Forces FAQs

1.  What is the story behind the Forces of Goodness and Light?

Many years ago in a land that seems to be more distant each day, a small, but energetic and dedicated, group of individuals set out to change the world.  Their goals were simple – to point out absurdities and support a liberal and, therefore (in their view), appropriate thought process.

For reasons that were not clear at the time and are certainly no more clear now, they decided to a) form a political action committee, and b) call it the Forces of Goodness and Light.  (Well, it is probably apparent that the name was a perfect name as it not only succinctly expressed the goals of the group but also struck fear in the hearts of any opponent targeted by the “Forces”.)  Of course, they mostly called it "fogal".

They duly registered the organization and began to use it to publicize points of view as they pertained to local elections.  Ads were taken in local newspapers, letters were written, and fogal’s membership exploded to 4, possibly 5, people.  And, no one knew when fogal was joking and when fogal was serious.

A bit of fun occurred when a large metropolitan newspaper was doing an expose on political action committees.  The author stumbled upon fogal in some listing and asked in one of his articles to what crazed agenda did these Forces of Goodness and Light people adhere.  All 4, possibly 5, members got a real chuckle out of that.

Even though fogal fought the good fight, there were few victories.  After a time the organization’s power and influence diminished as 2, possibly 3, of the participants lost interest and funds grew short.  fogal was officially closed and duly unregistered as a political action committee.

There was no fogal for many years. 

However, over the past couple of years some of the original fogal founders realized there were a number of things going on – things like Bush II, things like scumbag spam e-mail, things like an apparent majority of Americans being so addicted to “reality TV” that they don’t even recognize reality anymore, things like wishing taking the place of thinking among many people, things like art being ignored by many folks and lost being a perpetual state of a lot of minds.  Some of these things needed to be exposed and some opposed and others needed a little education.  Maybe an organization was needed that combines a mix of humor and experience and optimism with the full force of goodness and light.

So, there is a new Forces of Goodness and Light - now mostly called "The Forces".  Its goals are to mix hope, humor, skepticism, experience, criticism, and encouragement and to change the world.  Why not?

2.  Are members of the Forces liberals, Socialists, Communists, Pro-Choicers,  Environmentalists, Darwinians, Feminists, Gay Righters, Atheists, Brights, or Democrats?

Well, I'd guess that some members are some of the things on that list and others are not some of the things on that list.