Ok.. Hold Onto Your Hats... I'm Going Positive... With Much Love To DU !!!
Many moons ago, three dudes named Skinner, Elad, and EarlG, started this weird website that would eventually become... muscular. Out of a sense of hopelessness over the travesty of the 2000 Presidential Elections, they started a journey. That journey led to millions of views and posts, and is why you are looking at these pixels right now.Now I wasn't there at the very beginning, and I would love to know what the view/post count was after the first week. But after being laid-off after 9/11, and with plenty of time on my hands, I found DU through a website recommendation article through a local newspaper about this new fangled WorldWideWeb. When I found DU, it had been going for several months by then, and I recognized it as my home.
Backing up... you of tender years need to recognize that when a lot of us grew up: A.) TV was Black & White, B.) There were only 3 Channels: ABC, CBS, & NBC. And C.) THAT WAS IT!
And although the argument can and should be made that those entities were far more independent, investigative, and broke/covered stories that the MSM might never cover now... a funny thing happened. At the same time that the "Inventor of the Internet" (
) was getting screwed out of his rightful election to the presidency... the internet started bypassing the MSM.
Now this took some time to occur, and some think that the Y2K "threat" might have helped to accelerate this... Windows 3.11/95/and just barely 98 being the predominate OS's at the time... But whatever happened... things have progressed.
In the last 10 years or so, we now have Facebook, Twitter, I-Phones, "Social Media", et. al.
We The People are bypassing the MSM on a daily basis... at high-speed.
But I, here tonight, want to thank some of the pioneers of this reality... and snark at some if you must, but remember... while every pioneer wasn't necessarily sucessful, they ALL led the way.
So I'd personally like to thank DU, once I found DU, for BEING DU, and for pointing me towards things/people with names like Randi Rhodes, Mike Malloy, Crooks & Liars, Digby, DailyKos, Air America, Al Franken, Rachel Maddow, Sam Seder, Cenk Uygur, Anna Kasparian, Ed Schultz, FireDogLake, ThinkProgress, Truthout, RawStory, BradBlog, TPM, and I'm gonna feel like a real shit when I post this because I sure I've left people out... NOT my intent.
Point being... whether it's FDR, or Barack Obama... we WILL hold your feet to the fire, and we will plead our case, state our feelings, shed our tears, and hold each other close... even mourn the passing of those who we cannot know... if they got to see the end of the play... although I'm pretty sure NONE of get to see the end of the play... "We Are Merely Players"...
But... on this first Friday of the New Year... I would like to thank ALL of the afore mentioned, those that my aging brain forgot to mention, and all of the DU family here. Like any wonderful family... we may fight some days... but it is with much love... and hope for the future of everyone.
And... P.S... Huffington Post Tries... But with all of OUR eyes... DU is the best information clearinghouse on the Net. By far, So there...
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thank you, thank you, thank you. 
What a great essay! I could not agree more...
I wasn't here at the beginning, far from it, but DU is my home.
There are so many great good people here, people I have come to know and care about!
They have taught me much.
As have you...
Thank you!
THIS is what DU is all about. I appreciate the reminder, and wholeheartedly agree with you. I found this site the same way you did, and finally got up the courage to join - around the same time you did. 
It's been wonderful, aggravating, wonderful place to come - and no matter if I leave for months, I'm back, because there's nothing like being amongst like-minded souls, no matter how much we might disagree on some things. L
stolen election. I knew nothing about political websites, I used the internet for fun mostly. It's as if there were all these people wandering in the desert trying to find a place to go to make sense of what was going on, and to find out if they were the only ones who were having these terrible feelings of foreboding.
I was not into politics much at all, but I can only say I had very, very bad feelings about Bush, and I didn't even know much of what had happened re the stolen election.
I guess I got curious, no one in real life that I knew seemed to be bothered by anything, so I went online, found a political website which I thought was the only one on the internet, and ended up fighting with Bush supporters for the next two years. One day someone posted a link to what I know now was Alternet. Omg, I couldn't believe it, a place where people actually wrote coherently and didn't attack you every time you said something negative about Bush, which was everyday. There were people there from all over the world. Anyhow, I signed up and eventually became a moderator there and we had the absolutely best people including from several Muslim countries, from whom I learned nearly everything I know.
I used to go back to the other board, and I don't know if they noticed, but I was a lot more informed and better able to destroy their talking points since I had a secret source of information.
During the 2004 election was when I first discovered DU. I had found FR and was horrified as I used to lurk there and was terrified of them. But DUers made me realize there was nothing to fear. They were funny, witty, with great spirit and I felt so much better about our side.
Mostly I lurked in the beginning, but without DU I have to say, I don't think I would have made it in a state of sanity after the election, if it had not been for DU. I miss a lot of people, including some like Elizabeth Edwards who posted here for a while.
Thanks Willy
...something called "DU2"...
Spanking myself so you don't have to... 
Happy New Year to you. 
WillyT! We don't get the junk news so many out there depend on as being fact. Another fact - some here actually help report the news and are dam good at it! I don't have to say names but DU is/was always one of their 'good friends' and still is. DU is a really great gift for people that want to learn the truth and not get fucked up mentally by the M$M/corporate/infotainment agenda.
And I SO agree with DU being the BEST info clearing house. No matter WHAT my question, DU is where I come for the answer. When people say "Google is your friend", I say yeah, but DU is so much BETTER!
Thanks for this great post, WillyT!
and various other 'attaboy' smilies.
we actually had to GET UP and WALK over to the set to change the channel!!
(Oh, boy, did you ever give your age away on that one, eh?)
Once I found DU, there was no changing of the online channel, believe me!
People who have tv and/or listen to NPR and read newspapers say to me " did you hear about_____?"
and I always can say "yep, read about it on DU this morning".
One stop shopping for most news, information, laughter, and poutrage....fine by me.
Great post, Willy T....
