(Sung to the tune of "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished")
There is something in here for you to actually do and feel good about yourself afterwards, so keep reading.
Reading the complaints about KOS having the audacity to (shudder, perish the thought) not go BROKE while he keeps this website running by putting up ads, and then thinking through my own political activism, and the kind of flack I sometimes get from both enemies who send me hate mail and death threats and friends who feel obliged at every turn to tell me in minute detail every flaw in my political theory that post-dates Das Capital, I had a simple thought: We all need a little lovin.' You know, the John Kerry-I'd-give-you-all-a-hug kind of lovin. Does this merit a diary?
Probably not. But I slide down the page faster than hair off a pony during shedding season, so what the hell. No one will notice, anyway.
Last night, I had a series of very pleasant e-mail exchanges with some of the folks over at Rawstory (http://www.rawstory.com), people who do a lot of work and it seems get so much hate mail that they hate to open their e-mail in the morning. The loonies on the right are trying to terrorize us. They are especially hard on anybody who reports issues affecting gays and lesbians, because they smell the blood of a safe kill. It kind of works -- terrorizing us, that is -- when they take the wind out of our sails, make us feel bad about going into work, make us get less and less comfortable standing up to homophobic remarks, or pitching our tents at our lines in the sand. This is how it starts -- the silencing of the opposition.
I reflected on how I feel when I get hate mail. I even got garbage strewn on my front lawn once. I have this aching feeling sometimes when I go out into my garden, or am with my horse or my kids and I think, "Why do I have to be involved with politics anyway? All I get is shit. This is getting kinda scary."
So, here is an action alert: tell the people here how much you adore what they do (in comments, not gratuitous diaries like this). Let's flood the people over at Rawstory with LOVE MAIL. Go to your favorite blog and say, "Hey, thanks. You are doing a good job and I am reading what you do." Even really famous bloggers need love, too. (Hell, when was the last time you gave love to someone STILL IN THEIR PJS at noon???) Tell the activists in your hometown, the ones people avoid in the supermarket because they have taken an issue upon themselves and live the life of caring about it all the time so the learning curve won't be so steep for the rest of us that you admire them and respect them.
Okay, this will take you five minutes. Open up your e-mail and look for those names. Send them gushy e-mails. Hug that hippie in the produce section. Kiss that labor activist. Go to those blogs now. Unlicked, unloved activists are standing by.
