Posted on 05/03/2011 4:46:53 AM PDT by 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
Huck, I am glad that there’s been more than a couple virtual thumbs up on your (vanity) post. I agree 100%. While it’s almost heretical to equate FreeRepublic.com with DU, I can say with the utmost certainty that if Osama Bin Laden had been killed while Bush was still President, and the kind of lunacy we saw here yesterday was being passed around on DemocraticUnderRock.com (I just made that up and I am going to trademark it), we would be calling them the most unhinged collection of worms ever.
So, thanks again for your post. At the very least, I am glad there’s a place we can counter-weigh the ‘conspiracy-at-any-cost’ stuff flying around here.
Well, for starters, you’re part of the problem.
I totally agree with you. I posted a while back that I was going to stay away until after the 2012 presidential election, but now after reading yesterday’s comments I know longer want to be associated with the FreeRepublic. Sady, the FR has strayed over into the radicial right, not the good radical mind you, but the unibomber lunatic fringe radical kind. After reading all of the posts that Obama faked this whole thing I realized I would be embarrased, no ashamed to tell my friends about the FR, or recommend it to others.
I have been a member since Dec 29, 1998 but can no longer call this my home. This is not an opus, I just simply find this place out of control (and that’s saying alot considering my views).
Later and best of luck to everyone ...
Over the last ten years Bin Laden hasn’t been much other than a figurehead.
There have been no video tapes of him and many reported “deaths”. Bin Laden has had no power and Zawahiri has been the leader for a long time.
I could not get excited because the mastermind is still sitting at GITMO and Dear Leader still wishes to offer him a trial on US soil.
Even you, Huck, should require evidence that indeed, we can see this was Bin Laden. Without that we are expected to believe the word of people who have proved to be liars.
I do believe our military went in there and killed a person. It is up to the Obama admin to provide evidence just as Bush did when the Hussein boys were killed.
That is not hard to do. It seemed rather easy and satisfied critics.
I am proud of the brave fellows who carried out their job. That does not mean I feel any unity with this criminal in the WH. You do know the Blago hearings were on yesterday, right?
Our country is on the brink of disaster. Waving a flag as the ship sinks is no victory.
Conspiracy drivel has been the replacement for supported opinion.
Weak minds.
I am soooo tired of the conspiracy theories. It's another indication of the immaturity and lack of critical thinking in society today.
as we are currently shackled to the worst president in the history of the republic...any and all questioning of his deeds, words, reasons, legitimacy are necessary.
all he does should be suspect and torn apart by us, the opposition.
the fact that zer0 got his information from Bush administration ‘enhanced interrogation’ methods...invalidates, by zer0’s own philosophy, the raid
the fact that he knew of OBL location for 4 months and hemmed and hawed (they call it planning) waiting to act when the subject could have caught wise and bugged out...once again puts the POSOTUS in the same class as Clinton who could have killed Bin Laden 5 or 6 times...
the only reason zer0 had bin laden killed was for political reasons... my bet is that he wished he could have waited till late in 2012 so as to get more of a political push in the elections..
My own thoughts yesterday. Yes, it's great news that Bin Laden is dead. Yet we still have work to do thanks to the war he started.
I also find it perfectly understandable that people are demanding proof from the most feckless administration ever to hold public office. Obama could tell me the sky is blue and the grass is green and I'd make him prove it. That's life when you're governed by a professional liar.
The time to celebrate is when Al-Qaeda and Islamic fundamentalism are smashed, broken and destroyed and our brave troops are home.
Well written and I agree with you
Huck, I am afraid what you are expressing is that people are feeling hopeless, lied to and downright afraid for their Country. Unfortunately, we as a Nation have lost the sense that our government maintains our interests. As a people, it has become common to be lied to and the press only manipulates and spins what the administration wants us to believe. I did not see FR not supporting the military. What I saw was that many on FR questioned facts. Perhaps, a country that sits back and questions information is far more educated than someone simply taking to the streets, flying flags, and rejoicing. Although Usama’s death is good for our nation, the common politics/socioeconomic climate is a black cloud hanging over people. Just my thoughts and opinion.
Heretofore I thought such strange behavior was a sign of the aging population on FR but Huck could be correct. We would need a scientific poll to examine the data and that is not going to happen here.
Huck - “Freepers are unhappy curmudgeons, now read my post dammit!”
I'm sorry those quisling MSM Marxist nutjobs that support Bambi have to get in the way of a good celebration, but let's not lose sight of how they are using this event.
Huck, I usually like your posts and comments but this real Debnbie Downer stuff. Why don’t you take a couple of weeks off and clear your head then come back. You are taking this FR thing way too seriously. There are more important things in life.
Start your own message board and only let in people that conform to your standards. Problem solved.
There’s just the reality factor. Knowing that someone who despises the US, even its military, is leveraging the event to do even more damage to the US, well, here at FR it tends to be said when the emperor has no clothes.
This was absolutely our military at its finest, but we also know that a hater of the US was in the situation room, and his only interest in the success is political and not the best interest of the US. Has this President ever attended a patriotic event and not been prune faced?
I sort of think the President only acted because a recent WikiLeaks forced his hand. I believe he was really hoping Osama would move on and he would not ever have to offend his Muslim brothers and engage in a confrontation.
You’re part of the problem too.
It is incongruent to compare Great Britain as our WWII ally to Pakistan as our WOT ally. You might compare the Pakistanis to the Russians, but not the Brits.
Well said, although I don’t think it is an issue of younger Freepers, I believe it is the older ones (age not sign up date).
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