never really been my thing. Maybe its just to try to get some of my jumbled thoughts out of my head, I sometimes get too many in there and it hurts!
The first thing that I had better explain in case somebody actually reads this and cares enough to wonder, is the title "Latter-Day Danite".
If I need to explain to you what a "Danite" is you have either a:never lived in Utah or b:never studied Church history. In short, what a Danite is will vary depending on whom you ask. The asnwer will vary from something akin to terrorists and murderers, Bill collectors, and Batman-like vigilante/heroes. I think that the truth is probably somewhere in the middle...that they were a group of men who were sometimes operating under the direction of the Prophet and sometimes werent, who at times were used to collect money owed the Church and Church members, who at times were charged to act as bodyguards or local Milita, and who at times were excessivly violent.
I have sometimes said that if I had lived in the 19th century, I would probably have hung around with the Danites, folks like Porter Rockwell, Bill Hickman, Eph Hanks, and others. They have always kinda seemed like my kind of people for some reason. They were never called to speak in conference, or serve missions (Somebody please correct me on that if i'm wrong) but they were always there when they were needed.
Im kinda that way myself. I have never been called a "Peter Preisthood" and probably never will be. I'm not one to get up and bear my testimony every month (Or every year, for that matter). I am not one of those who gets called all the time to go and help give a blessing. But, when I have been called, I have gone. Every time. And in my experience, not every "Peter Priesthhod" I have known can say that.
But I am digressing.
I consider myself a modern day Danite, andf to be honest, I think that the Church(and our society in general) could use more folks like that today. Alot of people were scared to death of the Danites, in particular Porter. The mere mention of his name is recorded to have inspired some men to jump on the nearest horse and "get out of Dodge", so to speak. More than likely that fear kept some people in line while passing through the area. I really believe that that fear kept some bad things from happening. And if the bad guys being afraid helped the average citizen feel a little safer, seems like a good trade to me. Like somebody has said, "Gentle people sleep better at night because rough man stand ready to do violence on thier behalf."
I dont consider myself to be some kind of caped crusader hero riding in on a white horse, but I understand what motivates men like that to do what they do.
And I would like to think that men like Porter, "Wild Bill" Hickman, and others, would understand me as well.