And then you let me actually hold it!
Many thanks for the honor!
Posted on 09/08/2001 6:21:07 PM PDT by TLBSHOW
I was a normal kind of guy. I ate food went out for walks and even watched videos, eek! I took the wife shopping. Even talked to the wife once in awhile.
Then that fateful night of Nov 7th 2000. I had to go somewhere else to to watch the election results as I do not have Cable TV. I went to the pizza joint on rt 7 and then to my secret election watch hide out.(No one to interupt)
I wanted to watch Bush beat the socks off of Gore. I new it was going to be a great night. Little did I know I would never sleep that night or for the next 5 weeks.
It took me till the end of November to find out I was not alone. That there was a freerepublic.com.
Before I would tell people the truth and they all wouldn't have a clue or they thought, this boy is NUTS! It was a lonely life thinking Am I The Only One that sees what is going on with this country and what the liberal bias media and the leftist democrats were doing to it, let alone the Clintons and Reno.
Well to make the story short. I was watching the news and these great people were on TV saying get out of Cheneys house. There it was the sign said Freerepublic.com. I copied it down and ran to my computer. I typed it in and sure enough The NEW WORLD WAS RIGHT BEFORE MY EYES!
I think what would my life be if there was not a FR. If the rest of you were not here. That was enough to make me sit up and take notice. What can I do to make sure FR is here forever. Then I found out all I had to do was support the place and along with 70,000 other members make FR home. That we could change the world from here and with hundreds of thousands of people stopping by everyday we could tell the whole world the truth.
I would not trade all of you fine FReepers for any other world.
My life has never been the same since I found www.freerepublic.com (What about yours?) Ok everyone has your life been the same since logging on to FR and what adventures have you had?
If those 70,000 people would give just FIVE DOLLARS A MONTH to FR, think what THAT would do. That would be $350,000 quarterly ... then watch FRee Republic fly!
That's what I contribute (being a Senior Citizen). I call myself a part of the Dollar-a-Week Club.
BIG BUMP
I always knew there had to be people who believed as I did, I just never could find them in this liberal West Coast area. I always knew there had to be conservative news sources; I just never could figure out where they were. Now I know.
God bless Jim Robinson and his dear family, and may FR "live" forever.
Ah yes, Alamo-Girl ... one of FR's treasures. And there are many treasures in FR's Internet "house."
Ah, but you forgot A+Bert, the ASH ALERTS, quidam. And one that happened the summer before you got here ... Trident_Delta went off in his airplane right in the middle of a thread and never came back til MONTHS later. Scared me to death. LOL But the funniest of them all were the "Good-bye Cruel World" posts.
Thanks for sharing. You brought back a lot of memories.
In 1998 I was chewing nails as I watched Bill Clinton flaunt his immorality to the world. Long story short, I helped organize an anti-Clinton rally when he came here to fundraise.
We had 750 fantastic citizens show up and jeer the creep!
I looked into the mass of people and noticed a group, hopping up and down, slapping backs, laughing and hugging and I wanted to know more... I moved in and asked them if they knew each other and they all replied, "YES, WE'RE FREEPERS!" I knew I had to "join." I knew these were my new best friends. And I certainly wasn't wrong. I'm home now. And I love it.
Thank you JimRob, thank you FReepers, thank you God for FReerepublic!
I had a teenage son who was mortified when I made him come with us to that protest. His only solace was that Houston was big and chances were slim that anyone would recognize him. He griped and moaned all the way there, adamantly refusing to "look like an idiot" and claiming he was going to sit in the truck while we "did our thing." Of course, like any good parent, I discreetly made sure my husband parked in the hot, glaring Texas sun, leaving the Rebel Child no alternative but to come with us.
All afternoon, as we waited for Bill Clinton to show up and shouted and yelled, I watched out of the corner of my eye as this child feigned disinterest and tried to maintain whatever shred of dignity a 15-yr old can while standing amidst 750 middle-aged, very angry, very loud grownups. I could read his mind as he stood around with his hands in his jeans pockets, checking out the crowd from up on top of that little hill behind us... "I'm cool... I'm cool... These people are idiots, but I'm cool..."
Long story short -- By the end of that protest, Mr. Rebel Child had grabbed my "Houston, We Have A Problem" protest sign from me and had worked his way to the curb, joining in the anti-Clinton chants and yelling at the top of his lungs. I didn't say a word. ;-)
You did a great job of organizing that protest. I thank you, and one day my son will have the wisdom to thank you, too. ;-)
Apparently not as much as it says about me. I went to bed right after that reply! LOL!
I TRIED to find other sources of news. I went to the local libraries to read books written by Conservatives for Conservatives, but those were far and few between. And those books were usually out of date. The Conservative magazines, when I could find them, usually informed me of some Conservative happening (a debate, a press conference, some get together of some Conservative organization: The Heritage foundation, NRA, etc.) weeks after it was over. But I would find no mention of these things in the liberal press.
Then Rush Limbaugh came along with his new talk-radio program. And he kept me informed of what the liberal media was hiding from me. Rush had cable tv and internet access and would inform me of what he saw on C-Span, etc. Providing me with a much needed source for a Conservative point of view, three hours a day, 5 days a week.
Then I got cable tv. And I was finally able to see for myself a few more alternative news sources. Especially the then unbiased C-Span. Finally I could hear my fellow Republicans speak for themselves, live on the house or senate floor or some conservative function, in their own words without the usual liberal editing (read: censoring) and filters.
Then I got a home computer. (top of the line then, junk now) Naturally, like all beginners to the internet, I got AOL. I explored the chat rooms, the message boards, the usenet newsgroups, before I drifted over to AOL's political message boards where I found alot of like minded people and remained for a couple of years.
The AOL political message boards, along with all their other message boards, you could only post text or links. No pics. No sounds, etc. But it was better than nothing.
However, we Conservatives of the AOL political message board eventually learned that AOL was planning to shut our boards down while planning to leave open the less traveled board favored by the liberals. We protested the obvious bias, but there was nothing we could do. Someone, I don't remember who, placed a link to FR on the message board before it was shut down (This was around 1996 or 97, I think), saying that we could go there from now on. I went to FR, but the website was quite slow. I don't know if that was the fault of AOL, the antiquated server of FR, my computer, or a combination of all the above.
However, I stayed with FR, as painfully slow as it was in those days. I lurked for about 3-6 months before I finally signed up (under a different name than the one I am using now) Often using it as a source for news. Taking great articles off of FR and planting them in the AOL message boards and usenet newsgroups. EVERYONE would ask: ""Where do you always get these great articles??? What's your source???" Of course I told them: FreeRepublic.com!
I've been Freeping ever since :-)
You and I have both experienced the encouragement of this cyber-family during difficult times, the prayers and the comfort. I'd like to say how important Free Republic is to me, but words fail...
Aside from the obvious issues and ongoing debates, this is the only spot I've found where people actually understand how to laugh with, not at, people.
Can you believe the few liberal acquaintances I have, think I have no sense of humor???
The way those nets worked, any number of threads were set up by the host. Local BBSes would call long distance and download all new messages and incorporate them into their matching threads. Met a lot of good folks that way.
Finally the internet came to Arkansas and local BBSes died. But before old Fogbank and Publius went down, someone told us about FreeRepublic. I had just gotten hooked up to the internet and came here. It was very shortly after JimRob started FR.
Unfortunately, it was confusing to me at the time, remember, I was used to BBS messaging, and I didn't join, but lurked for a couple of years.
After finally working up enough courage to join, FR has been a home to me, and have met many FReepers in person in DC and other cities at FReeper functions. What an HONOR!
And then you let me actually hold it!
Many thanks for the honor!
BTW, was that you in the baggy shorts? Just wondering.
(To all) - Katykelly was one of the people I met at our protest that day. Gracey is another. As I recall, these two were a couple of the best "jumpers and huggers." LOL!
They've both left Houston but we'll always stay in touch and continue our friendship. ...Because that's the way FReeperdom works!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.