Jeffrey Slater Posted April 29, 2013 Posted April 29, 2013 Hi Everyone, I am Jeff. I have been a listener for about 1 year now and am finally a donator! Stef's message has really challenged me and has reshaped the way I look at freedom. He has made me see that the issues surrounding freedom are not political problems, they are not economic problems, rather they are, fundamentally, moral problems. He has made me realize that wasting time hoping for change in the libertarian / Ron Paul movement will lead (and has led) to nothing but dissapointment. Instead I am now working to improve myself, better my own self-image, and striving to 'know myself.' This is how I hope to achieve what freedom I can in this lifetime. So, a little about me, I am living in Austin, TX, was born and raised in Houston TX. I was raised to be a devout christian, and struggled with that a long time, until I finally 'gave up the ghost' near the end of college (about 5 years ago), with the help of some good friends and my brother (who was also obviously raised christian and gave up the faith). I am still working on some of the issues with that, but hopefully in time I can heal all of the psychological damage that was inflicted on me as a child. It has been difficult, as none of my family members (save my brother) support my efforts, and in fact actively undermine my efforts at self improvement. I have discussed these things at length with my parents, and they have made it clear that they don't see anything wrong with their beliefs or with how I was raised, so it has been very difficult deciding how to deal with them. Well, that about sums up where I am at in life right now. It has been a tumultuous 5 years, but I am lucky (or maybe skilled) enough to have a good job in a good city, and so things could definitely be worse for me. Things get a bit lonely at times, since most of my old christian 'friends' have stopped talking to me, and most of the new people I meet in Texas are very shallow and actively try and avoid having meaningful discussions with me about their lives and their place in the world (I have stopped thinking they are dumb, because I have started to realize the subtle ways that people steer conversations away from topics that intimidate them, or that they don't want to think too hard about- there is really a perverse sort of art to it). I look forward to going to some of the liberty events around here so that I can meet some of you face-to-face and actually have a conversation that doesn't make me want to slam a board against my head like those monks in Monty Python.
TruthahnDerRuin Posted April 30, 2013 Posted April 30, 2013 If you want to meet some of the people on the board, I have seen that a few of the people here are living in Austin(including myself) and I have been considering starting a meetup group. Would you be interested?
TruthahnDerRuin Posted May 4, 2013 Posted May 4, 2013 Alright, I have started a meetup date on the pre-existing Austin Meetup group. I will see if I can attract the attention of some other freedomainers. http://www.meetup.com/Freedomain-Radio/Austin-TX/940452/
Jeffrey Slater Posted May 4, 2013 Author Posted May 4, 2013 uh oh, looks like it is scheduled for memorial day weekend- one of the few 3 day holiday weekends I get off of work. Unfortunately I made vacation plans for that weekend a few months back, so I won't be able to make it. Sorry! I have the page marked now, though, so if you set up anything else I should know about it.
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