Welcome to our Netroots for the Troops, Inc. Holiday Fundraiser: Twelve Days of Christmas Blogathon.
Netroots for the Troops is a Daily Kos tradition. We raise funds each year to create and ship care packages to our troops. This has nothing to do with the politics of war, of whether the United States should be sending troops to this or that place. It's all about making life a little brighter for the troops who have been sent overseas. Your donation will help us create and ship packages full of useful and fun things to our soldiers. Boxes will be packaged next summer at Netroots Nation 2011. There's more on how to donate below.
The 12 Days of Christmas are actually the season in the traditional church calendar between Christmas and Epiphany, when the Magi show up to deliver gifts to the infant Jesus. For our very secular purposes, however, they're a time of giving in a month that includes holidays celebrated by those of many faiths and none-at-all. So we've moved them up so we can write the Twelve Diaries BEFORE Christmas Blogathon.
The Twelve Days of Christmas song originated in France and first showed up in English children's books around 1780. Scholars of such matters believe it began as a memory game sung at Twelfth Night parties. So far in the blogathon, we've had the partridge, the turtle doves, the French hens, the calling birds, the golden rings, the geese, the swans, the milkmaids and the dancing ladies. Today is the 10th diary before Christmas, the day of the 10 Lords a-Leaping. Think of bewigged Riverdancers stomping around in Parliament.
When my stepfather arrived in Perth, Australia, in September 1942, his oldest brother had already been dead for three weeks in the battle for Guadalcanal. But he didn't learn of that death for another month. And for the next three years the only contact he had with the rest of his family - his two brothers in the Navy and his parents in northeast Nebraska - were short letters, which often took weeks to arrive. When he returned to the States for the first time in December 1945, he had to wait three hours on a curb by a pay phone until a San Diego operator could free up a cranky long-distance line so that he could talk to his mom. When she answered, the first words out of his mouth, as he later told me innumerable times, were, "Damn, it's good to hear your voice." An ultra-devout Christian, his mom gave him a three-minute scolding for his "foul language" before he could tell her he'd be on the train home the next morning.
These days, troops even in remote places frequently have telephone or Internet contact with their families back home, making for a welcome connection that just wasn't there in the past. But that doesn't eliminate the need for letting them know that other Americans are also thinking of them as they carry out their risky assignments.
That's what Netroots for the Troops is all about. Giving them something tangible to remind them that we are thinking of them, eager for them to be out of harm's way as soon as possible. The more money we raise now, the more quality care packages we can send next summer. I'm making a contribution today, and I hope you do, too.
As Stranded Wind pointed out yesterday, however, we need to do much more. When those troops do come home they will face a tough economic situation. We should do everything and make sure our politicians (who can be so forgetful of veterans except when they need them for window-dressing on July 4th or Memorial Day) do everything to ensure that they have decent jobs and decent health care.
Be sure to recommend the diary and make lots and lots of comments! The team with the highest number of comments and recommends at the end of the fundraiser will earn special recognition! Then, make a pledge and donation! Here's how:
- Visit our website
- At the top left corner of your screen, select "Find A Team/Participant"
- Under the blank box, click "Show All Teams"
- Click on the Team Name for Today's Team
- At the top left corner of your screen, select "Make A Donation"
It's that simple! Now please donate!
Here are the previous diaries in this series:
Christmas Fundraising Begins by TexDem
A Partridge in a Pear Tree by it really is that important
Two Turtle Doves by it really is that important
Three French Hens- Pootie Style by Spedwybabs
Four Calling Birds by glendaw271
Five Golden Rings by Hedwig
Six Geese A-Laying by CA Berkeley WV
Seven Swans Swimming by Patric Juillet
Eight Maids Milking by Stranded Wind
Nine Ladies Dancing by Progressive Chick