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For the last three months, we’ve all had the pleasure of reading posts on the Afghanistan war by Derrick Crowe.
Derrick has been writing regularly on the war, bringing to bear facts, video testimony, statistics, political insight, and thoughtful arguments to drive home the point that escalating the war in Afghanistan is the wrong policy. Derrick has been writing and researching so prolifically because he’s been on a three month fellowship, using funds provided out-of-pocket by the good folks over at Brave New Foundation and the editors here at The Seminal.
Yesterday, Derrick’s three month fellowship came to an end. Now we asking for your help to keep it going.
Can you pitch in $10 or $20 to help extend Derrick Crowe’s blogging fellowship against the war in Afghanistan? Your contribution will go directly to Derrick, and if we can raise $5,000, we can keep the fellowship going for an entire year.
Derrick’s blogging has made a difference.
Six months ago, President Obama had ordered in tens of thousands of new troops to Afghanistan while admitting that there was no strategy. Support for the war in Afghanistan was at 50%. Today, 58% oppose the war in Afghanistan. And President Obama right now is engaged in the process of "rethinking Afghanistan," not surprisingly the title of the documentary Brave New Foundation made about Afghanistan. Over the course of his fellowship, Derrick has appeared on the front page of Firedoglake, Open Left, and the Huffington Post numerous times. He’s been on Al Jezeera television, and he’s been cited by the New York Times. He’s helped push this debate.
The Seminal and Brave New Foundation funded Derrick’s fellowship because we believe strong voices against the war in Afghanistan can change the debate in Washington. We funded the fellowship because we believe bloggers should be compensated for their work whenever possible. Now, I’m asking you to help.
I hope you’ll agree that Derrick’s posts have made for enlightening reading, but it’s about more than that. In starting this fellowship, we’ve put our money where our mouth is, evidence of how seriously we take the fight over the future of the war in Afghanistan. I’m hoping you can do the same.
Can you pitch in a few dollars to help support quality blogging and a strong anti-war voice? I’ve just donated $50 to keep Derrick’s fellowship going. Click here to donate.
Thank you for your generous contribution, and let’s hope we can raise the $5,000 needed to keep Derrick’s writing going for another year, and to take us one step closer to ending this war.
23 Comments
I just threw in my $50. Anyone care to join?
Will you accept checks or money orders?
Let me find out, but likely, yes.
Good. Let me know.
You can mail checks and/or money orders to:
Brave New Foundation, 10510 Culver Blvd, Culver City CA 90232
Jason –
I just dropped in 20 beans for Derrick’s fellowship. He’s doing a good job, and I believe in putting my money where my mouth is. I’m shotgunning the blogsphere, myself, about getting our troops out of Afghan, and totally fer free! So, along with my 20 beans, I’m going to donate 20 beans’ worth of soapbox, here, too! ; – )
Blogging, itself, does very little to create pressure on the government to bring our troops home.
For years, I’ve been pushing back every way I know how.
I wasn’t getting replies to mail I sent to Sen. Durbin, so one day I drove to his local office, handed over a letter that hadn’t gotten a reply, and sat down. After a couple of junior staffers politely told me it takes awhile to get a reply, and then acted as if I was supposed to leave now, I just sat there.
Durbin’s office director then came down, had a very engaging chat with me, and told me he’s called D.C., and they are bumping my letter up to the top of the list for reply. And, I got my reply.
Surprise! It was boilerplate, and didn’t address any of my questions.
I went back to the office, and told the director “this-shit-won’t-fly”, and I want to talk with Durbin in person. The arrangements were made. I told Durbin to his face, “The war funding doesn’t help our troops. All this funding does is buy more boards and nails to crucify our troops”.
Durbin winced.
I’ve marched around the Capitol. Everyone should do that sometime. Problem is, I don’t think marching around the Capitol does much good. The congress critters aren’t even in town on the weekends, and what do they care if someone marched around the building or what it was about? I decided a smarter thing is to NOT march around the building, but to go inside the buildings where the problems are. I decided to take a week, go to D.C., and walk the halls of congress.
I got appointments with Sens. Durbin and Obama’s policy poohbahs, and “pounded on the table” for re-deployment. I met colleagues, weasled appointments with some other Critter’s people, and took part in some small protests. It was damned enlightening.
I don’t have any “carrots” to offer the critters. What would they be? It’s not as if I’m going to drop by the campaign office and put a sack of money or something on the table. So what power do I have?
Here’s the only power I have. Freedoms of speech, press and assembly, and used correctly, they can be “sticks”.
I have a netbook computer, and a broadband connection. I call it a high tech bullhorn. I’ve used it to blog live from Sen. Durbin’s front porch. I’ve done it five times, now. You better believe Durbin and his people hear it, when I use the bullhorn on his front porch. Here’s the most recent occasion. Check it out, and read the diarist’s note at the bottom.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/28/797869/-CPT-Matthew-Hoh,-Bless-You-For-Setting-The-Pace
Now, back to what I said above: Blogging, itself, does very little to create pressure on the government to bring our troops home.
For blogging or anything else to be effective, it has to create pressure on the government. I’m proceeding on the premise that congress critters will do NOTHING without pressure.
Calling the offices and writing letters are fine activities. The typical response, though, is some stupid boilerplate, or “Thank you for calling Sen. Heavybotham’s office, and have a nice day.”
Pressure is not achieved by writing and calling, alone. Presuure IS achieved by going to their offices and “Pounding On The Table” for re-deployment.
It amazes me how many people will spend hours blogging and whining to the blogosphere about shit, but won’t go to their congress critters’ offices and “pound on the table” in person.
Best wishes to you and Derrick and to all. I hope your blogging gets results. To get the results you want, do you think it would help to get yourselves and others into your critters’ offices?
End of soapbox.
And a P.S.
Jason, if you and/or Derrick would like to weigh in on this: Can you paint the picture for me about how blogging by you, me, or anyone else can be done in such a manner as to create effective pressure on the government to get our troops home?
Great comment. I’d say people’s views probably vary on this, but there are a couple things I feel about the subject.
First, Derrick’s work hasn’t been only blogging, though that is clearly the most visible thing for most. There has been a lot of behind-the-scenes organizing – reaching out to people to see if they’re on board, collecting of facts and creation of fact sheets for distribution in and around Washington, and even some petitions and calling and the like.
Second, I think blogging can actually do a great deal to influence this fight in particular. The biggest problem I think I’ve run into dealing with this war is that it doesn’t often require approval from Congress. Unlike things like health care, the question of war funding only comes up every year or so, and the fight on the war funding vote in particular isn’t one that we’re going to win.
Not that this makes that fight not worth having, it is. It’s a great way to figure out who’s really on your side. But my question has always been this: How will the war in Afghanistan end?
I’d argue it won’t end with Congress cutting off war funding because they’ll never do that. It will end with the President ending it (maybe not this President, if it takes that long), and it will happen after an election in which the prevailing mood was about the war in Afghanistan, very much like 2006′s mood about Iraq led to Presidential candidates in 2008 running on getting out of Iraq and electing a President that is slowly following through.
So, we’re engaged in that mood building phase right now, and that means we have to change people’s minds, especially the elites in Washington. That’s where blogging is useful. In January, nobody was talking about not escalating in Afghanistan. Obama had just won a landslide partly on the rhetoric of escalation. Now, however, there is a serious debate. Certainly, all the credit for this can’t go to Derrick’s blogging, but I’d argue that it helped. Pushing messages, videos, smart arguments and the like in a way that’s visible (and yes, Members of Congress, the President, and/or their staff reads and tracks blogs) is very helpful, especially where we are now.
That’s not to say that pounding Congress isn’t a good idea. Certainly next war funding fight I’ll be there with you all. But blogging and messaging in its own right helps too.
And P.S., thanks for the donation, it is really appreciated!
You’re welcome.
So, you see how I’ve been using da blogs. When I seem to have trouble getting Senator Heavybotham’s attention, and when I have a message I want to make sure gets through, I’m sticking a “bullhorn” in his keister, and blasting it, which goes beyond ordinary blogging, si?
Do you think there’s a more effective way I can use my internet connection to create pressure on the government to bring our troops home? I want to know.
I think what you’ve got going is great. Certainly, taking the blogging straight to a Senator is a good way to get attention. Keep it newsworthy and relevant and I think it does make a difference.
And I’d say there’s room for both. We need broad messages and we need policy arguments. And we also need the electronic version of a bullhorn, right?
Thanks for the reply, though I’d still like to know if you think there’s a more effective way I can use my internet connection to create pressure on the government to bring our troops home. If so, please describe. You’re the professional blogger, not me! ; – )
Ha, that really doesn’t mean I know any better than you. I guess the only thing I might throw in there is measure your results. How you measure is up to you – do you get lots of links? Good comments? Attention of the target’s staff? – but measurement and goals help.
Oh, I definitely get the attention of the target’s staff. One email I sent got a nearly instantaneous reply….on a Sunday! Might be hard to believe, but I ain’t lyin’, Maynard!
Other emails don’t ever get a reply, like ones I’ve been sending recently which say
Replies that Mr. Policy Poohbah sends me are extra thrifty and double miserly in the content department. I make points and feed him info, and he won’t acknowledge that the points are points and that the info is even grasped.
The impoverished nature of the replies is one thing which leaves me wondering if I’m getting through, which leads me to using a bullhorn on the porch. I suppose that all my emails are read and grasped, but there’s just no feedback that it actually happens, and no actual dialogue on the issues I bring to the table. If this is what we call transparency in government, then I’d like to see what opaqueness looks like.
And for the porch blogging, as soon as I arrive, I look for the terrific receptionist who is a total sweetheart, let her know it’s just me again, and hand her a short note to give to the office director, letting him know I’m blogging again. I email him a link once I get the pre-prepared diary posted, since keeping anything a secret would miss the point entirely; I’m trying to make as big a radar blip as possible, aren’t I? which is why I’ve been cross-posting to make up to a total of five blogs.
So how do you folks measure results, as you say? Are you any closer to making this into rocket science than am I? ; – )
And, I’ll slightly restate a previous question: What do you think is the most effective way an ordinary person can use an internet connection to bring pressure upon the government to re-deploy our troops? and, please explain the rationale for your answer.
‘Course, if you’d be giving away any proprietary secrets, here, please tell me I’m being too damned nosy for my own good! ; – )
Getting responses, I’d say you’re making an impact! At least on your target.
For this fellowship, we’re measuring based on how messages move through the mainstream. We’re considering it a success when messages we helped devise months ago are now repeated by the mainstream media. We’re also judging things by comments, traffic, links, etc…
In for $25, wish it could be more, this is very important but many requests right now. Hope we reach the goal, Derrick’s work is crucial. Best wishes and hopes for progress on this front.
Thanks TP, any amount is sincerely appreciated.
I just put in $25, too, and also wish it could be more. Thanks, Derrick!
Thanks so much, Knox!
Matched ‘ya, Jason, and glad to do it. Thanks, also, for writing up this appeal. Derrick’s work has been very important in helping shape an anti-war collective voice in this country, at a time when the mainstream media continues to march lockstep to the martial melodies emanating from Washington.
Derrick Crowe is a precious resource. I hadn’t been aware before of the fellowship, and am glad to contribute something to its continuance.
Thanks Jeff, really appreciated, and glad you enjoy Derrick’s work.
Here’s Jeff Huber, weighing in on the bloody Mack Sennet comedy going on in Afghanistan:
http://original.antiwar.com/huber/2009/11/03/twas-brillig-in-bananastan/