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I was just getting ready to post an after-action review. You've got great timing!
The meetup went well. There was JohnYawl, geniph and me for the DUers and my brother and his girlfriend for the liberal non-DUers. It was a quiet gathering, just what I was hoping for for my first DU meetup. geniph is a lovely redhead, as you can see if you have the Gallery. She's very sweet and fun to talk to. JohnYawl looks like a giant bearded Viking, and has a barely contained ferocity that makes me glad he's on our side. The resemblance to a Viking only grew as we fell into talk of his passion for wooden sailing boats.
We had some drinks and snacks, and discussed the prime topics for liberals these days, B*sh, sElection 2000, our favored candidates, and the war in Iraq. My brother was subdued, and far from his usual angry liberal self. He was putting on a brave face after the death of his friend.
Incidentally, his friend was killed in Afganistan, it turns out, and not Iraq. He served in Special Ops, and the secrecy surrounding his mission may have led to confusion when notifying his next of kin. My thanks again to everyone who offered his or her condolences.
All in all, I'm overjoyed to have finally met some of my fellow DUers. John and geni are wonderful conversationalists, and what I liked best of all was discovering that we disagreed on a few minor issues, but still liked sharing our points of view. That's open-minded liberalism at its best. Alas, no one brought a camera to record the event, but since it was not one of the big regional blow-outs with posters, keynote speakers and a no-host bar, I guess it doesn't matter. It was a thrilling experience.
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