If you read nothing else I post this year - please read this

The Straight Story

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Thu Dec-14-06 11:59 PM
Original message

If you read nothing else I post this year - please read this

Edited on Fri Dec-15-06 12:02 AM by The Straight Story

I wanted to say a little something to my friends (and maybe enemies I suppose) here at DU. And I doubt this will be short because I have so much to say to you all.

I don't quite know how to picture you all out there, reading and posting. Maybe you are in a hotel room, a mansion, a library. Maybe you are dressed in a suit and at work, or sitting naked at home with a beer.

I do know though that, despite how you are dressed or where you are posting from, you are a part of my life and the lives of others in a way that it is hard to quantify.

Oh sure some may say, it is just some damned internet board out there and folks just sit here rambling on about politics and life, and how can that make a difference in anyone's life? Shoot, we spend a lot of thread area arguing or complaining about things. It's all just words on a screen ya know.

To me it all does matter - because we connect as fellow humans on an intellectual and even a spiritual level. We interact without the visual prejudices of race, class, gender, etc. We come here and talk as equals. We argue and debate as equals.

We are drawn together at this place as though it were a magnet, as though gravity pulled us here from somewhere out in space. It is not all there is in life, but it is a place where can come together unlike most any other place. As ourselves.

DU is not just a website we log on to, it is a place we have made memories on. From those we have lost and felt for (even though we never met them) to those we have put on ignore because they got to us.

In short - it has within many of us emotional ties. An investment of ourselves. This is not true for all folks here I am sure. But some of you I would guess get what I am saying.

We have an outlet for the things which rattle about in our mind. No longer are our thoughts locked away on issues, we have a place to allow them out to roam free.

We have a place to cry together, worry together, bitch together, and so on. It is not as much the URL we come to, it is the medium we share (which is enhanced by this URL).

Skinner created this web site - YOU made it. You are the fuel which keeps the engine running. Without each of you there would be no DU. Your time here, your donations, your letting out the thoughts in your mind for us to see.

I have faced many sad things in my life which have brought me down. And thanks to you all day in and out, and the thread below this sentence, I have seen again a ray of hope:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2880482

YOU have been here to listen to my ramblings, to offer me words of encouragement and hope. DU has been more a church to me than any building I have been in.

From the death of my mom to my wife's parkinson's disease, you have heard me out and gave me hope.

On lonely and depressed nights, it was people here who got me through. During joy and happiness, you were here as well to cheer me on.

Most my friends are dead now, most all those I have known my whole life are gone or estranged. But here, I have a family of people I may never meet.

It's not a perfect family of course. Whose is? :)

You have kept me company during the worst of times. You have fueled my hope in humanity. You gave me hope when I needed it the most.

And I don't even know your name. Your race. Your gender. Your class. I know nothing much about you but the words you type back to me here.

And that my friends, is all that matters. Because that is what is in your heart.

I see the real DU here each day. I see the real you.

I see humanity as I wish it could be everywhere.

I see good people.

God Bless, and may this holiday season bring you joy and hope. As you have brought me.

Your Friend,

The Straight Story.