Good morning. I’ve been pondering this blog for quite some time. We go all the way back to the fall of 2007 now – that’s a mighty long time for an internet entity.


Like many things online, we’ve had our ups and downs. Many folks have come and gone through our internet doors. Tragedy has struck us here, as well as triumph, and together we have built a weird, scattered, close-knit, yet distant, family of sorts.

But I have been considering the last few years here at ol’ 4F. Consider the ordinary fraternal organization. Things like Elks, Rotary, Masons, and even Scouts. All of these things are cyclical; membership rises and falls due to a combination of internal and external factors. The ten-thousand foot view among the fraternal community is that society is changing, and that is what is dooming many of these organizations.

Given the highly regimented, scheduled, and planned lives that many Millennials and Gen-Z have planned for themselves and their families, many external activities have gone on the decline. For many, it’s just another night out, with the associated time and cost. For those of us that believe in what we do, it’s a part of our identity; you certainly know where I stand with the organizations that I belong to.

Scouting has fortunately started to emerge from a decades-long funk. We’ve gotten rid of some hateful and discriminatory elements of the organization, and have made titanic strides towards acceptance and tolerance of all who wish to be members. Settling the long-running abuse scandals and having a financial plan has also helped us.

So this leads me to look around our membership roll here at our internet home. The core remains. I will presumptuously speak for Bob and Raine and note that we’ve been on the same page and done all the same things here for nearly two decades now. I don’t foresee any trouble on the horizon from our front.

But in looking over some past blogs, many from long ago – there used to be a varied and diverse group of folks that posted, replied, and just came around to “hang out”.

Remember, we used to all have a common denominator, whether it was “Unfiltered”, or the abortive Jerry Springer, or listening to Stephanie Miller for all those years. I don’t think any of us are in a position where we can make that sort of commitment to block some hours every day just to “be here” for whatever event or broadcast we want to be a part of together.

More for Bob and Raine – whatever happened to Kenny Pick? We had a brief flirtation with working together with him, but I also know his show cratered and many of that group scattered to the four winds during COVID.

I’m not suggesting anything drastic for our little corner of the internets – but for the few of us that are still here every day and remain active posters…I’m calling for a little brainstorming here. What is it that we want to keep doing? If we continue on, how can we attract new members and revitalize our corner of the internet? Or – is it indeed time to consider what the future of Four Freedoms is?