The other day Kos posted a request for suggestions for a dozen progressive organizations that warrant support. The post got a couple hundred responses and came up with a list of overlapping names, with the usual suspects. I'm sure all found some of our favourites on the list, as well as a bunch of dogs. And yes, I send a bunch of them checks every year.
But I want to suggest a different tactic here, get you to think out of the box that might serve as a model for a new type of organization.
And I'm going to ask you to stretch just a little to make a connection between the differences in how the Ukrainian and the US public responded to
what are essentially equivalent electoral frauds (all right you don't have to beat me up on that) or rather essentially equivalent variations between exit polls and reported results.
My small contribution to the previous conversation was the following post:\
kiss (the kos institute for social studies) (none / 1)
with a zillion hits a year you've got the reach to start your own 501 3-c. With a name like the KISS (the kos institute for social studies), you'd find a willing public.
hire someone to do the books and offer grants and a virtual home to progressive writers/activists and you're off to the races.
There's an incredible amount of energy that goes through this site. As a newcomer -- I'm one of those who started checking this out when I found myself contemplating suicide on 11/3 -- I'm impressed with the thousands of hours consumed by this site. But how much of this ends up in action? Had I (we?) been in the Ukraine you can bet your sweet ass that I (we?) would've been away from the screen and into the streets in a flash.
This begs the question of how to harness the energy? How do you turn a loose amalgamation of passersbys into a social (or political) movement that gets people into the streets?
The first question is whether you want to do that? Do you want material results or are you content with the virtual impact?
If you decide that you want to live in the material world then think about transforming the virtual energy into action by putting together a group. The model is as simple stated above: a bookkeeper, a board that meets a couple of times a year and you've got a 501 c3.
The what to do with the damn thing and how to keep if from colonizing your life or fucking up your site becomes separate but important questions.
Enough for now.