As we enter the new week, all I can say is “whew!” It has been quite a ride of late. Things have been so busy that I have not had time to attend to the writing I normally like to do.
I am overdue to do a piece, but as I look at all the many options in front of me for a project, my head and heart keep coming back to one thing.
Gratitude.
Men generally die slow deaths (or more expeditious ones) from work. Even taking a red pill does not change that in most of us. Men feel useless when doing little, even when they are unable to do a lot through no fault of their own. Without offering citation it just seems to be in our nature.
Since I cannot escape that any more than most other men, I have to count my blessings that I have been afforded the opportunity to become a slave to something I love; something for which I have unending passion. Few people are that unfathomably lucky, and I know it. I have the MHRM and the people that support this website to thank for it.
I have you to thank for it.
So while there is certainly a smorgasbord of possible topics for me to address today, particularly considering the current media buzz, I just wanted to thank a few people. I know fully that I will neglect to mention some. When I say there are too many people to thank, it is not a cliché. Please accept my apologies in advance for any oversights.
In offering these thanks I want it to be clear that it is not just for helping me, but much more importantly for having the passion to help this organization take on one of the most thankless, uphill battles imaginable in order to put a previously little-known option on the table for men and women alike.
I want to thank Dean Esmay, who constantly juggles full time work elsewhere with full time work here; who has worked through sickness and personal hardships to stay on top of AVFMs many needs. And I want to thank John Hembling for carrying a huge load of rock on his back to help build this place at great personal expense, and for sometimes doing so while working three jobs and going to school. It was a school he had to attend, by the way, because one of the many things he sacrificed for this cause was a career.
I want to thank Suzanne McCarley, who has done more work than anyone knows about, trudging through the tedious, really thankless and crappy assignments; things that have to be done and no one really wants to do. I want to thank her for hanging in there with us, even as devastating personal tragedy struck her life.
Add Dan Perrins to the list, a one man army that never quits, that never seems to take a break. I watched in amazement yesterday as he and Suzanne tracked the thousands of comments to two high profile articles on this website, reading all of them, commenting on more than I can count and casting votes. They made sure that all the lies were challenged and that dissent was registered like two machines.
I want to thank Al Martin, who expertly manages our forum, and who contacted me recently, after his house burned down, not to look for sympathy, but to say that he had to attend to it but wanted me to know he did not want to lose his job running the forums.
Fat chance, Al. You are stuck with us.
I want to thank Alek, who works endlessly for all of us, and who cares so little about recognition that he will be probably be pissed that I mentioned him here.
I want to thank David King, for willingly stepping up to turn our server and security needs into a near bottomless pit of demands on his personal life.
I want to thank the editors of AVFM, who keep the skype window humming around the clock with their work. August Lovenskiolds, Peter Wright, Alison Tieman, Robert St. Estephe, Della Burton, David King and James Huff.
I am sure you will notice the double-duty and sometimes triple-duty names in that group.
I want to thank the AVFM News Department. Robert O’hara, Lucien Valsan (who has been unimaginably productive) Anil Kumar, Dan Perrins, Greg Canning, Della Burton and Attila Vinczer.
I want to thank Europa Phoenix, Dr. F, Rodger O’Thornhill and Typhonblue(Alison Tieman) for the stunning artwork that has graced this site in article headers, radio show announcements and contributor portraits.
I want to thank people like TyphonBlue(Alison Tieman), for fundamentally changing the way we envision men and women; Girl Writes What for leading the way on the devastating smack downs of gender ideology.
And a very sincere thank you to Angry Harry, for pioneering online activism, and for literally transforming us from a media culture that could not discuss the issues of men and boys, and could not dissent from feminist dogma — to a media culture that can and now does. Thank you, Harry, for making all of this possible in the first place.
Did I say that there were too many people to thank? Yes, and I was not kidding. There are. Numbers of them can be found in the comments on this website, and in the bylines. They can be found moderating the forums and doing the radio shows. They can also be found scattered across the internet, challenging feminism one lie at time, and defending men and boys, one heartbreaking story after another.
If this sounds like some sort of award acceptance speech, it isn’t. This movement has grown to such a level that what I have personally done is obscured by the sheer mass of it. I could walk away now and it would easily continue; not because of what I have accomplished, but because the need for action against misandry has reached the level that good people are starting to wake up and put their foot down.
No, this is not Oscar time. It is more like “I Have a Dream,” time. I can’t compare to the likes of Martin Luther King, but as a matter of fact, I really do have a dream.
I say this to misandrists everywhere, whether you are a feminist, an ersatz and rigidly obtuse social conservative, a gushy, mindless liberal or just one of the great masses of ignorant people that watch men and boys go down the tubes without really seeing it.
My dream is simple, and it is the dream of a rapidly growing number of people who will not be denied. We dream of the day when a near eternity of hate, exploitation and indifference to the suffering and abuse of males will be rocked to its illicit foundation by an unstoppable backlash against your ideas, and, equally, your ignorance.
And we dream of the day that the parasitic use of male energy and accomplishment will be replaced with compassion and honor.
We have no way of knowing how far this dream will spread or how many men and women will embrace their own human dignity by joining us, but we do know it is a dream that is being realized for a rapidly growing number of people fortunate enough to have vision.
I hope, as we move ahead with these ideals and ambitions, that this small offering of writing will provide one place where people can look back and find some of the people they have to thank.
