After 35 years of activisim, here are my personal feelings.

[Tyler Durden]

People have called me quitter, coward, etcetera, for finally throwing in the towel and getting the Hell out of Dodge City. This isn't exactly a Manifesto, but it's what I feel, here and now.

I have worked for change, endangered my life for the country, fought the good fight for 35 long years.

Enough is enough.

We have lost. When something like last night's mini-Nuremburg Rally can go on and the streets aren't full of people protesting it; in point of fact, people are LAUDING it: GAME OVER.

I'm leaving because...I firmly believe the Revolution is coming, I'm too old for the barricades, and I don't want to watch any of my children suffer privation or die.

This is what I believe will happen.

First, the Recession, then the Depression, then Conflict. Too many guns, too many flakes (WITH or WITHOUT guns), and too many GOD DAMNED FOOLS.

This happens once in a while. Countries DO NOT live forever. Lincoln was right: we are being destroyed by factions, a form of political suicide. I just choose not to be here when it happens.

To paraphrase Larry Niven: Some things are just so terrible that the only solution is to be somewhere else when they happen.

[Pegleg Thd]

1. Like I said in a eulogy

I wrote for my mother's funeral. Because of those who are allowing our country to be destroyed from within only the dead will be the lucky ones. The rest of us are going to be put thru a living hell.

[KoKo]

2. Are you leaving

DU, the US or Politics as a whole? If it's the US where have you found that will work for you?

[Tyler Durden]

5. Canada.

They're not perfect, but they have bridges and tunnels to block and keep the fascists on this side of the water.

They'll have to go all the way to Minnesota to cross on land, and that's 1000 miles from nowhere as far as Canada goes. Like Napoleon marching on Moscow.

[KoKo]

13. Okay..thanks...I understand what you say.

we are actively trying to connect there for business...and hoping if we have to we can get over the border...

East Coat or West Coast, though. It's the "COLD" that has me worried.

[LibertyorDeath]

14. West Coast

Speaking from experience.

[MadHound]

3. Hey friend, I won't insult you, in fact I understand your POV

And if I didn't have so many ties to my life here, I would probably be joining you. But those ties do bind, so I will be staying and fighting.

And quite frankly, I'm not getting any younger myself, thus I hope this madness enters it's fighting phase soon. Quite frankly I think that it will turn out to be like the Civil War was in Missouri, an anarchistic, bloody war, with little direction, and even smaller mercy.

[tavalon]

4. I was there recently

and as someone who has 35 years of activism under your belt, you are more than entitled. I'm too much of an idealist still. I'm staying. But I harbor you no ill will for your choice.

[gorbal]

6. I don't feel we are loosing

We may be loosing in America, but around the world good things are happening. People are seeing the bad example america is spreading around the world and no longer trying to emulate it.

[Tyler Durden]

7. More of my point.

The worst of all of everything going wrong will happen HERE. I choose not to be HERE.

[truthseeker1]

8. I'm right there with you

Luckily we don't have ties that bind us and it's a sad decision to make, but we are getting out while we can. (Canada bound)

[KharmaTrain]

9. You're Not Alone...

I've got 35 years in there with you...I came up during Vietnam and have seen things go to hell in recent years...both with the country and, recently, with segments of the Democrats as well. Times are tough, but these also are times that measure one's character.

Last weekend's sham election was similar to the sham ones in Nam in '67...Johnson was riding high and the media fed us nightly body counts (2,000 Vietnamese, 200 ARVN, 50 Americans...we looked like we got off lightly) and a majority thought the war was "being won". A year later was Tet and the country changed drastically.

This regime feeds on division and "dumbing" down or numbing people. It wants you to be frustrated or pissed off at their swagger. Unfortunately, all we can do is watch things play out and be prepared for the aftermath.

We all know that this invasion will lead to a lot more pain and suffering...and as it increases and reaches more and more "red" homes, more and more will start to question. The right wing has done a masterful job in stealing the national debate, spreading their power and money to ensure dissent is squashed and now pillaging for their short term gains. Success will be their downfall as well...as their own hubris will soon start to consume them. Again, someone will have to be here to put back this country.

I'm ready to hit the street and fight the good fight, but not without some real focus and direction. Democrats are splintered and still trying to figure out what happened last November. Some remain in denial, others in disbelief (include me there) and others with outright anger.

I sugest working locally...see what's going on with your State or Township Democratic party. We need to rebuild a party that answers from the bottom up and isn't so wedded to big money and special interests. Things are still sorting out and I'm in "wait and see" mode. People are going to need to get a lot angrier and ready to do more than type words on a website.

To use the 60's term..."Keep The Faith"...feel good in the good fights you stood for and the values you hold. As long as you have those...and you have others around you who think the same...life isn't so bad...even in this Draconian age.

Cheers!

[TNDemo]

10. I have been thinking along these lines too.

Age 50 is not far away. Maybe I'm just getting older and realizing that I really can't change anything. It is all much bigger than me. I was recently reading Undaunted Courage (Lewis & Clark) and The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire (Chechen doctor during two wars with Russia) and I just kept thinking about how it is the same old crap - here and all over the world. The human race evidently does not learn but repeats these same mistakes and atrocities century after century. I have lately begun to not watch TV or listen to radio shows that are just going to get me fired up and irritated. Maybe I am just becoming the proverbial ostrich but I can have much more impact on the little world around me (and that of course will be the ones that do remember me) than trying to change the big picture. Maybe that's for the younger folks. I have never been so appalled at the state of America and how the government does these horrific things and passes glaringly bad law through congress and no one cares enough to protest, even verbally. I worry sometimes about staying here too long. I am making sure we all have passports just in case.

[KayLaw]

11. More power to you

What some people who criticize people who want leave is the Patriot Act. They were able to come up with it so quickly because they'd planned all this for years and years. You need to protect your kids.

[Senior citizen]

12. I can't afford to leave, and have nowhere to go.

But what the heck--I think I'll renew my passport anyhow. One never knows.....

[LibertyorDeath]

15. 35 years is a long time to fight the good fight

Do what you feel in your heart is the right thing to do.

Good luck.

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. First, thanks for your 35 year fight for your /our Country.

:hug: Second, I don't blame you for leaving, I would if I could, financially I can't. Thanks to bush** since my husband is 53 and after paying into SS for 35 years, I guess we will be reduced to working until the day we die...:-( I say get out while you can. You are one of the lucky ones. I wish only the best for you.

[Just Me]

17. My very best wishes to you. If I am able, I may join you. n/t

[WetBarNone]

18. I'm not buying it

This country has been through far worse and it was just 4+ years ago we owned the White House and we owned congress for 40 years in the last ten years. Why give up so easily?

We still have the FDR statue to circle around when the going gets tough!

[SammyWinstonJack]

19. Why give so easily?

Diebold ring a bell? PNAC ring a bell?

[WetBarNone]

20. Yes

Red Herring ring a bell with you?

[SmokingJacket]

21. It's a tough call.

I respect your decision. But there's still too much good here for me to be convinced to leave -- yet. I might be making a huge huge mistake. But at this point I can't see taking my children away from their grandparents and cousins and friends and the only house they've ever known, just because I have a really bad feeling in my gut.

I keep wondering at what point will things get too bad? Will we know it??

Am I really talking this way?? What the hell happened to our country????

[poe]

22. I'm Hoping You'll Stay and Understand Why You'd Want to Leave

Two hangmen hangin' by a tree
That don't bother me
At all
-Mason Proffit

[apple_ridge]

23. I see the same future as you do and have been trying to

convince my wife of the same. Hopefully, I can find a way out of here before this country plunges in to civil war.

[bluestateguy]

24. Please stay registered to vote in the US

The Right likes to make lots and lots of babies and we need every vote we can get. Keep this in mind, as the US is the most powerful nation on earth economically and militarily, a change of government within the US has enormous impact around the world. So please be kind enough to give us your vote every four years. Anyway, good luck.