From a World Can’t Wait organizer:
Last night, an 80+ year old relative donated $5000 toward
publishing World Can’t Wait’s USA Today ad next Tuesday. I”d sent her a packet of material that
included a letter from me, Ten
Reasons NOT to put your hopes and money into the Democrats, The
Fierce Urgency of Now, Daniel
Ellsberg’s September 7 comments about fascism and the World
Can’t Wait speech given at September 7 meetings around the country.
After asking for $5,000 in the second paragraph of the
letter (which I thought would be a stretch politically), I let Ralph
Nader Gore
Vidal, and Ray
McGovern explain why October 5 is so important. Later in the letter I said “You can make a
financial contribution that many, many others only dream of making.” The letter also talked a lot about the
analogies to German fascism, which she lived through.
When talking with her by phone, she said she”d read much,
but not all, of my packet, and said she thought she could make the requested
donation. I told her that many people
know there are millions who hate the direction this society is headed in, and
that political paralysis is a major obstacle we have to break through.
What were the more compelling points in the material I had
sent her?
With the ad in USA Today, World Can’t Wait is making a sharp
counterpoint to Bush’s bullying Iran
at the UN on September 19. The ad is
also part of the build up to October 5. She
liked that point.
I told her that our NY Times ads make more money than they
cost and the response to the August 3rd ad was 4 times greater than previous
ads – which she thought was great – and that our Air America ads result in more
activists joining with WCW. She also
liked the fact that USA Today will go throughout the country, including to many
areas where there are no political organizers.
In my opinion, the points that really seemed to resonate
with her were that there’s a chance to break the political paralysis, and that
we”d already had some successes with previous advertising.
She then said “There are times when I get tired of being
asked for money.” She is on many, many fundraising lists and gets literally
piles of fundraising mail, including from the Democratic Party, but gives to
only a select few organizations (and almost nothing to the Democrats). She asked if I were asking other relatives for
donations. My “yes” answer showed her
that I wasn’t just hitting her up for money.
I described the September 7 meeting in Chicago to her, so she could understand
why/how this is different from all the other fundraising pitches she gets. I
told her about Voices in the Wilderness” trips to Iraq,
which Bob Bossie is part of; Jed Stone’s “my America , real or imagined” comment
(“oh, yes, I’m sure that got a positive reaction!” she exclaimed) and
Timuel Black’s initial reaction to “Uncle Sam needs you in the military” (“I
don’t have an uncle named Sam”), his comparisons between German and American
fascism and seeing the shadows of Japanese people burnt into buildings after
the US dropped atomic bombs there.
I briefly described how many new people from a wide variety
of political perspectives are coming forward right now. “This contribution is something you”re doing
that really makes a difference. Something
you can look back on with pride and say, “I’m part of that.”