Hai, y'all! I won't take up much of your time today, but I need to thank a couple of people from the bottom of my overflowing heart.
To the anonymous Kossack who gifted me with a lifetime subscription: Thank you, Darlin! There was a time in my life when I would have been a benefactor rather than a recipient, but those days are long gone. I hope knowing you've made me laugh and cry and—yes!—even dance gives you pleasure.
To the Kossack who gifted my BFF of over 40 years, pittie70: You, sweetheart, gave two gifts in one. pittie70 is one of our Kossacks living right on the edge when she should be enjoying retirement—able to travel and eat out occasionally and know there will always be enough money for the rent and groceries. She went back to work a decade ago after the first Bush recession wiped out most of her savings, finding a job in a bookstore and standing on her feet all day, every day. The second recession—the big one—caused the bookstore to close. Last month her unemployment benefits ran out. Now, in her early 70s, she may lose the ability to live independently and have to go live with family in another state. There isn't much good news in my BFF's life, so your decision to reach out to her and say, "You matter. Here's a gift from me to you," came at a splendid time. Thank you! Thank you!
This brings me to the greedy part. If you are reading this diary and are thinking about giving a gift subscription to someone, there are hundreds—perhaps thousands—of quiet users who have only been able to load Daily Kos on their old computers or through their dialup accounts because they've scraped together $4 a month to get rid of the ads. A lifetime subscription to one of those Kossacks would give them the assurance that they can always come here, relieving a bit of their isolation. I know a few of them, many of them KosAbility regulars. Onomastic has a private list you can access with a Kosmail to get other names. People in similar circumstances can message me or Ono if they don't want their problems published in a comment.
Monthly subscriptions have gone away. In the current spirit of giving, I'd like to ask Markos to extend monthly subscriptions for at least six months. It's the progressive thing to do. ♥
PS - Many Kossacks, including me, would like to become benefactors but don't have anything close to $100. Stay tuned for a Small Donor Drive in the next few days. Folks will be able to send as little as $1 to my PayPal account and, every time the total reaches $100, Ono and Erich Bloodaxe will give me a name to buy a subscription for. This is gonna be fun!