Thank you all for the nice welcome. Yes, it is good to have at least a free mind. I am not completely free yet though. A lot of my family are still Borg, includding my mom who is a hardliner. My wife and kids are also Borg, (as well as my wifes family) but have not been to more than a handful of meetings in the past year due to the way we have been treated and talked about. I guess that I had always been sort of a thorn in their side. My dad was not a witness. He was in WW2 and was highly decorated. (For bravery above and beyond.) He was also a state trapshooting champion. (for years I was a Traphouse brat, I must have seen every gun club in a tri-state area) He was a real outdoorsman. So I was raised on a farm being pulled both ways. I became a brother when I was 16, but my heart was always with my dad. I grew up with a rifle in my hand, joining the NRA High Power competition team. And I taught my sons how to handle firearms also. All my boys can put a round in a fleas rear end at 200 meters.....and they also were taught at a young age the dangers involved. I have also hunted every year since I was a kid. My dad taught me to be able to take care of myself. Are you getting the picture here? You see growing up in the truth, and knowing the "rules" inside and out, lets you play their game better than them sometimes. I knew that although the Borg might not like what I was doing, as long as I held no position (just an ordinary drone) they could not stop me from doing it. Hell after awhile, I did not even care if they knew I had a carry permit. I made it public knowledge that I believed in self defense....even if it meant taking a life to save a life. As you might imagine, this did not exactly make me publisher of the month.
The bottom line is that my wife still thinks that it is a good organization, (hell, communisum looks good on paper....it just can't be done in the real world, and it is evil) and wants to find that "good" hall. Personally, I don't think one exists anymore. So I'm in sort of in a limbo state. I may never be completely free from the collective. But in my mind, I know that they no longer control me, and that feels very good. Now, I am going to read and reread this post to see if it fits my "plausible deniability" policy. Also, the names have been changed to protect the innocent. <GRIN>
TheSurvivor
Edited by - TheSurvivor on 2 September 2002 9:45:34