A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....04-22-03...Stormy Weather

Billie; FreeTheHostages | Profile written by FreeTheHostages

[Billie]

A Few of FR's Finest.....
......Every Day

FR is a Treasure Trove of talented, compassionate, patriotic, wonderful people who gather every day to discuss the latest news and issues; salute and support our military and our leaders;  tell a few jokes;  learn a new word;  write poetry;  pray for those in need;  and congratulate those who are deserving. Thank you, Jim Robinson, for giving us the vehicle in which we can express ourselves.

Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   I can remember lurking when there were only a few regulars who posted, and now there are over 60,000 who have registered for posting privileges. The forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world.

A Few of FR's Finest November 11, 2001

So many people have written me since my original Veteran's Day Tribute, asking how they, or a loved one, could be included in that tribute. Since I can no longer add the photos to the body of the thread, I've been including them in additional posts as I received enough to make another collage.

Still that doesn't seem to be enough. I think there's never been a better nor more appropriate time to keep the faces of our own Veterans and Active Military in front of FReepers--every day! That's why I wanted to do yet another Daily Thread .....ABOUT FReepers .....and FOR FReepers. But not only about our Military FReepers; for all FReepers! Wouldn't it be nice to get to know a few of the other FReepers as well? That's why, in addition to seeing FR's Finest Military Personnel every day, I thought it might be fun to feature a different FReeper (or FReepers) each day. If you would like to be pictured, or know someone who would, please FReepmail me and we'll turn the spotlight - on YOU - for the day!

And do let me know if you'd like your picture added to the groups of Veterans/Active Military below. I will keep this page updated, and continue to add them to the comment section of the original Veteran's Day thread as well.

<

TOP:  g'nad, AgThorn's son Justin, SLB, AgThorn's son Brett.
MIDDLE:  fish70, razorback-bert, CheneyChick,Leroy S Mort, Mark17.
BOTTOM:  Terry's Take, Taxman, DinkyDau.

TOP:  ValerieUSA's son Grant, SK1Thurman, kd5cts, RangerVetNam,
dansangel and .45man's son-in-law Tony
BOTTOM:  rangerX, Old China Hand, Trish, Howlin's dad, Mustang

TOP: ohioWfan's son, MamaBear's father-in-law, MamaBear's dad, ladtx
MIDDLE:  The Mayor's niece, M.Kehoe, Beach_Babe's son-in-law
BOTTOM:  deadhead's dad, HiJinx, Severa's hubby, viligantcitizen's granddad.

TOP:  spectr17, RightOnline, SERE_Doc, Tet68.
MIDDLE:  FutureSnakeEater, RightOnline's wife, CIApilot, Clamper1797
BOTTOM:  usmcobra, onedoug, DiverDave, Joe6-pack

We now have eleven groups of veterans/active military; we will post each group of three or four twice a week, with thumbnail/links of the remaining seven or eight groups on each thread. Click on any of the thumbnails below to see the group full-size.

         

GROUP 1A: TOP: Logos, SwedeGirl's hubby, Neil E Wright, FallGuy, 1John, Sneakypete MIDDLE:  T'wit, COB1, LadyX, Dick Bachert, 68-69TonkinGulfYatchClub BOTTOM:  YankeeinSC, Delta21, JoeSixPack1

GROUP 2A: TOP:  Bosniajmc, AFVetGal, Archy, A Navy Vet MIDDLE:  4TheFlag, Aeronaut, 68Grunt, Xinga BOTTOM:  Codger, AAABest, Clinton's A Liar, Duke809, dcwusmc

GROUP 3A: TOP:  mc5cents, Norb2569, LBGA's son, VanJenerette MIDDLE:  Jim Robinson, KJenerette, davidosborne, KG9Kid BOTTOM:  gwmoore, Equality7-2521, SAMWolf

GROUP 4A: TOP:  porgygirl, Phil V., MudPuppy, NorCoGOP MIDDLE:  RaceBannon, OneidaM, rdb3, jwTexian BOTTOM:  USMC Vet, TheMayor, Vineyard, rhododogma

      

GROUP 9A: TOP: Q6-God, Scan59, Mama Bear and JKPhoto's son, ofMagog. MIDDLE:  Big'ol_freeper, JustAmy's great uncle, Prodigal Son. BOTTOM:  JustAmy's husband, JustAmy's brother-in-law, JustAmy's brother.

GROUP 10A: TOP: dakine's wife, MeeknMing's dad, Auntbee's nephew, MilitiaMan7, AlasBabylon. BOTTOM:  Joe Brower, Temple Owl, Temple Owl's wife, dutchess' dad, Aomagrat.

GROUP 11A: TOP: ladtx #2 son; DiverDave's twin Don; petuniasevan and husband poorman; Mustard; ladtx #1 son. BOTTOM: AlamoGirl's brother Floyd; AG's dad; AG's brother Jim (inset); WVNan's husband; ladtx' Aunt Eva.

                     

daughterofTGSL Washington D.C.

Stormy Weather by FreeTheHostages

"Hi! I’m in 10th grade now, but probably when I was 7 months old, and surely by the time that I could deconstruct lawn mower engines at 30 months, I knew not to stand outside in the cold rain all day." ~ daughterofTGSL

daughter with her older brother in 1990

Sounds simple. But read on and you’ll see that not everyone in daughterofTGSL’s high school has that kinda common sense. (And yes, her name’s daughterofTGSL because she’s the daughter of tgslTakoma. Good guess! But you’re smart enough not to stand in the rain too!)

~A Broad-Minded Childhood~

daughterofTGSL was always a conservative. Here’s how she felt when she learned that Reagan couldn’t run for a third term:

Her Mom gave her childhood experiences of a certain political breadth as she was growing up, and when she first heard Clinton was running for President in 1991, she thought it was a joke, as evidenced by this expression:

Trying an air rifle at an NRA firing range in 5th grade.
("I didn’t give her real bullets until she was in 7th grade," says tgslTakoma)

Wow, I wonder what a liberal interviewer like dansangel or Ted Koppel would say about that!? With such care and nuturing, daughterofTGSL has grown into a beautiful young lady, well-informed on political issues of the day.

2001 Regimental Ball
~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

2002 Regimental Ball

She’s a normal, happy girl in 10th grade. She thinks its perfectly normal, not to mention fun, to accompany Mom on some of her DC Chapter freeps. She loves school at her private, Catholic high school. With sudden, delightful enthusiasm, she declares her friends the "BEST EVER!" But she didn’t use to talk politics at her high school, because Lord knows what your classmates' political views might be. No sense getting slimed at school just because you like to help "Freep the Veep."

~Rumbles of War and a Local Thunderstorm~

Fast forward to March 2003. At school, daughterofTGSL and her classmates were not too vocal with each other on the topic of the Iraqi war. They figured they might be outnumbered and surrounded. daughterofTGSL’s position, as set forth in her BUMP of her Mom’s profile thread, is "God bless the men and women in uniform, where would we be without them?"

Then, on the very first day of the war, a group of kids at school who didn’t want the United States to liberate Iraq decided to have a school protest. So they planned a walk-out for the next day. I’m sure they thought it would be a big stormy protest.

Well, it was stormy all right: a dark, cold day in March with lots of rain.

~The Cowardice of Their Convictions~

daughterofTGSL’s leftist classmates didn’t like the idea of getting wet and cold in the rain in order to make their stand in favor of spineless capitulation to Saddam Hussein. So - daughterofTGSL giggles in wonderment at their stupidity - they "decided instead of walking out, they’d walk to the lobby in the front entrance of the school" and have their "walk-out" inside!

Let me repeat: the anti-war walk-out kids asked to stay inside under the school roof for their walk out!

Well, turns out, in these United States they don’t (yet) let high school kids (or at least the private Catholic high school kids) decide their own hours for schooling. The school administrators informed these six or so I-want-to-run-foreign-policy-only-if-I-can-stay-warm-and-dry kids that since they were clearly planning to skip classes, for which one can get suspended, the school wasn’t about to let them skip class in the school hallway. A cruel lesson to keep in mind for early adulthood: words have meaning. The kids were told that they could not "walk out" without actually "walking out," and the cruel System would insist that "out" meant "out" and "in" meant "in," and the place being a "school," "in" would involve class-going and educating and things like that.

So these silly children proceeded, under penalty of cold, wet rain and suspension, to strike their bold blow in favor of the Stalinist regime of Hussein on the "outside."

I asked, not without delightful expectation, was it raining hard? Oh yes, daughterofTGSL reports, at some points it was pouring. The protestors were out by the curb, and their umbrellas didn’t protect them from the blowing rain. Still they stayed out there, the whole school day.

DaughterofTGSL was encouraged that there were only 6 or so of them. They didn’t have any signs but they had things on their sweatshirt that said slogans such as,"No war." No one in the cars stopped by and supported them. There were workers in a bakery nearby that sympathized with them and gave them some donuts, but as far as DaughterofTGSL and her classmates could tell, that was about it for people taking seriously a group of people without the God-given common sense to come on in out of the rain.

Hmm, they set out to change the world, and all they got was a donut.

~Everyone Thought They Were All Wet~

Meanwhile, things weren’t going much better for the sillybunny leftists’ cause inside the school. Word spread around the school. The buzz in the high school was derisive. A lot of people were saying: "What do they think they’re trying to accomplish? They were not really doing anything, just wasting their time and getting cold and wet and it’s the wrong point of view too." DaughterofTGSL was heartened by the discussion along these lines.

"I’d always thought I was pretty much outnumbered because the people that agreed with me kept quiet. But so many of my classmates were totally disgusted that I realized a lot of people agreed with me."

DaughterofTGSL reports that there were a few more of her classmates who opposed the war but "kept their wits about them and only went out during the lunch hour." (Thus standing in the rain for less time and avoiding suspension for skipping class, all while having the same absolutely nonexistent impact on foreign policy. Who knows what the 6 hard core activists thought of these people. Perhaps as having less of a "moral high ground" in the sense of not being completely drenched?)

DaughterofTGSL belongs to Army Junior ROTC. She notes:

"The ROTC kids aren’t allowed to do things like that. If you did that in uniform, we could have gotten arrested."

In fact, they had a junior ROTC officer making sure that no ROTC kids went out to join the protestors. (She likes junior ROTC - they learn a lot of great stuff like first aid, writing resumes, etc., in addition to physical training.)

~More About daughterofTGSL ~

DaughterofTGSL interrupted a cross-stitching project to be interviewed by me. She’s happily on spring break, reading and having fun with her friends and watching movies and such. She loves to read and she loves her country. She had a great time at a JROTC sleepaway camp this past summer:

2002 summer vacation with Junior ROTC

We got up at 4 to run 5 miles and stayed up till 10 doing all sorts of activities. We went rappelling, through obstacle courses, leadership training courses, marksmanship and land navigation classes, and even got to ride in a black hawk. It was an all-around army JROTC experience with lots of PT (physical training) and the gross food proved its authenticity.

DaughterofTGSL loves school, although her school "loves giving homework." She's just as happy to be on spring break this week. She likes Spanish and chemistry and Lord of the Rings. She’s taking physics next year in 11th grade. She likes any kind of music, further qualifying that to note especially the "kind of music where, when you’re having a bad day, you can go home and dance on the bed, that’s the kind of music I like." Hmm, I’ve got to try that next time I’m having a bad day!

After the plane hit the Pentagon, she often went with her Mom, tgslTakoma, to tend to the impromptu memorial sites outside the Pentagon.

She reads broadly on the latest topics a lot on Free Republic - she’s more likely to lurk than post. Her favorite Freep was certainly the Freep the Veep, because "there were so many people and they were bringing up some great points, and we were the clear majority, and it was so much fun to see Gore go out the back because he knew you were there." At one point, she saw Al Gore "on the balcony watching us."

~The Best Ever~

Of course, it’s insulting to daughterofTGSL’s intelligence to describe her as merely smarter than anti-war protestors who protest to absolutely no one in the pouring rain in exchange for a jelly donut. Here's a better test of intelligence. When I asked didn’t she think the DC Chapter could be kinda "weird" sometimes, and wasn’t there some chapter member she’d like to dish on as, like, totally weird, she was sage enough to demure. She said carefully: "If you ever seen me with my friends, we can be a lot weirder than the DC Chapter. It’s not weird if all of you do it." Pretty evasive, huh? I told her teasingly that her answer was very carefully polite, and she nervously giggled. Well, if she’s ever embarrassed to be with us, she never lets on.

With some of the DC Chapter members at the Pentagon

I’m giving short shrift to her DC Chapter frontline freeper activism, so permit me to emphasize that she comes to all the rallies because she wants to, and she talks and listens and gets along and has a good time. We all like her lots, and we're happy she's discovered that at her school it's not weird to support President Bush. Turns out that standing in the cold rain to protest the end of an oppressive, Stalinist regime is what’s totally weird!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I was drafting this, Billie asked me, as she began to think about graphics, what kind of girl daughterofTGSL was - a girly girl, or a tomboy? And it made me stop and realize this DC Chapter freeper’s versatility: she looks beautiful and feminine in her ball gown, but she’s also a fit JROTC member. She’s got a great sense of humor - she told my boyfriend her high school story while drolly rolling her eyes at just the right points. As funny as her "leftists are all wet" war story is, only daughterofTGSL's enthusiastic rendition with that bright glint of intelligence in her eyes does it justice. She’s a bit of everything, Billie. I would just have to say:

daughterofTGSL's the BEST EVER!

THIS WEEK'S THREADS 04-21-03 Buster, A Nose for Danger

Opinions by our own 'King of Ping' The guy's good, folks!

Thanks, Mixer!

1) Click on the graphic to open the Calendar.
2) Once there you can click on any month and even click to the right to go into next year. Once you are in the month that you joined FR you will need to click on the number in the calendar and then an add item screen will come up.
3) In the next box enter your name in the "Calendar Text" field and then click on submit.
4) If any of the screens fail to load simply click on refresh in your browser and that will usually fix it.
5) If all else fails or simply if you want me to do this for you send me a FReepmail and I will gladly do it for you. ~Mixer

[Dubya]

Congrats daughter of TGSL

[Dubya]

Today's flag is a very special one to me.

I am very happy for you.

[Billie]

Hi, Dubya! I'm just looking at My Comments, and do you know that you are #202 in both today's thread and yesterday's?! The top two posts to me are from you, from yesterday's thread, and then from today's.

Thank you! Love my flag high in the sky!

[Dubya]

I didn't know that. Thats something. Probably never happen again.

[Hobsonphile]

How was "Holes"?

Speaking for myself, I would like to see The Giver be made into a movie. As long as we're talking about Newberry Award winning books...

[Hobsonphile]

I haven't mastered the image thing yet, so I can't give you lovely condolences. I can only give you my boring old words- my condolences for your loss.

[GailA]

From my email today

Star 100.7 Radio Station was doing one of their "is anyone listening who" bits this morning. The first one was, "Ever have a celebrity pull the 'do you know who I am' routine?"

A lady called in and said that when she was visiting her cattle rancher Uncle in Billings, MT a few years ago, they went to dinner at a restaurant that does not take reservations. The wait was about 45 minutes. Lots of other rancher types and their spouses were already waiting.

In comes Ted Turner and Jane Fonda. They want a table. The hostess says they'll have to wait about 45 minutes. Jane Fonda asks if she knows who she is? "Yes, but you'll still have to wait 45 minutes." Then Jane says, "Is the manager in?"

The manager comes out, "May I help you?" "Do you know who I am?", ask both Jane and Ted. "Yes, but these folks have all been waiting already and I can't put you in ahead of them."

Then Ted asks to speak to the owner. The owner comes out. Jane again asks, "do you know who I am?"

The owner says "Yes, I do.... Do you know who I am? I am the owner of this restaurant and a Vietnam Veteran. Not only will you not get a table ahead of all of my friends and neighbors here, but you also will not be eating in my restaurant tonight or any other night. Good bye."

Only in America, what a great country!

[tgslTakoma]

:-)

That you do!

[Billie]

'Nite, all - thanks for helping make today special for daughterofTGSL. See you tomorrow. (You too, T Man) :)

[MeekOneGOP]

Thank you so much ! I'm sorry I haven't been here much tonight ! I've been on the phone with Dad and some other relatives and friends. Making plans for the visitation tomorrow night at the funeral home, etc. Dad will come up tomorrow and we'll go to that and he'll stay overnight here and we'll go to the funeral tomorrow.

I had arranged previously for a friend to drop off Jeffy, his doggie, so I could doggie sit with him while they take off for Florida for a few days. We'll make the hand off somehow manana . . .

Good night all !

[MeekOneGOP]

sheesh ! Ya'll must think I'm nuts, lol! The funeral is Thursday. We'll go to the funeral Thursday . . .

[MeekOneGOP]

Oh, thank you. That is beautiful to me. I appreciate it.

[daughterofTGSL]

Wow, I feel like royalty, what with the thread and then the rose! Today is definitely my day.

[daughterofTGSL]

It was great. It did kinda go back and forth in time a lot, but if you've read the book you'll understand it, and probably even if you haven't. Speaking of The Giver, I would definitely love to see that movie. I was stuck in the book for a couple days till I finished it.

[WVNan]

I'm sorry I missed your party DOTGSL. I did read all about you though and I have reached this conclusion....

[Diver Dave]

Afraid I too missed your party, but it was sure nice being introduced to you here on FR's Finest...

Atta Girl!!!

[FreeTheHostages]

Sorry, just getting to your Jane Fonda story. That is a COOL story. This is a great country.

[stand watie]

just say the word and i'll order you each one!

[stand watie]

YEP!