"‘Like’ it for TIME" (LIFT) has announced March 4, 2011 as "Mail-your-letter-to-TIME-day" in an appeal to the magazine’s editors to consider the military family as its 2011 Person of the Year. Several "fans" of the facebook page have committed to spreading the word on their personal blog sites, and teachers are planning to have their classes write letters to the magazine.
LIFT will post a letter along with the mailing address to TIME Magazine at the LIFT website—http://likeitfortime.wordpress.com—on February 28, making the process as painless as possible for participants; all they have to do is print, sign, and mail the letter.
The goal is to overwhelm TIME Magazine with letters from across the country. The letters will introduce the editors to the idea, and with luck, they’ll get so many of them it will attract media attention.
Media attention is key to the effort. If the military family community and its supporters make enough of an impact to be addressed by the media, people will have to take an interest.
And it’s this interest that will strengthen the combined efforts of Mrs. Obama and Dr. Jill Biden to garner support and recognition for military families.
That it’s no easy task to get thousands of people to mail letters is not lost on LIFT. It’s a leap of faith. A number of people have already expressed their letter-mailing intent, but the hope is that hundreds (if not thousands) more will do this small, simple thing for something so important.
An email campaign was considered, but emails are too easy to ignore and delete. A deluge of actual letters people took the time to fold, tuck inside an envelope, stamp, and put in the mail is a bit harder to disregard. It also speaks to a greater level of commitment on the part of the supporters.
Anyone with questions is invited to contact LIFT at likeitfortime@gmail.com. Anyone interested in participating is more than encouraged to do so.