In article <334E9F81.ED3@iag.net>, Bev wrote:

>The point is that at least they are reading and they are learning.
>More people come to the net everyday and more people come here every
>day. I look forward to the time when people will be able to speak
>without having to be afraid. Although performing the action is the
>first step in eliminating the fear :-)

I remember my first post. I had it all set ready to go. It took me almost an hour to work up the courage to hit the "send" button. I finally took a deep breath, closed my eyes and just did it. After a few seconds I opened them and realized that nothing blew up. For the next few weeks I even kept looking over my shoulder to see if anyone was following me. I would even check my apartment to see if anyone had broken in. No sign of $cientologists anywhere.

The same thing happened when I started picketing. That first day I sat across the street drinking some coffee trying to work up the courage. My heart was pounding and my hands got all sweaty. I finally just took a deep breath, grabbed my sign, defiantly stuck it in the air and said to myself, "Damn the torpedoes" and just marched right out in front. I was expecting the worst. Come what may I was there to picket. I've been picketing ever since practically every week for over a year now. After all this time they STILL haven't really harrased me like I thought they would.

The fact is, they just don't have the time or money to mess around with most critics, there's just too many of us out here now.

I just thought I would point all this out with the hope that it would alleviate some people's reservations about posting and telling their stories. The average critic won't be harrassed (as far as I know). Just be careful about the computer you're using because OSA might try to nail you for using one you're not authorized to post from.

>My first posts to a.r.s. were accidental. I was posting to alt.showbiz.
>gossip and didn't know about NG headers and these posts were also cross
>posted to a.r.s.. Imagine how my heart fell when I came on over to a.r.s.
>and saw my post with my name on it!!! No black helicopters flew over my
>house that night :-). Since the ice was broken already I just went
>ahead and jumped on in.

I'm certainly glad you did!