Fabulous Female Patriots

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Yesterday’s Examiner article by Hank Oprinski — along with the many wonderful comments that followed from fellow patriots and friends — provided a much-needed boost to my spirits. While I always strive to be a happy warrior to help keep others motivated and energized for the fight, I must confess: there are days when the bad news can be so overwhelming it’s a challenge to even log onto Facebook, let alone post something inspiring and uplifting.

During those troubling moments, I remember to FROG — Fully Rely On God, asking that Eternal Presence for strength while recalling that our Founding Fathers often did the same. Nothing is impossible with God, not even returning this beloved country back to its Constitutional principles.

God has answered my prayers in many ways, and I want to address just one of them here. While I am honored, humbled and thrilled to receive recognition for my work after years of plugging away, the truth is there’s an endless list of fabulous female patriots who deserve their own write-up. I am forever grateful to have found these ladies through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter; networking and developing solid relationships with them has given me strength, hope and encouragement during these very bleak times.

As I mentioned in the Examiner piece, I grew up in a conservative home with a mom who was quite the political activist. From the time I was little, I accompanied her to various polling locations, where I’d hold up signs, pass out candidate literature and — when old enough to do so — help count votes at the end of the day. Thankfully, my siblings and close relatives have remained solid in their convictions, so unlike many friends, I haven’t experienced any Obama-induced rancor in my familial relationships.

When I moved to South Florida in 1994, I retained my conservative values, but wasn’t quite prepared for the pervasive liberalism that characterizes Palm Beach and Broward Counties. While I found other conservative women through my participation as a volunteer on various campaigns, in normal life, I was severely outnumbered. In other venues, such as business card exchanges and women’s business networking groups, it seemed nearly impossible to find a contrary opinion among the successful female entrepreneurs and go-getters. Worse, it was pretty much expected (with a few exceptions) of all female members to share the same philosophy, whether on abortion, gun rights, education or war — just to name a few hot-button issues.

Over the years, some otherwise nice women have said such things to me as:

I still love you, even though you’re a Republican.

Y-you’re a Republican??? But you’re so nice!

You voted for George W. Bush???? How could you?

Of course the tobacco companies should be sued. Those poor people didn’t know how addictive nicotine could be! (This one was in response to my noting that the Surgeon General’s warning about cigarettes and health had been around for decades, thus people needed to take responsibility for their own choices.)

You’re against abortion? Then don’t have one! (Never mind the fact that taxpayers are forced to pay for them, or that Roe v. Wade is unconstitutional.)

Of course your parents didn’t abort you even though they were struggling financially and not looking to add a fifth child to the family. They knew your father’s medical career would take off soon! (As if the sanctity of life has anything to do with how much money the parents have. I can assure you, even if my dad had been a trash collector, I would not have been aborted. End of story.)

And of course, throughout (and in the years following) the fiasco that was the Election of 2000, with its hanging chads, seemingly endless recounts and 24-hour news coverage, things only got worse. I remember at one particular women’s venue in 2003, right about the time the Iraq War had begun, a female psychologist made the incredibly inane statement that “if not for men, there would be no war.”   She naturally followed this up with a lovely diatribe against President Bush to which every woman in the group, with the exception of yours truly, nodded along approvingly.

Following 9/11, some of these gals — in true liberal, self-flagellating fashion — blamed the USA, with one of my friends at the time actually longing for a quiet life in a thatched-roof cottage on a hillside in Ireland (never mind that this same woman loved making money and all of the designer trappings that resulted from such a pursuit). I’m pretty sure to this day, she still resides in glamorous Boca Raton.

Up until the worst attack on American soil, I relegated my commentary to “safe” places like Republican meetings, family gatherings and pro-US Military demonstrations where I’d be surrounded by like-minded people. But once I realized the rules had changed, that our very freedom was under relentless assault, I became more vocal even in decidedly unfriendly places. Not surprisingly, this did not endear me to the abortion-on-demand-Republicans-are-evil crowd, although at that point I truly didn’t care. If I could sway just one opinion, it would be worth taking the slings and arrows.

Fast-forward to the summer of 2008, when I discovered through various righty blogs that there was a conservative online revolution taking place on Facebook and Twitter. Having been an avid blogger by that point who’d even appeared on Fox News in August, 2004 to discuss politics and dating, I decided to get in on the action. I’d also just finished my first novel Water Signs, and thought it would also be a great way to market the book. While I’d hoped to connect with others who shared my love for the USA, I never expected to cultivate such genuine friendships with so many beautiful female (and male) patriots.

Thanks to Facebook and Twitter, I realized the existence of thousands of heretofore unknown conservative soul-mates of the estrogen variety –many who live right here in South Florida — to my great surprise and delight. Over the past two years, I’ve gotten to know some amazing female grassroots activists all across this great nation, and I am thankful to God for each and every one of them.

They keep me motivated, strong and optimistic. They pick me up when I’m feeling down. They inform me of important news events and local happenings. They stand with me for freedom.

In short, because of them, I am able to keep up this fight in the onslaught of one egregious happening after another since the inauguration of Obama. From Obamacare to the Gulf oil disaster — and every horrible occurrence in-between and yet to come — these intelligent,  articulate and independent-minded ladies give me real hope that WE THE PEOPLE will ultimately prevail.

Thank you to all of them for being such a positive force in my life. May God bless each and every one!