I'm impressed with the level of interaction and discussion going on here in this thread. You all make excellent points, even when you don't agree completely with one another. This is the type of discussion that new, and old, heroes alike can learn from.

Yes, the media is wrong again, but they're not too far off the mark. At least they're offering enough information to draw the interested people into researching the RLSH movement. We can't expect the media to get it right every time, but we can take advantage of their mistakes to educate the uninitiated in how we really do things.

That's why this forum and this website* are so important to the Community right now. The future of the movement is in your [the reader's] hands. Your contributions, thoughts, and discussions are what the future will be based upon. These threads make up the fabric of what we're all attempting to accomplish.

I've said it before, you guys make me proud.


* - I can only speak from my experiences with this website as I am unaffiliated with any other group or network, so please understand no offense is intended to anyone.

I posted this elsewhere here but I hope it's worth repeating

everyone is saying 'what can we do?'

here are my two cents worth...

PORMOTE-promote yourself and what you do as a RLSH. post videos and pictures. have a public myspace, facebook or whatever. show the things you actually do as your doing them that inspire others.

BE HONEST- if asked by people on myspace/whatever. or news people, tell them what you are and what you do. if it's the man on the street then take the time to explain what your doing.

USE THE MEDIA- send copies of your videos to local tv stations and news services. take the upper hand and get your message out there. even if they dont respond at first you can be sure when this movie comes out they will.

WORK WITH POLICE- let your local police know your out there and on their side. worse thing is they will think your a nut and keep an eye on you so you dont get hurt. work to give them usable information and they will come to accept you as a valuable concerned citizen. (even if you are a little strange)

GET INVOLVED- get out and do things that help. word spreads from person to person and soon your a urban legend for good. don't be afraid to talk to agencies that try to do similar things to you. many hands make for shorter work.

COMMENT- when you read about how Kick-ass is responsible for RLSH then comment and set the record straight.

POST ON THE BOARDS- post on sites like this one and the HN to show others what you do and to support other RLSH who are working to do things the legal way. offer and accept advice and put your differences away. we are all trying to be the good guys, act like it.

WEAR CLOTHES- cant stress how this is important as nobody wants a naked superhero, especially in cold climates. (this translates to think before you do things and use your head)

The media is in a terrible state. I think that Fox News is by far the most biased, but none of the mainstream sources are any good. People think of them as news agencies, but really they are businesses designed to sell advertising. So the "news" they present will be slanted by (A) serving the PR needs of the advertisers, and (B) serving the ideological needs of whoever owns them. That's why independent media is one of the community causes I support as a RLSH. The mainstream sources of news are peddling garbage to us, so people in our communities need to do their own research and investigating and reporting to find out what's really going on in the world.

You're right that people who haven't even seen Fox News sometimes have similar views about the Welfare State. I apologize if I jumped to a conclusion prematurely. You're also right that some people do take advantage of various forms of public assistance. However, all of the rhetoric about "Welfare State" and "Welfare Queens" and so on is a PR scam dating back to the Reagan era.

Yes, there are people who scam the welfare system -- maybe there are even a lot of them. But there are also people who legitimately need assistance. Perhaps more importantly, that whole argument about welfare for individuals was created as a way of distracting people from the higher-level scam of welfare for corporations. They've got people complaining about some welfare mother who is allegedly scamming the government for a few thousand dollars a year while corporate executives raid the treasury for billions upon billions of dollars in tax cuts, tax loopholes, bailouts, pork contracts, etc.

"Penny-wise but pound-foolish."

I'm a humble man in some ways, but my ambitions in fighting evil are boundless. I don't see the point in complaining about X% of welfare recipients who are scamming the government when far more damage is done by bigger scam artists.

I totally agree; the entire system needs a tremendous overhaul. One to prevent it being abused from outside and two to prevent it from being abused from within. We can't excuse the fact that the reason WHY Social Security will not be able to support the future populace is because of government spending directly from its deposit. Using OUR money to pay for lobbying is absolutely ridiculous and instead of coming up with inane theories about how they're poisoning our water supply, the people who desire revolution should start there and work their way up.

No system is perfect, mind you, but there needs to be a way to keep greedy people's hands out of our hard-earned money, the money that we are forced to contribute to others. Frankly, if it's not going towards the older folks and making their retirement better, then I'd rather have it back to save or help to make a better life for my son. I can't blame the entire government for this, of course, but some accountability has to take place.

It's so like the media to take the latest, most current thing and surmise that it's what inspired people who have been doing this for years. Simple answers and easy conclusions.