I have to say that my experience with the DAR really turned me off. I had won a DAR "good citizen" award in high school, I became interested in genealogy and realized that all of my family lines date to the time of the Revolutionary War and earlier, and I developed a rosy picture of myself sitting on a DAR float in the 4th of July parade, waving at the crowd! I approached the local chapter with the name of an ancestor who I had understood to have been already approved. I was told that I would be assigned someone to help me, but I never was. Then I attended a meeting and there asked a woman, who I had been told had helped others, if she could help me. She was rather stiff with me and said she could not help me with my application because she was assigned to others, but would at least look up my ancestor. She then contacted me to say that my ancestor was not a soldier but listed as having supplied assistance. Then she told me that his nickname, "Blind" John Yager, had made them realize he could not be a soldier! (Never mind that his descendants have a letter showing he became blind later in life.) I got the definite impression I was being shown the door, although I could not imagine why. No one ever offered to assist me further in any way. Another member asked me to attend and I did attend one more meeting. This was during the long run-up to the Iraq War that I am sure you will all remember. This particular chapter tended to have a rather formal program. They did not really do genealogy, they concentrated on civics. During the program, a member started reading a long screed which came from the president of the national organization. At that time, there had been some protests against the Irac War. This lengthy statement criticized all those who were opposed to the war, asking who the protestors thought they were, that they could question the wisdom of the president and his advisors, because the president and his advisors had information the protestors could not possibly know. I perhaps could have lived with this statement (which would prove to be so tragically untrue), but the next statement literally took my breath away. This diatribe continued, actually calling the protestors "traitors" for protesting. I came of age during the Vietnam era. I thought to myself, "I've heard all this -- before." I waited for someone to deliver "the other side," but it never came. I went home and looked at the national DAR website and sure enough, this was a statement issued by the president and was the position, evidently, of the organization. Obviously, I believe that my ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War so that their children could freely speak their minds, protest, and criticize the president, without being called "traitors." I have met charming DAR members from other chapters who tell me that their chapters are not like this. I am told that in some other chapters there is more genealogy and less politics. I am told that there might be a discussion over topics of the day, which is all right with me. But I am afraid that the indelible impression left with me is that the national DAR was hijacked by politics and beliefs that, in my opinion, are very un-American. Those ladies need to go back to school and read the Constitution, the Bill or Rights, and a lot of American history. It has been suggested I should join the DAR to change it from within, but (a) I can't support those kinds of political statements, and (b) life is too short. So, anyone want to form a counter-DAR with me? Virginia Nuta

--snip-- Obviously, I believe that my ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War so that their children could freely speak their minds, protest, and criticize the president, without being called "traitors." -- snip -- Hallelujah...!!! I was always of the opinion that the things that were fought for were the very freedoms that -I- feel Americans are all to willing to sign away today in the name of false security...The First Amendment (It's the FIRST ONE!!!) among them. I had the same reaction to a statement made by George H. W. Bush (the current Presidents father...) "No, I don't know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God." -George H. W. Bush, to Robert Sherman, at Chicago's O'Hare Airport while announcing federal disaster relief for Illinois, August 27, 1987 "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - attributed to Benjamin Franklin Wanna call it RAD? :) Revolutionary War American Descendents? :) hahahaha Where do I sign up? :) -David