Posted on 09/29/2006 7:32:58 AM PDT by Albion Wilde
Washington, DC, September 22, 2006-- It's a balmy Indian summer evening, and all four corners of the entrance to Walter Reed Army Medical Center are swarming with nearly 70 FReepers and a Freeping dog. A man in a red "Free Republic 10 Year Anniversary" ball cap takes in the scene from his vantage point near the Mother of All Banners on the northeast corner. It is Jim Robinson, Free Republic's founder, who flew in from California for this special Free Republic weekend in the nation's capital for honoring the troops.
Since JimRob was here last year, the Code Pink demonstrators have been pushed away from the main gate by DC Chapter ingenuity, so his view across the street is of the main gates of Walter Reed completely surrounded by FReepers with troop-honoring flags, signs and banners, large and small. This Friday-evening FReep, now in its 75th week, has moved decisively away from countering Code Pink to its present focus on cheering the military and their family members who come and go from the gates. And the number of young people has been steadily growing. Tonight, there are dozens.
One of the college men commented, "We support out troops in spite of being from a very liberal campus. Many of our professors try to indoctrinate the students every day. For example, in my Logic class, virtually every example of logical fallacies given by the professor is about President Bush or the Iraq War. Another professor advertised an Iraq war protest in class. Academia is supposed to be a forum for many ideas, but it has become a platform only for the left."
Attendance at this week's FReep has only been surpassed once, in August of last year when Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity provided publicity. Tonight, FReepers from around the country flocked into the Capital for Support the Troops Weekend, for a total of 68 FReepers and one canine patriot.
FReepers present were: Albion Wilde, AllRightAlltheTime, ArmyMarineDad, ArmyMarineMom, BlueBlade, BufordP, ConcreteBob, Danang68, DoozerDude from Ohio, Exit 148 from New Jersey, Fraxinus, Freeping_In_Silence, Gretchen15, GunsAreOK, I Love W, Jimmy Valentine's Brother, Jim Robinson from California, JoyJoyfromNJ, Justanobody, Kristinn, Leofl from Texas, Pasquale from New York, whose son is with the Army in Afghanistan, Sasha123, Sensei Ern, Snoopy (canine FReeper from South Carolina), Syncro from California, Taco Mamma, TFroatz, tgslTakoma, 3D-Joy, Tom the Redhunter, Trooprally (Mr. & Mrs), and Upchuck from South Carolina.
GW students included: Alexis, Bill, Brand, Brandon, Chris, Claire, Dan, Gary, John, John H., Keith, Laura, Luke, Peter, Sergio, Stephanie, Tom and Will.
Lurkers and friends included: Barbara, Bill from Maryland, Brittany, Brynne, Cordelia, Ethel & George, Eva, Jerry from Ohio, Tierra, Tony from Ohio, Tyler, Olga, Protest Warriors Matthew and Russell & Joyce from Pennsylvania, and Korean War veteran Tim.
Protest Warriors were out in force:
WRAMC Garrison Commander Puts In a Good Word
TgslTakoma reports that as she was standing on the southwest corner with JoyJoyfromNJ, a car with an officer in it emerged from the gates and sat for a moment at the traffic light. "I waved," she continued, "and said, 'Thank you for keeping us safe.' He rolled the window down and said, 'I want to thank you for being here. I'm the Garrison Commander. It means a lot.' "
As the FReep began to wind down, Jim Robinson, asked to comment, added, "How grateful I am for all the servicemen who work so hard to preserve our freedom. They sacrifice so much. God bless 'em!"
But no FReep would be complete without a little good-natured prank or two at the Pinko's expense. This night, as the Pinkos huddled to confer at their prompt nine p.m. quittin' time (well before the buses arrive back at the gate containing soldiers they say they support), about 20 of the young people descended as a group to stand at the perimeter of the Pinko area. The students just stood there, at about fifteen yards, and gazed at the Pinkos, who were bunched together with their backs turned. Suddenly aware that they were under scrutiny, the Pinkos began to look over their shoulders at the students, who spontaneously set up a chant:
Again, no problem for the Pinkos.
The FReepers stayed around to wait for the buses and cheer our brave men and women of the U.S. military!
For a complete library of former Walter Reed FReeps maintained by BufordP, click here.
I wholly agree with that college student.
Joanna Rytel She also wrote an article called “I Will Never Give Birth to a White Man,”
I have a mental image...that she's a triple bagger, two over her head and one over yours....because sh*t happens and it's best to be prepared.
It was so great having you both here. The welcome mat is out for you two any time. Thank YOU for the wonderful photos, Upchuck...
Wow, Washington State is a long way from Dahlia St, Washington, DC. Wish you could be here, too. We do have a great time. Thanks for your interest, Radiohead!
We do have a ping list, and I will endeavor to put you on it, altho the AAR duties do ricochet among a bunch of us. Feel free to FReepmail me any time for more information as the time approaches.
In case we miss you, you can find our Walter Reed weekly threads in three ways:
1. Use the blue "Walter Reed" underlined link at the top of the Forum page
2. Go to the blue sidebar column on the News/Activism forum and look under the heading "Activism/Chapters"
3. Use the Search box, keyword WalterReed, menu button "by Keyword".
Hope this helps. We look forward to meeting you! Thanks for writing!
Yup. Sad but true.
Yes, that piece is mentioned in the full article at the link. Scary stuff.
I had to be elsewhere, but I was with you there in spirit!
/pun intended.
GREAT JOB!
Well, that's an incisive piece of writing, and right on the money. Did you author that?
HOORAY bump!
As a side note, as those of us interested in the Revolutionary War look back on the battles, the ones that General Washington took part in always have a special significance (e.g., Harlem Heights, White Plains, Trenton, Princeton, Monmouth, Yorktown, Brandywine, etc.). I would say its the same thing for Freeps: the ones with Jim's presence are of singular merit.
Big DC FReep pictures.
Bump!
Saturday morning bump!
I am such a quick study </sarcasm> that it only took me until I was 38 and after reading Reed Irvine's Accuracy In Media (AIM) Report for a couple of years to understand that journalism was not objective. That was back during the Carter Administration.I was particularly sensitive to the issue of the tendentiousness of the Democratic Party because I was working for a defense contractor and I was constantly seeing that any given Democrat politician, on any given day, did more harm to the national security than all the good I was ever likely to do for national security in my entire career. So I was fascinated to realize that journalism was slanted toward Democrats, and I wondered why.
The AIM Report then, and the Media Research Center now, continuously document clear cases of a leftward tilt to journalism. But nobody seriously addressed the issue of why in any reasonably satisfactory way. It was always just, "those evil journalists only hire liberals" or some such explanation which always seemed to me to boil down to a conspiracy theory. Yes, journalists are liberals - but why?
Being a quick study, it only took me about fifteen more years to begin to sort it out on my own. Journalism has rules for commercial success, and those rules - "If it bleeds, it leads," "'Man Bites Dog' rather than 'Dog Bites Man,'" and "Always make your deadline" are not politically neutral. The emphasis on bad news is a negativity which calls conservatism into question. Deadline pressure is a tendency to superficiality. And the need to have unusual stories makes the news unrepresentative of what normally goes on.
Five years ago I documented my understanding of the reasons for and implications of "bias in the media" in this thread. And I had the conceit that I would link in to that thread all the germane threads that I saw. So what actually happened was that I found myself turning that thread is sort of a blog of my thoughts on the leftist perspective of journalism. Realistically, the best way to read the thread probably is read the initial article and then jump to the latest comments and skim backward as much as you find interesting.
Bumpity bump!
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