| Number 201 | April 18, 2003 |
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Hang on to your seats! It’s time for another * NYGAARD NOTES PLEDGE DRIVE! * This happens twice a year and, since the last one was in October, we’re due for another one. I count on you, the readers of Nygaard Notes, to make this project sustainable. Please consider making a pledge of financial support. If you already know you would like to make a pledge to Nygaard Notes, you don’t have to read most of this issue. Just send your check to: Nygaard Notes Once you’ve done that, you can skip to the last section, which is a collection of nice things that other readers have said about the Notes recently. Reading them will make you feel good about what you just did. For the rest of you who may need some convincing, please read the stuff in between, which is a variety of information about the pledging process, and why it’s such a good idea. |
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This Week:
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Greetings, For you new subscribers: Welcome aboard! This is a pledge drive week, and here’s the deal: The good news is that every Pledge Drive issue includes the feature “Basics About the Notes,” which is a good basic introduction to this thing you’ve just started getting every week. The bad news is that this issue is not full of the usual quantity of the Nygaard take on the world. More good news: That’ll be back next week. I do include this week something that I am calling “Catch-Up, Odds ‘n Ends, Important Details.” You’ll see what I mean. Once again, I’m out of room, so I’ll stop here. Nygaard |
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Here is Secretary of U.S. “Defense” Donald Rumsfeld, talking to the press on April 11 about the looting and lawlessness occurring in U.S.-occupied Iraq, which he apparently sees as evidence of “freedom”:
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I try to do a Nygaard Notes Pledge Drive a couple of times each year. The last one was in October. Here’s what a Nygaard Notes Pledge Drive is, in a nutshell: During pledge month I ask readers to make an annual donation, kind of like a subscription; I’m calling it a pledge. Most people make annual pledges, but you can do it however you want. Nygaard Notes is not a big bureaucracy; I can handle whatever you suggest in the way of financial support! NOTE TO CURRENT PLEDGERS: I try to send out “official” reminders to renew your pledge after 44 issues, but I am not always prompt about it, due to time constraints. (Another example of how more donations would make the Notes better—more time to do the clerical work.) So, if you have already sent in your renewal, no point in you reading any further than this crucial point: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Those of you who have not yet pledged, please read on... I always say that Nygaard Notes subscriptions are free, and they are (I ask paper subscribers to make a donation to help cover the costs of printing and mailing.) Pledges are voluntary, so no one will stop getting Nygaard Notes if they choose not to make a donation. But I hope many of you do find it in your hearts to make a contribution. I think of Nygaard Notes as a community resource, and I call this process a “pledge drive” because it operates on the same principle as community radio or public radio. Everyone knows that they can listen without pledging, but everyone also knows that SOMEBODY has to pledge, or the whole thing falls apart. Unlike public radio, Nygaard Notes does not have any big grants or corporate support, and probably never will, for reasons that I imagine are apparent. And, although I do get approached by potential advertisers now and then, Nygaard Notes will never have any advertising if I have anything to say about it. And, of course, I have a lot to say about it. |
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It’s been about four-and-a-half years since I started publishing Nygaard Notes. There are currently about 800 subscribers, and I am aiming for 20,000. That’s an arbitrary target, but not a random one—I.F. Stone’s Weekly, after which Nygaard Notes is loosely modeled, had a peak circulation of about 20,000 subscribers. That’s not too many readers, but Stone’s Weekly was quite inspiring and useful to those who did read it, and came to have an influence far beyond its size. Sounds good to me! It’s not just a personal ambition to increase the reach of the Notes; here is my mission statement:
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To make a pledge, all you do is make out a check, payable to “Nygaard Notes” and send it to the address found both at the beginning and at the end of this issue of the Notes. As a point of reference, I can state that if every one of the current subscribers pledged just TEN dollars per year, that would make up the majority of my annual income. Now, I don’t expect every subscriber to pledge, but I do expect some readers to pledge more than $10. Maybe some will pledge $50, or $100, or....who knows? The last time I did this, the pledges ranged from $5 to several hundred dollars, and EACH AND EVERY ONE was much appreciated. To help you calculate what is fair for you, I give some ideas of how to think about it in the following essay “How Much To Donate?” I’m sorry to say that donations are not tax-deductible. I have not gone the route of becoming an official “non-profit” organization. This is not to imply that I do make a “profit,” however; if I ever make more money than I need to support myself, it will go into expanding the project. In order of priority, I would try to build circulation for this newsletter, then try to create a collectively-run radio project. If I really got some money, I would attempt to start a “think tank” to serve the social and cooperative principles that are so under-served in our political culture currently. |
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There are at least three different methods for determining the amount of your donation: Method #1: The traditional way is “How much is each copy of Nygaard Notes worth to me?” I don’t care for this method, since it implies that the project is some sort of commodity for sale like a box of corn flakes, but it is one way to think about it. If this is your choice, here are some numbers: A pledge “year” I consider to be 44 issues. That seems to be how many I put out in a calendar year, although it’s quite fluid, as regular readers well know. If each issue is worth a dollar to you, then you could send me $44. Fifty cents each? Then it’s $22. If you would be willing to shell out eight-and-a-half cents for each issue, then send a check for $2.86. You get the idea. Method #2: A second way to think about this is to relate your contribution to your own income or wealth. Are you willing to devote one or two hour’s worth of your wages each year to supporting Nygaard Notes? Then send me that amount. If you make minimum wage, I am more than happy to accept $5.15 or $10.30 for your annual subscription donation. If you make closer to the average household income, then you would make an annual contribution of something like $18 to $36. Using this yardstick, the average American physician would send me $90 to $180 per year. You get this idea, too, I’m sure. In a related way, you could send one-tenth of 1% of your net worth. For the average household, this would be $37. (For help in figuring out your own wealth, the average household income, etc., see Nygaard Notes #138.) Method #3: Some of you may want to make up an arbitrary annual amount and send that along. Fine. Not everybody likes to formalize things like I do. The point is that I will record whatever you send and then I will contact you 44 issues later (hopefully) and ask you to renew your pledge. I will even send a pre-addressed and stamped envelope! |
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Coming up on April 23rd: The National Lawyers Guild presents anti-racist activist and writer Tim Wise speaking on the topic: “Equity in the Balance: Exposing the Right-Wing Assault on Affirmative Action.” 12:15 p.m., at the University of Minnesota Law School, Lockhart Hall (Room 25). If you’re not familiar with the work of Tim Wise, you’re missing a lot. If you can’t be there on the 23rd, visit his site on ZNet at http://www.zmag.org/bios/homepage.cfm?authorID=96. ** Also on April 23rd: Historian Howard Zinn, author of “A People’s History of the United States,” will be in town, speaking at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. I don’t know exactly what he’s talking about, but who cares? It’ll be great. He’s funny, smart, and a committed activist. AND, his talk is free and open to the public. 7:30 p.m. in the O'Shaughnessy Educational Center auditorium. For more info, call (651) 962-6136 . ** In Nygaard Notes #183 I mentioned that workers at a local Borders Bookstore voted to unionize, by a 15-6 margin. I said at the time that “there is no guarantee that they will actually get a contract.” Sure enough, talks between Borders management and the union (UFCW Local 789) have stalled. Now the workers are asking individuals to support their efforts to bring Borders management back to the bargaining table by pledging not to shop at Borders stores. Once again, it looks as though the rights of the workers will not be respected unless active solidarity from beyond the union makes the owners see the need to “do the right thing.” So, help out if you can. For more information, visit http://www.bordersunion.com/ or http://www.youareworthmore.org/ on the web. ** In Nygaard Notes #196 I mentioned the shameful ongoing failure of the federal government to fully fund much-needed education for kids with disabilities as required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Some of our legislators are attempting to address this crime, and you can find out more about it at http://www.parentsunitedtogether.com/. You can also sign a petition in support of this effort at http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?IDEA2003. Please do. As an advocate friend of mine put it: “There are 60 Million people with disabilities in the U.S.—many of whom aren't able to sign the petition.” Nor are they able to lobby for themselves. So it’s up to those of us who are able to let our legislators know what is right. ** The National Lawyers Guild has joined with a broad-based group of 14 organizations—labor, Somali, Latino, civil rights, and more—to formally support a local initiative known as the “INS/City Separation Ordinance.” (The INS is the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service.) This Ordinance makes it clear that Minneapolis police officers and other city employees have no business implementing the federal agenda to profile people for "special attention" because they look like they may be foreigners. For more information on this important initiative, visit http://minneapolis.bordc.org/INSordinance.htm or call the National Lawyers Guild at (612) 824-6533. ** Support Omar! Since 9-11 the large Somali community in Minneapolis has been targeted by the FBI and INS. Several businesses have been unjustly raided and shut down for allowing families to send money to relatives back in Somalia. The local police have continued their legacy of brutality against the community, including the shooting murder of a mentally disabled Somali man, Abu Kassim Jeilani. On March 31 Omar Jamal was arrested by the Homeland Security Agency. Omar Jamal has been a leading voice against the repression of the Somali community and an important bridge between Somali activists and other Minnesotans fighting for social justice, civil liberties, and peace. The local alternative newspaper The Pulse describes him as “a leader from an embattled community of color who has done as much as any single person in Minnesota to defend the civil and human rights of Minnesotans of all colors and communities in the wake of the PATRIOT Act.” To find out more about the case of Omar Jamal and how his case is a testing of the powers of the Homeland Security Agency, contact shabeelj@yahoo.com. |