I ran across this on the web, and thought it belonged at E2. As an American patriot, a freethinker and liberaltarian, I have often loudly decried our worst abuses, the bad things we have done in the world, from training terrorists and installing despots to Bhopal. It is refreshing to me to see that the good things we have done are not totally ignored.

I have not been here a lot lately -- I quit coming around for a while when E2 was having technical problems. It is good to be back. and good to see some familiar noders.

A lot has happened since I was here last. I located my birth family in California, and learned a lot of facts about my birth and the circumstances surrounding it. I am, indeed, a bastard, a hippie love child. My mother suffered from manic depression all her life, and lost the battle some twenty years ago.m I do have a brother and a sister that I never knew about. Noone, not even Mom, knew the identity of my father, as far as I can tell.

But there is a man in California that I can call Dad. He was Mom's husband (estranged) at the time, the man she called for help when she learned she was pregnant. I already have one father that I am not biologically related to -- it is not much of a stretch to have two.