You know how a song sometimes gets stuck in your brain as if your soul is sending a message to self? Well nowadays, Bill Withers is in my head singing “We all need somebody to lean on.” I’m so appreciating those words in times like this.
I’m especially appreciating your letting me lean on you. Your support is giving me the courage and financial help to carry on in the struggle, resisting the pressure to leave the fray for a day job to repay the mounting burdens the FEC has imposed on our campaign.
Having to back away would be unthinkable – as we teeter near the brink of superpower war; as climate change accelerates towards our worst fears; as the fossil fuel industry hikes gas prices in shameless war profiteering; as the White House calls for an obscene $813 billion military budget while neglecting the climate emergency and dire human needs; as our children lose hope in staggering numbers. There’s nowhere I can imagine being, other than fighting this fight.
Thanks to your generous support, we’re now close to paying down a major portion of the fines we’ve been hit with, and covering costs of our continuing battle for matching funds critical for getting grassroots alternatives on the ballot.
If you’re able to make a donation now, it would make all the difference for reaching our current, critical goal – which is now less than $10,000 away.
I hope I can help you persevere too – if only through occasional reminders that our vision for people, planet and peace over profit is alive and well. In fact the crises we face could be solved with a WWII-scale emergency Green New Deal, an economic bill of rights (including health care, higher education and student debt forgiveness), and redirecting the obscene bipartisan military budget into meeting human needs. That is doable, if only we the people – not the war profiteers, fossil fuel lobbyists and sellout politicians – can chart our course forward!
Polls suggest big changes could be within our reach. Approval of the corporate duopoly (~33%) is vastly outstripped by disapproval (44 and 48% for Republicans and Democrats respectively). (1) Confidence in government run by the establishment parties is a mere 25%, and just 21% among young people. (2,3) Trust in the mainstream media that shores up the establishment is a mere 29%, the lowest among 47 industrialized nations. (4) Meanwhile, support for political alternatives is on the rise, with a record 62% saying they want an independent third party. (5)
As a taste of better days to come, I want to share with you my interview with Briahna Joy Gray (former Sanders press director), hosted by the Revolutionary Blackout Network (RBN), a young podcaster cooperative that’s taking the political establishment by storm. Spearheaded by extraordinary journalists from communities of color, they are challenging the world of lapdog journalism with ferocious courage and passion.
With your continuing support, I intend to stay in the fight. Eventually, I’ll be free of the FEC struggle and able to work full bore building the movement for people, planet and peace over profit!
Thank you so much for leading the charge.
Together we’re unstoppable!
All my best,
Jill Stein
Green Party Presidential nominee 2012, 2016
References:
(1) Downhill,’ ‘divisive’: Americans sour on nation’s direction in new NBC News poll – NBC. Jan. 23, 2022
(2) Public Trust in Government: 1958-2021 Pew. May 17, 2021
(3) Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey. Lancet. Dec., 2021
(4) US ranks last among 46 countries in trust in media, Reuters Institute report finds. Poynter.org. Apr 25, 2022
(5) Support for Third U.S. Political Party at High Point. Gallop Feb 15, 2021.
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