It has just been an incredible week for me.<\/p>\n
Spirit of America. Damn, I’ve never ridden a rocket before. What a thrill; my friend who is doing the books – who is somewhat of a cynic – commented as she iced her hands from entering all the donations into Quickbooks – “My faith in humanity is restored.”<\/p>\n
In case you missed it, Jim Hake set out to raise $100,000 to buy some TV equipment – to let local Iraqi stations air local news. Much of that news is good, but much as the news of gang shootings in Pico-Union creates panic in West Los Angeles, the bad news there tends to drive out the good. Allowing some old-fashioned local news coverage – of rescuers working to save girls stuck in wells, local sports heroes, all the banal stuff that everyday life is so deliciously made up from – offers the chance to remind people that life is not sliding downhill quite the way some might fear.<\/p>\n
Well, Jim is aggressive and good, and soon there was a column in the Wall Street Journal, and the next day there was $400,000 in the bank. As of today, the website shows<\/a> over $1.5 MILLION in contributions – all of which will be used to buy things the Iraqi people need to rebuild their country and their lives.That’s a good thing, because people who are playing soccer or building houses aren’t shooting each other or our troops; most important of all, people who have hope for their future don’t drive cars loaded with explosives into crowds and set them off.<\/p>\n All kinds of doors have been opened – for Spirit of America, by the prominence and potential that this success will unlock. And for me as well. I fell like I am a changed man, just by having watched it happen and having read some of the letters and emails that came in to accompany the donations. <\/p>\n The volunteers delivered the goods (actually, FedEx delivered the goods, but they did it for free, so they’re volunteers as well) – actually, the volunteers presented the goods, and Gerard Van der Leun wrote a powerful – it’s not right to call it a ‘post’, that’s demeaning – short essay<\/a> about it. Go read that and understand that I feel the same way; I just can’t write about it as well as he does.<\/p>\n