Yesterday was a sad day for Free Republic

May 3, 2011 | Huck

[Huck]

Yesterday should have been a glorious day around here. There should have been fireworks and celebration. There should have been somber remembrances. There should have been patriotic tributes. There should have been shared joy at the news that our guys had finally gotten Bin Laden.

Instead, when I visited the site, what I found was a lot of carping. I found people focused more on the political spin than on the great news. I found people transferring their birther mentality onto this event, talking about Obama faking this news, photoshopping information, etc. It wasn't everybody, but it was a LOT of people. It made me sick.

Yesterday Free Republic seemed like DU. It makes me wonder what the hell is going on. Are Freepers getting younger? I always assume that DU is so pathetically immature because they must be younger. Free Republic has always been a place dominated by great class, and wit, and decency. Not this time. What I saw yesterday was a pathetic embarrassment and totally unworthy of this great forum.

As some of you may know, I was in lower Manhattan on 9-11. I was just across the street from the WTC when the first plane hit. I still remember the beautiful clear blue sky that day. I remember walking in between the towers just a minute or so before 8:46am, on my normal route to work. I remember my co-workers screaming in panic when they watched from an office window as the second plane hit the south tower. I remember women crying and screaming hysterically. I remember not being able to contact my wife to tell her I was OK. I remember people jumping to their deaths. I remember seeing the north tower go down with my own eyes, hearing it with my own ears. I remember fleeing Manhattan. I remember it was a Tuesday.

I remember returning to work the following Monday, riding the ferry passed the site, noxious smoke still billowing from the wreckage. I remember armed troops on the sidewalks. I remember wearing a breathing mask inside my building because the foul odor was seeping in through the ventilation system. I remember thinking we'd really gotten kicked in the teeth. They had killed innocent people, they had traumatized our women and children, and I really wanted revenge. I hung a picture on my wall of the American eagle sharpening his talons.

It has been a long time since that day. It's hard to believe how fast time flies. Then again, if you lost your loved one, I imagine time hasn't gone so fast. I love my wife so much, I can empathize with anyone who has lost the one they love. I can't imagine how that would be, and don't want to know, but I can cry for those people because I know what it is like to find your one true love.

I'm not an Obama fan. I hate socialism. But I am so happy that Bin Laden is killed, and that we have exacted some real revenge. It's about time. The politics don't even play into it for me. I still have the little flag, now tattered, that I flew on my car antenna after 9-11. I want to take it out of storage and put it on my car. I want to see American flags on cars like we saw back then. But it's not going to happen, and partially because the normally patriotic conservatives such as the ones here on Free Republic are instead focused on the politics and the fact that a socialist Democrat was president and will get some of the credit.

I guess you all would have been pissed on D-Day too. FDR was as big a socialist as anyone. I guess VE day and VJ day would have chapped your hides, since Truman was a DEM. I don't mean to paint with a broad brush. I know it wasn't every Freeper acting this way. But when I went on the board, that was the general impression, and it was really disappointing. It should have been a great day here. Instead, I saw a lack of patriotism and a lack of class. Free Republic should be better than this. If conservatives lose their patriotism and class, then what will happen to those virtues? I hope we can get them back soon. In the meantime, thanks for reading.

Respectfully,

Huck

[Quix]

Well put.

I think there’s SOME increased whining and carping compared to the early days . . . of a petty sort . . .

but not greatly.

The whining was more vigorous, insistent and haughty in the early days.

I think more of it is just cheap—cheap shots, now-a-days.

[fr_freak]

Hey, since we're all just posting our random thoughts as if they mean something, here are mine:

I see the problem with FR as being exactly the opposite of the problem you see. The way I see it, as our circumstances get more dire, and the threat to our country, our culture, and our way of life increases exponentially, there are a large number of Freepers who want to pretend that it is business as usual, that the politics of today are just like they were in the old days, where Democrat vs. Republican was just chess match between gentlemen and the outcome would not make or break us. Well, we have quite literally come to a moment where the outcome of all the political efforts will either destroy us, or, at best, limp us back toward safe ground. There is no safe status quo anymore. We are up against ideologies that want to destroy this country and everything it stands for and has ever stood for, and adherents to those ideologies are now the majority in our government at all levels.

Amid this perilous environment, one would think that so-called conservative patriots, as we supposedly have here, would recognize the threat and adapt. And we do have quite a few who fit that description. However, we also have Freepers such as yourself who simply cannot adapt to the idea that our government is no longer on our side, if it ever was, that the stakes have been raised, and that greater effort on the part of the enemy calls for greater response on our side. Instead, many Freepers want to continue along the same comfortable path they have traveled their whole lives: bitching about the government but never doing anything about it, watching the lies, deception, illegal behavior, disregard for the rights of the people, disregard for the law at all levels perpetrated by our government entities, and yet refusing to go to the next logical level of thought and accepting that our government is no longer legitimate, cannot be trusted, and must be reset.

In short, there are quite a few Freepers too scared to even consider the possibility of Obama's ineligibility, or the possibility that this Osama thing is just a ploy, or the possibility that Cloward-Piven is being rammed down our throats, or the national treasury purposefully looted, and any number of other crimes against the people of the United States, because that consideration would require them to accept something they desperately do not want to believe, because if they were to believe it, they would have to either act or feel like a coward. They would much rather close their eyes and go back to their comfortable lives watching TV and mowing the lawn.

This is a discussion forum. Ideas are discussed here. Possibilities are discussed here. If you don't like that, if the topics discussed frighten you, then leave.

[ilgipper]

Huck, what you saw was a natural reaction to a bastard President making it political from minute one. I. I. I. I. Me. We also watched the idiot media bashing Bush and exhaulting Obama. Obama certainly deserves credit for his role in this, and few would deny that. What good patriotic Americans at FR and elsewhere are expressing in relation to the narcissistic reaction of the left is both real and natural. We have an egomaniac taking full credit because he thinks this is his ticket to more power.

[dforest]

The forum is probably different because people come and go. Life is different than it was 10 years ago, even 5 years ago. People change with the times. Some changes are reflections of what has come down over the past years. Those changes are slow and go unnoticed until they blossom into full view.

Someone posted a while back that Bush 41 once said the American people would go nuts if they knew the truth about some of the things we have done. Wow

The reality of what has happened to this country has settled in. I sure miss the old days when I put my trust in the people I voted for. Life was so much more pleasant than it is now.

People now have to be on guard, for good reason. And when they are on guard, they are accused of being unpatriotic or too cynical.

There should be healthy questioning of what the government offers. Politicians think mostly about reelection.

Yesteryear was great, but yesteryear has only been successful in bringing us today. That is nothing to be proud of. The country is on the brink.

[Daisyjane69]

Amen, sister.

You said it better than I ever could.

[LuvFreeRepublic]

I agree Huck, but it was also a “sad” day on FB. I told people that I would not tolerate Bush/Obama bashing on MY wall and that for a day all I was going to do was celebrate America's victory and think of the victims of 9-11. Some didn't listen and after a few warning, I deleted and blocked them. One kept trashing Obama, two kept trashing Bush. Good riddance.

[Lakeshark]

I do understand not wanting to believe a consummate liar like the bamster.

I also think this operation was too involved with too many people for it to be untrue. Occam's razor and all that.

If it's not true, proof of that would come out. For myself, I'm comfortable and happy with OBL's death. I'm still very uncomfortable the way they are spinning and using it.

[Freddd]

How do you know he’s killed?

Might just be a cover story for abusing another Countries Sovereignty...

I’ve seen no proof Bin Laden is dead.

Hope it’s better than the b.c. proof.

[butterdezillion]

That is the only reasonable response to an administration who just last week posted a blatantly-obvious forged birth certificate, with the entire media and government not even balking at the fact it had no identifiable certifying seal.

It is not extreme for people to expect substantiation for claims made. That should be a no-brainer. I believe that Bin Laden is dead. But I am disgusted that they almost seemed to go out of their way to make sure not to give us any clear evidence of that. And that disgusts me.

One of the reasons the eligibility issue is so important is because if the Commander-in-Chief is able to lie to everybody in order to get the position, there is no reason for us to trust him once he’s IN the position. And it is unconscionable for the people of this country to do that to the men and women we put in harm’s way - including these SEALS and including my nephews in the military.

We cannot afford to have a non-credible CINC. He should be treating his own credibility as if it is a national security issue, because it is. And he has TRAMPLED that by posting a blatant forgery. And the entire government has TRAMPLED it by letting a blatant forgery pass. And the media has TRAMPLED it by not even checking to see that the stupid forgery didn’t have a seal on it.

These are surreal times. I would love to go back to the times when I thought the media would spin a story but be basically accurate with facts, and that our government had some version of accountability, but based on what I’ve observed first-hand the only way I could do that is by blind, suicidal faith in people who have gone out of their way to flip the bird at me and break laws as easily as they breathe.

Osama is most likely dead. Why can’t they just cut the crap and substantiate the claim so we can truly celebrate?

[momtothree]

“Am I the only one who got that vibe?”

No, you aren’t the only one. Notice the Obama/Biden signs that just showed up. Yes, it looked staged and like theatre. If it wasn’t then shame on this administration for making every event look suspicious. I refuse to apologize for becoming disillusioned and questioning. I am a product of this administration.

[thesearethetimes...]

appypappy posted - “I have friends on both sides of the political spectrum that are suspicious.”

TruthFactor replied - “I am soooo tired of the conspiracy theories. It’s another indication of the immaturity and lack of critical thinking in society today.”

commish posted - “So the scepticism is not just here, it is everywhere. Nobody believes a word that Obama or this administration says without proof to back it up.”

Our experiences are fully in line with commish and appypappy. Friends and associates were generally of the mindset that the decision to dispose of the body so suddenly was troubling, and made it difficult to feel certainly that justice had indeed been meted out. We also have one in grad school and even she noted a surprisingly healthy degree of skepticism amongst many who she would have never expected it from ; )

And in response to TruthFactor and Huck, I believe that it is less about FreeRepublic and more about the possibility that more and more “average Americans” are realizing that they should not believe everything that the media and the government tells them...

And I happen to think that that is a VERY good thing, and one of the few positive outcomes from the election of The One.

May God give us strength and wisdom.
Tatt

[jersey117]

we HAVE NO MEDIA calling them on it

That's the problem. They are going to have to release pictures eventually. When Saddam was killed his picture was splashed across the front page of the NY Post the next day. OBL was THE big catch. Why not show us and gloat some more? Rather than bomb the compound, they went to all the trouble of personally killing him only to give him a "proper" muslim burial and toss him in the ocean? Makes no sense to me.

[paulycy]

BUMP

[novemberslady]

Excellent post.

[ilovesarah2012]

You think photos can’t be faked? If you don’t want to believe Bin Laden is dead, that’s your decision. I believe he’s dead and I am thrilled.

[GQuagmire]

The problem isn’t not trusting govt. The problem is some here go nuts and accuse ANYONE who doesn’t agree with them(birthers, and only some of them) of being a troll.

Discourse is good. Witchhunts are not.

[Freddd]

What did Nancy Pelosi know and when did she know it, and how many times did she tip off Pakistan????

[Diogenesis]

[Hacklehead]

I tend to agree. The tin foil hat crowd was much more active than usual, likely because they had a new “conspiracy” to rail about. Anyone who thinks it made sense to fake OBL’s death is not thinking clearly and IMO has contracted Obama derangement syndrome. OBL’s death made my week and Obama is due a small amount of credit for not screwing up the operation.

[Alberta's Child]

I also think this operation was too involved with too many people for it to be untrue. Occam's razor and all that.

My feeling is the exact opposite. How many people were actually involved in it? And if sending a bunch of Navy Seals into a compound in Pakistan to kill him is all it took, then what the hell has the U.S. been doing in Afghanistan for the last ten years?

I'm not suggesting anything we've been told is untrue, but I also know that there's no way to verify anything we've been told . . . and as a conservative I have a healthy skepticism about Big Government and Big Media -- regardless of who controls either one of them.