Good evening Ed! So, you are "Shadow"! Up until just now, I believed that 'Shadow' was Daniel Frackwell out of southern Idaho, and have made the blunder unknowingly of addressing you as "Daniel" or "Dan".
That's what happens when you don't sign your own posts using your own name. Ed Fischang wrote to Frank Reichert... Frank Reichert previously wrote: > FR> Of course there are other individuals who have been around here > FR> long before and have vanished. Ed Fischang comes to mind. > FR> Haven't heard from him in years, and have often wondered where > FR> this 'farmer from Chelan, Washington' ever went? To which, you replied: > Still hanging in here, Frank, ornery as ever. You and Dave may remember when > I was a FidoNET node and calling in long distance to participate in the > Spokane echoes. Pay for play made me keep my writings rather terse, a > habit I haven't broken. Usually lurking until I read something I find so > outrageous that I can't stay quiet. I suppose I have been guilty of often creating 'outrageous' commentary myself, to which you replied, and I responded, not fully realizing who this "Shadow" individual was that I was responding to. Also, I want you to know that I empathize greatly with your past recollections. At the time you talk about, both the late John King and I were still using 1200 baud modems with XT machines using dual floppy drives -- what a pain that was looking back in retrospect now. At the time, it was a breathtaking advancement in technology, such as it was, back then. Then, I finally got around to upgrading from the XT level to a 386 machine and buying a dynamite modem that could receive and transmit at 14,000 baud's per second! WOW! I believed at THAT time, that technology couldn't get much better than this. I even taunted Dave Laird as to why he didn't upgrade himself to a Zoom 14,000 BPS modem -- he curtly replied, he could afford one at that time. That might very well be true, because at that time, they were EXPENSIVE as Hell! Five or more times more expensive then, than a 56K internal modem is today. To give you an idea of just how awesome some of this was. The XT machine I was talking about earlier above, cost me about as much as a full-blown Dell machine today that can warp out the XT a million times over. The XT machine I bought had no hard drive at all, as I mentioned above, John King never bought one at all! My original 20 megabyte hard drive cost me five times more, back then, than a 60 gigabyte hard drive does today! And, then there were the damn phone bills! You just mentioned some of that above, tended to limit the communication and length of brevity we could permit during those early times. I was also a Fidonet note 346/16 I believe at the time, and I remember the time I was down, and my answering machine answered the call when Rocky Seelbach was trying to send me forced traffic. Boy! Did HE get pissed! He threatened at that time to jerk me off Fidonet for being what they called then, something on the order of "offending"! I really forget the term employed, but I could still look it up by reading Fidonet Police 4. > Remember Rodger from the CDC in Atlanta? What a character! As was John King. Yes. And THAT is very interesting. Roger seemed to vanish suddenly. Dave later told me he had medical problems. Roger came back about a year later to disappear again, and I haven't heard from him since. John King was extremely different. John and I were entirely adversarial for a good many years. We never met each other, only used every occasion that became available to take the opportunity to wring blood for each other in every conversation when the opportunity would arise. And, it did, nightly on Phoenix! When Liberty Northwest was spawned, I candidly invited John to join and participate. He did. He walked into a can of worms, and he profoundly held his own in every conversation that I can still remember today. Finally, and I don't remember exactly what year that might have been, Dave Laird invited all Phoenix members to a picnic at some park in Spokane, Washington just north of Francis Street. That was the first time I had the profound opportunity of meeting my 'erstwhile' opponent, as John often previously described ME, at that event. Imagine that! John King and I finally burying the hatchet and actually becoming good friends and caring about each other's life and circumstances such as they were. John had severe medical problems with diabetes, which eventually took his life later while I was in the Philippines. But before that, and after the time of our meeting, along with numerous visits to his home, we found a way to not allow our disagreements on political, social, religious or economic issues to disrupt our friendship. Yes. John was very, very special, even here on Liberty Northwest for those who were around at that time, and can remember that I never slammed him one more time on personal grounds since the time I had the opportunity to meet him face to face! I wish more of us could have just such an opportunity of meeting on such a level as that! In fact, there were even people on Liberty Northwest, and Phoenix at that time that couldn't come to grips with the change of circumstances. Some were suggesting that both John King and Frank Reichert were really the same person, dressed, as it were, in a Doctor Jackal, Mr. Hide personality! I Kid you not! I'll never forget one of my first visits at John's home. He introduced me to the 'room where it all happened', the conversations in cyber space in those early years. Yes, the same XT machine with dual floppy 360 megs of storage space apiece, graced every conversation he ever made on both Liberty Northwest and the Phoenix newsgroups during all of those years! John also had journalistic awards on the wall of that room. I am sorry for all of you, that perhaps you never had the tremendous opportunity to meet and get to know this man as he really was. The same goes for Roger Erdman. And, this is much closer to home in a lot of ways, because a lot of you have already made various comments on Roger Erdman's presence here. I point you only to Dave Laird's fine representation of the man, and what really happened to him, and the fact that the son of bitch who so brutally took Roger's life, died himself, while in prison before reaching what I would call for justice. Dave is right, Hell must have a special place for Benson! The above also happened too while I was still in the Philippines and groping around for answers to why, and how, anything like this to a very close friend, could ever occur? But I can speak loud and clear about Roger Erdman, since during my stay in the Philippines, I spent considerable time in long distance phone calls discussing many things up until his sudden demise and disappearance, even at which time, I had never found out what the facts behind the case was. This is why I believe that even antagonistic personalities can learn to love each other for who they are. Roger and I were very different in a lot of ways, but I learned that Roger was also different, and could group around other folks who leaned in his direction on various issues. Let me give you a couple of examples here. Roger's favourite phrase, regarding me, and others was: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". It turned out that a LOT of enemies that Roger had, were also my own. That was certainly part of the relationship, but not all of it by any means. I also had the opportunity to meet Roger at various Phoenix/Liberty Northwest gatherings in Spokane before my departure to the Philippines, and we did communicate often on the phone while I was in the Philippines. To show you just how graphic was Roger's interest in creating alliances against injustice, let me ask you this: Do any of you remember the WTO riots in Seattle several years ago. I don't remember the exact year, but I believe it may have preceded the 2000 elections in the US, and at that time I was in the Philippines. During that time I received some rather urgent warnings from Randy Trouchmann of the Militia of Montana that human rights abuses were being levied against protesters in Seattle, protesting against the WTO's presence and tactics. I really did gaff most of that off. I though Randy had gone over the edge on this one, so I ignored it all. Then, I received personal email from Roger confirming that these events had really taken place in Seattle. I wrote Roger back, telling him that Randy Trouchmann of MOM and written the exact same thing, and I can't believe this is going on. Remember. I was writing this 8000 miles away from the Philippines. Roger wrote me, as such: "That's because what Randy and I am writing to you is the truth!" Now. Isn't THAT a pistol of a statement to make? Think about that and dwell upon it for a while here folks. The consummate Liberal, Roger Erdman, telling me in the Philippines that what Randy Trouchmann of the Militia of Montana and himself are writing me is the TRUTH! One thing, and actually a lot of things, I learned about Roger is basically the same thing I value most for myself -- THE TRUTH! I doubt very few individuals here on Liberty Northwest could possibly consider that Roger would side, in this case, with a member of the Militia of Montana, but HE DID! In this case, HE DID! So, not to make this rediclulous huge in content: YES! I will call Doug Freidman tomorrow. Tomorrow is Wednesday, and Doug is supposed to get back according to his wife. And Doug is also a tremendous personality that I wish we could see back here again someday. We have a lot of good folks around here, and as New Years approaches for 2004, I hope a lot of you, all of you, choose to stick around. I could mention Tim Bedding, Robert Goodman, and I don't want to get too much further in this because someone will be pissed that I left their name out! That's not my fault, and I'll claim that it is getting to be old age. I forget for a while, and then I always remember later just who I forgot to mention. So, as the next year comes before us, let's just keep this tremendous dialogue going for another decade or more. My best wishes to each and every one one you; including you Ed, masquerading as such under the pseudonym "Shadow". Kindest regards, Frank > I know you miss Roger Erdman. I found it hard to converse with someone who > was all emotion, no logic, but he did spice it up. Robert and Bill are almost > the opposite, as was Doug unless it involved Israel. It would be fun to get > everybody together for cigars and brandy... or beer and topless dancers. :) > > (Ian and JQS would have the Technocracy provide the drinks, of course.) > > Anyway, new ISP, new email address, same dumb farmer, strong as ox and twice > as smart. > > May God bless us and keep us all, and may He bless the Republic. _______________________________________________ Libnw mailing list Libnw@immosys.com List info and subscriber options: http://immosys.com/mailman/listinfo/libnw Archives: http://immosys.com/mailman//pipermail/libnw
