Off the Grids to Freedom
columnist: Melinda Pillsbury-Foster

Topic: Ron Paul
The Milford Choice

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We all make choices every day. Some are good, some bad. Over time our choices tell a lot about us and hopefully, we learn. My last divorce attorney canceled my dating license so now I don't have to worry about that kind of choice.

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by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
(Libertarian)
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

The Forum for Truth was held in the snow, using the Gazebo that sits in the middle of the Oval in Milford, New Hampshire. The Ron Paul signs bloomed like a field of brilliant flowers along with the people, visible from all directions.

Along with the Ron Paul supporters were others, curious to see something they were told would be very different. Politics in New Hampshire has always had an unvarnished frankness to it; here, candidates become visible. That is why New Hampshire has always mattered in politics. New Hampshire is good at detecting bullshit.

At past debates and forums the words of the candidates had left the listeners feeling as if something was missing, as if some essential element had been sucked out, replaced with words that distorted what they were seeing, no matter how hard they tried to bring it into focus.

Anticipation hung in the air, voices were jubilant, laughter rippled across the snow like flakes of hope in the wind. People walked to the event, carrying their signs from the parking nearby. The signs were all for Ron Paul but they came from many places and hands. Overhead an airplane pulled a banner that rippled out the message, Google Ron Paul, President 2008.

On the Gazebo people were beginning to assemble. Five individuals took their seats, looking towards the drop off point. A caravan of cars rolled around the Oval, stopping. A gray haired man got out and the crowd roared, waving their signs. Slowly, the man walked the path towards the Gazebo, applause and cheers began to mount. Hands were shaken, babies hugged by the man who had delivered so many. The people here hope that they will be delivered. They know that Ron can make it possible for them to take back their country.

The MC seats Ron. Their time was short, the moments ticking down towards Primary Day. The others seated on the Gazebo silently reached over to shake Ron's hand.

The MC began to speak. He addressed his words directly to Americans, thanking them for listening. He speaks of the problems facing America, of coffins coming back from a war that no one wanted. He speaks of the need for honesty; for transparency. He reminds those listening of the Fox Forum that is taking place that same day. There will be no truth in the carefully scripted dialogue between Chris Wallace and the five men in that small room. The events of recent days have made it blatantly clear how the manipulation of the media works. This one time they were caught. But we need to remember that the policies and law that now control us were molded by the same people. That must end, says the MC. Americans must no longer be denied what they most need, the unvarnished truth. Without that, he said, how are the people know what is in their best interests; how can they choose? The lock on media has effectively blinded Americans. We, he says, will give them back their sight.

Briefly, he lays out the program to be followed.

Each candidate will be called to the podium. All listening know that the invitations to the candidates, except for Ron's, had been ignored. The candidate's records will speak for them today. This time the people will have the truth that is clearly seen when the rhetoric is stripped away.

Closing he said, “Let the people have the truth.”

The first name is called. “Governor Mike Huckabee.” No one answers. The name is called again. Silence. The Truth Researcher for Mike Huckabee walks up to the podium.

“Where did you get your information on Governor Huckabee?” The sources, all public, were each named. Then the Truth Researcher began to speak. It took just a few minutes. What the listeners learned was that the Huckabee Campaign raised practically nothing until after the beginning of the last quarter of the year. They saw that the rise in visibility coincided with the faltering Thompson Campaign, just as if, having decided that since Thompson could not build any momentum, those supporting him would have to find a different candidate. They saw the media push that placed Huckabee in the public eye without discernible reason just at the time the Paul Campaign began to impact public awareness; Just after Huckabee addressed the CFR.

The facts were delivered dispassionately, objectively. On ipods and other devices people were looking at the timeline and events on the website. The sources were named. The flow of events crystallized, making the underlying manipulation of the media and process clear. The corporate interests who chose Huckabee have their own agenda. The policies their agenda would carry for them became visible. The Truth Researcher sat down.

The MC called the next candidate, Mitt Romney.

The Truth Researchers for Rudy Guiliani, Fred Thompson, and John McCain each followed one another to the podium.

Each candidate, their motives, the involvement of corporations with the media to manipulate public opinion, hung in the air like the smell of fear and death. What they had gained by manipulations through government were also clear. What their control of the man taking office would mean for Americans was finally transparent.

Then Ron Paul rose in answer to his name. The crowd was quiet, just listening to the words that spoke the truth they knew so well. This man, alone among the candidates, would serve the people, not corporations. When he was finished the audience was silent, understanding that they had witnessed something profoundly different.

Thanking Dr. Paul, the MC returned to the podium.

The MC asked all present to bow their heads, closing the program with a short prayer asking that the truth revealed there help return America to its original vision. Continuing, he asked them to hold Ron and his family in their thoughts and prayers and that each of them might possess the strength to sustain them in the coming months.

As the prayer faded from their ears three activists set up a table in the Gazebo and placed there the Declaration of Independence, renewed with the causes that all of us are coming to know so intimately. All who were moved to do so signed.

Ron signed first.

You know by now there will be no Forum for Truth on January 6^th.

Sometimes life gives us choices. Kent Snyder and the Official Campaign had a choice, and made it. They decided that it was better to have Ron sit at John McCain's table at the First in the Nation Presidential Brunch, sponsored by the NH GOP on December 6^th. Reports say they are buying tickets so people can attend. I am sure the NH GOP will appreciate that.  Those are the same folks who were caught with their pants down in the attempt to silence Ron as they cooperated with Fox in excluding the only real Republican from the Forum later that day. One hates to be negative but every day Kent and Co. remind me more strongly of the Cato crowd. They use the same play book.

Evidently they don't care that this creates the appearance that Ron is a second tier candidate, happy for any crumbs that are thrown his way. Does it bother you?  

The Brunch is the kind of event Kent and Co. seem to like personally. There, they get to rub bodily parts with people who will, perhaps, offer them a job when this one finally plays itself out.  

All choices mean that you pick one thing instead of something else.

By the way, speaking of the Crane play book; when Ed Crane finished up the Clark Campaign, the Libertarian Presidential bid in 1980, he took with him to Cato the mailing list that campaign had generated. No one told him he could. He just stole it. Lists are valuable resources and that one became the base he used to build Cato.

Just now I got an urgent request that I register with the Official Campaign to do things like view online videos. I guess that is a security issue now?

After experiencing the sticky fingers of Cato one of the ways we afterwards avoided having that happen again was to sign up test names. Those were fake people. We found addresses to which we had access, different from our own. My parents address was used. When I got a piece of mail there using the alternative name I had 'registered' we knew that the list was being stolen. Thought you would like that piece of history. It still works today, just so you know.

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2008 Melinda Pillsbury-Foster, all rights reserved.
Published: Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Last modified: Wednesday, January 2, 2008

The views expressed in this article are those of Melinda Pillsbury-Foster only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Melinda Pillsbury-Foster is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

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