I'm a liberal Democrat interested in a civil discourse with both like-minded and opposite-minded fellow Americans about the weighty issues of our times.

I'm a loyal, patriotic American. I disagree with many but not all Bush Administration policies and most of its politics.

I am mindful of being an uninvited guest on this conservative forum and make every effort to conduct myself accordingly. I'm not here to disrupt or irritate, rather to learn and sometimes share a contrary point of view.

History interests me as do political principles and philosophy. I try to be attuned to my own idiosyncracies and hypocrisies as well as seeing those of others.

I find at FreeRepublic many views compatible with my own on given issues, as well as many I disagree with.

Please cut me a little slack with a presumption of good faith and good intent even as I may disagree with you. I will do the same in return.

Thanks,

Sachem

P.S. In the mid-1600s an ancestor of mine purchased a bit of Long Island for a village which still stands from an Indian chief - a sachem.