80,000 Freepers and Growing

When Jim Robinson started Free Republic in September, 1996 to expose the corruption in government and particularly the Clinton Whitehouse, he was alone. Now six years later, Free Republic has 80,000 registered members and who knows how many visit this site often, just to keep up on the latest conservative thinking.

Folks, you all know where this is going, Free Republic is a user supported website and it is time to support it. Four times a year we have this freepathon to donate a few dollars to pay for the bandwidth and expenses necessary to keep Free Republic online, and we do so with gratitude and cheer because of what is offered and accomplished by the existence of Free Republic.

Free Republic does not charge a membership fee or get supported by a government grant. No, people from across the World make donations large and small because they see the value of Free Republic. So if you're one that appreciates this site and want to see it continue, please send in a few dollars to help keep it alive.

uglybiker, pinging me to a thread and posting bike stuff right after we've received a foot of snow up nort' is just plain mean . . .

BADJOE, is a picture posted in new browser window OK?

Texaggie79, I'd love to have you caption that one . . .

blam, let's go fishing. There's room for the dogs onboard, but you gotta leave the shotgun behind!

It will be very easy for you to say, "Well, I will do something, some day. When I can afford it, I am going to." But would you let an old "grad" tell you one thing now? Giving is a habit. Get into the habit now, because you will never be able to afford to give and contribute, thus to repay the obligation you owe to those people who made this college possible, if you wait until you think you can afford it. Start now regardless of how small, and in the days to come when you are confronted with demands for many worthwhile causes and charities I think you will find that you will give dutifully to all the worthy ones. But here and there you will pick one or two that will be favorites, and you can do no better than to pick this, your Alma Mater, because you will not only be repaying your own personal obligations, you will be making your contribution to the very process which has made and continues to keep America great.
This democracy of ours which sometimes we've treated so lightly, is more than ever a comfortable cloak, so let us not tear it asunder, for no man knows once it is destroyed where or when he will find its protective warmth again. ~ Ronald Reagan

Almost two centuries ago a group of disturbed men met in the small Pennsylvania State House they gathered to decide on a course of action. Behind the locked and guarded doors they debated for hours whether or not to sign the Declaration which had been presented for their consideration. For hours the talk was treason and its price the headsman's axe, the gallows and noose. The talk went on and decision was not forthcoming. Then, Jefferson writes, a voice was heard coming from the balcony:
They may stretch our necks on all the gibbets in the land. They may turn every tree into a gallows, every home into a grave, and yet the words of that parchment can never die. They may pour our blood on a thousand scaffolds and yet from every drop that dyes the axe a new champion of freedom will spring into birth. The words of this declaration will live long after our bones are dust.
To the mechanic in his workshop they will speak hope; to the slave in the mines, freedom; but to the coward rulers, these words will speak in tones of warning they cannot help but hear. Sign that parchment. Sign if the next moment the noose is around your neck. Sign if the next minute this hall rings with the clash of falling axes! Sign by all your hopes in life or death, not only for yourselves but for all ages, for that parchment will be the textbook of freedom the bible of the rights of man forever.
Were my soul trembling on the verge of eternity, my hand freezing in death, I would still implore you to remember this truth God has given America to be free. As he finished, the speaker sank back in his seat exhausted. Inspired by his eloquence the delegates rushed forward to sign the Declaration of Independence. When they turned to thank the speaker for his timely words he couldn't be found and to this day no one knows who he was or how he entered or left the guarded room.
Here was the first challenge to the people of this new land, the charging of this nation with a responsibility to all mankind. And down through the years with but few lapses the people of America have fulfilled their destiny. ~ Ronald Reagan

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