On a more serious note, this business of a FR bio page...I absolutely don't condemn anyone who doesn't have a bio. I understand.
I understand 100%.
And I understand why they think I shouldn't post my bio page as I do. I get it.
But here is where I stand, for myself alone: I want to put myself in the position of never saying something online that I would never say to someone face to face. For me, this keeps me honest.
Granted, I don't always live up to my own standards as many Freepers with whom I have had heated disagreements with over the years will attest, at I can often be a hot-head.
I am that in real life as well, as I found out at my town meeting recently when a gentleman went up the microphone and asked the town politicians a question about veteran's access to prospective units of low income housing that might be built, and if veterans were be eligible, where they would fall in the selection process. He was told that "protected classes" would get first priority, and my blood just boiled at that.
My small town already has the 13th highest tax rate out of 353 cities or towns in this blue state, and they are proposing to raise taxes even more by a variety of methods. To hear this, that my taxes were going to go up to pay for affordable housing, and an elderly Vietnam Veteran or Gulf War Veteran who lives in my town could not be given access to a unit until all the "protected classes" were given access just made the steam come out of my ears.
I got up and asked them the question "Could you define 'protected classes' for me in the context of this article we are going to vote on?"
I knew quite well what they meant. But I wanted to hear them state it aloud in this public forum. To his credit, one of them did, but I will tell you, to them, asking that question aloud "Define 'protected class" in front of a body of people was the equivalent of dumping a turd in the punch bowl they were drinking from. It was clear from their faces (and probably all the Leftists sitting behind me I couldn't see) that it was somehow impolite or impolitic to ask that question baldly in a public hearing and make them define the term. The guy even cut me off.
It was a term ("protected classes") that they mentioned at least three times when answering that gentleman's question about Veteran's access to low income housing. I just felt the blood going to my face.
If they are going to raise my taxes to exercise racism (which is what giving preferences to someone based on the color of their skin is) and exclude someone who served his country because the melanin content is less, or he doesn't come from some culture they think should be protected, well, they no doubt think I am a racist for making them expand on that, which is rich given their government backed racism and discrimination. I don't care. Being accused of racism in this country today is de rigueur for the Left, part of their tool box.
And after that, I made a point of getting up and asking any question that I wanted to on any article we were going to be voting on.
Not that any of that made any difference, since they pack the place with people who are going to vote for their stuff.
They sure didn't like it. I know they see me simply as a resource from which to extract money, and not ask any questions about it. In this state, they certainly do think I work for them in that respect, not the other way around as it must still be in many small towns across America.
Point is, I am going to get up in front of a crowd and make them define their terms, and I will state my name and address readily before I do it, no matter how distasteful they think it is.
And I will do the same thing here.
If I live in a country where I cannot speak my mind and the truth is offensive to those in power, then if people want to take me down for that, it is on them, not me, and I am going to force them to take me down. I won't surrender and submit to their crap. I love this country, it has given me so much, and I won't willingly contribute to its demise by slinking away.
And so it is on Free Republic. I may be wrong. I may be impolite. I may (and do) say things I regret saying, but it isn't any different here than it is in "real life", because I fall down on those things too. But I always try to get up and mend a fence when it needs it.