My name is Beth Barnat. I have been posting comments at conservative websites since 2003 when the United States invaded Iraq.

Recently, Jason invited me to post my thoughts and comments here at mymanmitt.com, and I feel honored to do so.

Just a little intro: I am a child of the 50s -- That idyllic time when life was an imitation of Leave It To Beaver. It wasn’t really, but everyone tried to come across that way. At least my parents did.

I grew up in a Fundamentalist Evangelical Christian home in Indiana. After high school I attended a four year interdenominational Bible College in Miami, Florida, in hopes of getting a degree so I could go and preach the gospel of Jesus to the poor people in the inner cities of America.

Somehow, I managed to get that degree, and now … many years later … I live in a small farm town in Winters, California, far from the ghetto, just trying to make a living as a single mom in this great blue state.

During the 80’s I was busy raising my children, watching Sesame Street with them, helping out in the Winters Parent Nursery School and had no idea that one of America’s greatest presidents was presiding over our country.

During the 90’s I was going through a divorce, experiencing my second adolescence, trying to keep everyone sane (including myself), and thank God, had no idea that the Clintons were ravaging the dignity of our country.

It wasn’t until 9/11 that I woke up.

I was getting ready for work, watching the news and heard that a “small” plane had flown through one of the Twin Towers. It must have been an accident. I watched as the second plane flew through the second tower and then … everyone knew … we had been attacked.

My boyfriend called me and told me, “Don’t even try to drive to San Francisco. They are closing all the bridges.”

That is the day that changed my life.

I thought, “Who are these people? Why do they want to kill us? And what are we going to do to stop them?”

I love this great country of ours, and everything that I do, everything that I think, every political urge that I have drives me to do all I can to continue to keep our country the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

That may seem corny to some, but for someone who is a child of a World World II veteran and who grew up in a time when being proud to be an American was a given, it just seems as natural as breathing.

I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts with you and hope that you will share your thoughts with me, as well.