Posted on 12/31/2012 5:55:26 AM PST by FrogMom
It was New Year's Eve and the year 1998 was drawing to a close and as usual, FrogDad and I were staying home to avoid drunken revelry. We'd been married for almost 28 years and were Conservative empty nesters. He'd retired in 1994 after 24 years in the military.
I was on the internet through dial-up on my MODEM, intending to look for a game to play while FrogDad watched TV. I already hated TV and wasn't able to sit and watch it any more. I saw predictability, filth and propaganda where most others saw entertainment and news. My entertainment was generally reading science fiction, police stories, and historical novels such as The Pillars of the Earth. I had a firm budget to use at the book store.
I had cancelled my news magazines since they tended, like TV, to crap on the Country and I refused to give them any more money. Our small newspaper had local news and announcements but I had noticed that there was usually no Conservative point of view in the editorials and, as far as I was concerned, it was on life-support. I was, without realizing it, a boycott neophyte.
Bill Clinton was President and I hated his guts. I'd disliked him the first time I saw him on television. My first thought was, "Snake oil. He is selling snake oil." I turned out to be correct and could NOT wrap my head around the publically-expressed love for the patently corrupt and debauched man nor his pack of sycophants. I'd watched his antics for four years with disgust.
The House had voted to impeach Clinton but none of the media were covering it in any detail, something that absolutely appalled me. People seemed to think he was impeached about "a personal matter", but I had gleaned that it was really about denying another their rights, suborning perjury and being a thug.
I was depressed for the United States, almost totally lacking in accurate news and information. Working for a Defense Contractor, there were limitations to what I could say at work, no one seemed to discuss the slide of entertainment, news, or the President.
Online, I had recently discovered the Drudge Report and would read some articles there every day. He seemed more honest, to me, than any other news source. I was spelunking through his list of links and, although I had avoided discussion sites or blogs because they weren't "real news", went to one called Free Republic.
As I read the posted articles, re-covering some of the articles I'd seen at Drudge, I discovered a rich vein of something more precious than gold. Something that was food to a starving person. Something that was water in an information Sahara Desert - the comments about the articles. I clicked from article to article, reading comments and after a while realized I had tears running down my cheeks. Oh thank you, God, THESE people see things the way I do! I am NOT alone!
I signed up that night.
After a while, people started asking me where I got my information because I seemed to know "stuff" before they did. In far more detail than they did. More importantly, in more accurate detail than they did. The most recent example of this is a man who asked me privately, "What does it mean to ME if we go off the fiscal cliff?" And another who asked, "What do I need to do to prepare my family for what's coming?"
We have been through Y2K, planes flying into towers, a shuttle crash, iced tea, the blue dress, missile plans shared with China, and three general elections. We have shared garden tips, cooking tips, movie reviews, Prepper tips, and the deaths of online friends.
Through Free Republic, we became sign-carrying protesters during Election Hell Month in December 2000, traveling to Phoenix one weekend and to the Federal Building in Los Angeles another weekend.
Through Free Republic, we discovered what we really are, TEA partiers! We discovered we are much more normal than we ever thought.
Free Republic changed my life, and I suspect, the lives of others around me. Thank you, Jim Robinson, please know that I thank God for you.
Happy anniversary!
Ping!
Now that is a first class account.
Good post. Expresses our sentiments as well.
Happy anniversary!
You eloquently expressed what most of us feel. Thank you.
Best wishes for the New Year (for all of us AND for the country) from another member of the GREAT FReeper class of 1998..
*blushes*
Our son was a Marine stationed at Pendleton. I was TDY to San Diego for my job and took him to dinner.
This was about 1996. He told me he’d voted for Bill Clinton but was becoming somewhat unhappy with him. After picking my jaw up off the table, I asked him why on earth he’d voted for the idiot. He said, “He sounded good.”
I schooled him on the difference between “sounded good” and researching a record. I called him FrogDad’s son until after the next General Election - I wouldn’t reclaim him until he’d redeemed himself. He joined us protesting in LA and now he’s more Conservative than I am.
Went through the same discussion (BEFORE the election this time, Thank God) with my daughter and BOs talk of universal healthcare. I asked her ONE question and told her to get back to me. “Who’s gonna pay for it?”
Lordy!
Dear Frog Mom
Wonderful Post!
I haven’t been on FR as long as you have, but I can totally relate to your experience.
In the past 2 years I have lost my husband, my father, my house, my job, most of my friends, and my health.
The ONLY constant and support has been the FRiends here on FR.
About that same period my mother was expressing appreciation for Al Gore. My mom was in her 80s and it would be kind to say “the elevator no longer went to the top floor.” I told her that if she voted for Gore I would buy every grandchild a hand gun.
She dropped the subject.
Thanks!
LOL
FrogDad’s Mom was talking voting for Al Gore too. I asked her why!!?? She’d always been a Republican.
She said the way this country treats its seniors was shameful.
He husband had just spent four years in and out of hospitals and it had never cost her a dime, between the VA and Medicare. She had free food in the refrigerator and was living on Social Security.
I couldn’t figure out what in hell she was talking about.
Thanks, all!
Prayers up for you, Dear, He’s given you many heavy burdens.
FR has, at least (hopefully!), saved our sanity.
Happy Anniversary and your sentiments are beautiful. I have always said that Free Republic is sort of like an extended family. We jump up and down with excitement over the birth of a new freeper, mourn together when we lose a freeper, pray together when someone requests it and essentially root for other’s success. Yes, like a family we have our squabbles, too. However, that is all a part of openly communicating, isn’t it? I affectionately refer to FR as the University of Free Republic. How much we learn each and every day! Not just from informative articles but other freeper’s life experiences. I’d be lost without it! Hugs, Mom
Thank You, FRiend!
may You Have a Blessed New Year.
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