[Regarding possible Democratic supporters:]
> if there
> is such an urgency, shouldn't it motivate them to give a lot -- in
> money or time or both -- to at least one Democratic candidate's
> presidential campaign in particular or the Democratic Party in
> general?
[and regarding ABBites:]
> Is there anything that ABBNites think worth doing?
Yoshie, why the obsessive demand that if someone is so frustrated or focused about removing Bush that they *must* give money to prove the passion of their beliefs? Why is monetary charity the only form of dedication that you are willing to accept? Your comments suggest exactly that for people here on this list, but then you write:
> Several young friends of mine -- one is a recent college graduate,
> the others, undergraduates -- are pounding the pavement registering
>
> voters, and I am impressed with their hard work, and I believe that
>
> they will get something out of the experience. A few friends of
> mine
> who are retired from their jobs are doing the same.
Did it occur to you that LBO Dems and ABBites also might be giving TIME, skills, old fashioned Bob Villa style "sweat equity" (Martha's day in the sun spawned flashbacks to "This Old House" for some reason) and experience to the cause of removing Bush and some, gawd-help-us-all, might even be doing so humbly and without a need for public recognition?
When I was president, and during the years I was an active member of the Houston Gay Lesbian Political Caucus and it's related PAC, we never had a lot of money and still don't, but the prime commodity that we begged for and valued more than the green itself was always people's time. Writing a check or submitting a donation on your credit card takes a few silent minutes; getting out and educating and registering voters takes time, energy and communication.
And for many of us with very active professional lives, families and children, time is more valuable than money. You can't compare your nurse friend giving $750 to my lack of a monetary donation, even though we might be on similar fiscal planes of existence, because for me, my time is more valuable to me, and that is what I give first to the causes I believe in most. You can't, and shouldn't, make that kind of judgment, Yoshie.
I wasn't offended by being erroneously named as a donor, because I felt your exercise was too bizarre, unfathomable to me that anyone should have to "prove" to your satisfaction their support of their ideas, but the suggestion that giving money is the *only* true indicator of one's support is abyssmal.
- Deborah R.
===== "The two real political parties in America are the Winners and the Losers. The people don't acknowledge this. They claim membership in two imaginary parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, instead." - Kurt Vonnegut