sure please ask, public or private is fine.
First things first. Did you read the Wiki article in its entirety? 
And if you label a topic with the words “free will”, “universalism” and “strange bird”, expert someone - like myself - to focus on the “strange bird” aspect.
Randy, you raised some good questions, perhaps off topic from the title of this post, so I created a new post over here [Holy Fools tradition and Restorationist discussion). Hope to talk to you more there.
Just to clarify your language choices do not match what I understand the Bible to say about our will and God’s will. God did not make puppets. Only he is a God big enough that could make living being with minds, wills, and emotions. Human beings make choices as the Bible is clear.
Yet because he is a loving father there are some choices he makes for us out of pure loving grace that we have no choice in. For example he chose to pay for our sin, in fact against the will of Peter and against all our self-righteous wills. Our will had no part of that. He also chose to accept the sacrifice of Christ as the guarantee of the salvation of all mankind. Our will had no part of that either. That was a deal between the Father and the Son.
Now regarding our decision to be happy about this good news, we observe that a few are, while most are not. This is a decision that must be made by each individual. We observe the a few have trusted Christ, while most do not. Why? Our birth nature of self-righteousness cannot make this choice without a change by the Holy Spirit. God does not make the choice for us, but the Holy Spirit frees us from our corrupted nature, effectively influencing us to make the decision, each one at the time of his choosing.
The notion that God chooses people is foreign to me. In think this idea has been perpetuated throughout the ages by the ruling classes, those of “royal blood” who were “chosen” by their gods to enlighten others, who unfortunately were not given the capabilities to make decisions for themselves. The majority of humans, being just stupid animals, corrupt in their very nature just didn’t know any better. However, I was taught differently. As in Genesis 1:27, God created man in His own image, male and female He created them. We have part of the divine nature instilled in both our hearts and minds. We love and care for others, we have compassion, forgiveness, joy, etc. etc. Yes, we also have hate, greed, etc. etc. In this we have a choice, for love cannot be forced, it must be given freely or else it is not true. The sooner we choose to follow the things that God has put in our hearts and minds the better because we just end up wasting time.
Jeff, each of us is born with the divine nature as well. I think that this has much more of an influence on our lives and in the decisions that we make. I believe that a majority of people are good.