Community. We talk about Community a lot on DailyKos, not as a function of getting out the message, but as a way to define who we are, as people. When DailyKos began its Connect! Unite! Act! Efforts, many thought of it as a means to get together activists for campaigns or to raise money, or any of the normal political activities we associate with a progressive website.
The first two words of the outreach isn’t about getting together a political operation – they are about defining who we are as people.
Connect with one another. Find others around you and get to know them. How hard is it for so many of us to make friends, to build lifelong connections after adulthood? And yet, here at DailyKos we encourage people to make those real world relationships.
Unite. Find the things and ways in which we can help each other – and that goes far beyond politics.
Finally, to Act together. To work to do something positive for our community – whether that community is our town, our city, or our online friends.
When I learned of the problems that TiaRachel was dealing with, it happened at a moment this week when many of us in Kansas mourned someone some of us had never met – some like myself had met once or twice tops – and others knew for a lifetime. But for people like me, Dale Huncovsky defined what community was.
http://www.kansas.com/...
“I’m thinking about the man who would drop everything to help someone in need, and who had a line of folks ready to do the same for him every week when the delivery truck pulled up to the store,” Nick Levendofsky wrote on his Facebook page. “I’m thinking about the man who always had a cold beer ready for you, and whose famous brisket could make a vegetarian switch sides.”
On Thursday, people from around our state went to small Cuba, Kansas to pay their respects for a man who respected community.
Reading the kind words and thoughts about Dale, I said to someone: This should be the life goal of more of us, not to be remembered by the amass of wealth, but by how we amass friends and the good we do in the world.
I’ve been on DailyKos now for 10 years, and I get asked often to see if it possible to help a fellow Kossack – and when possible, I make an effort to do so. The reason is simple: in the end, when all is said and done, I aspire to the kind of memories that follow Huncovsky – to be remembered as someone who did all he could for the good of others.
TiaRachel has been a community member for I think nearly all of the time I have been here. I’ve read her diaries, tipped and recommended.. but like many I’ve seen for years, she existed in my virtual community – “Friends I just haven’t met yet”.
Thanksgiving for too many this year will be about black Fridays. Gifts you plan to give someone later. Enormous feasts while others struggle. It’s OK. We should be happy to celebrate our year. Unlike a donation to a political candidate, and unlike a donation to a cause, when you help a person directly you are building the way people will remember you.
DailyKos for many is far more than just a site to do political blogging. It’s more than a place to grouse about how we feel about national direction, or to cheer for those we admire. A great number of us come back here simply because the community welcomes us – the embrace of friends we haven’t met yet, and some we have, in the hopes of building something together. Connect.
Asking people for money is hard – it is always hard. But I’m asking people to donate not to some vague conclusion or hoped for contest, I’m asking Kossacks to donate to help a friend. Haven’t we all been there once? I’m sure most of us have. Struggling to pay bills. Worried about our future. Trying to find where we belong in the world.
There are moments in my life I will always cherish – memories and events that shape the person I am today. I don’t celebrate the purchase of anything without remembering why I did it – a gift for a child, a good meal with a friend.
It is the gift to ourselves we don’t often get a chance to give – the knowledge that we have done something positive for another being, that we’ve shared some of who we are as a person.
Tia let me know that her number now is $4540. No matter what you chip in, big or small, you do it as part of a community. Unite.
So, this weekend, I’m asking you – connect with each other. Unite for a friend in need. And act to be the community we all aspire to be.
There is a fourth word I often use – Grow. Communities with heart grow – and they are bound together through their actions.
Appeal to your better angels, take some time today and big or small, help us help a friend.
Please Help TiaRachel
If you've never used PayPal to send money to anyone, it is really simple.
- Go to PayPal.com. You do not have to have an account to send money.
- Click Send Money to Family and Friends.
- Enter TiaRachel's email address (which is tiarachelgordon@gmail.com) and amount you are sending. The sender's name is visible to the recipient
- If you'd rather send a check in the mail, you can Kosmail TiaRachel to get her mailing address.
Diary Schedule - All Times Are Eastern
Friday, Nov 14th: So. Um. I need some help. by TiaRachel. This was the plea for help posted by Tia. We are trying to raise $7,000.00 to allow Tia a stable financial future. Please help her as much as possible.
Saturday, Nov 15th: There, but for the Grace.... An Appeal for Help, with a Match by Dallasdoc.
Sunday, Nov 16th: Aji for TiaRachel: When There Aren't Enough Spoons In the World: Helping a Friend Dig Out by Aji (posted on her behalf by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse).
Monday, Nov 17th: We Are Family...We Take Care of Our Own by JoanMar.
Tuesday, Nov 18th: Kossack Caring: Empathy for TiaRachel by side pocket.
Wednesday, Nov 19th: So, Um, TiaRachel Still Needs Our Help by ericlewis0.
Thursday, Nov 20th: Do You Get By With A Little Help From Your Friends? by bobswern.
Saturday, Nov 22nd: 1:00 pm by tmservo433.
Tuesday, Nov 25th: 1:00 pm by Avilyn.
Please tip/rec these diaries and republish to your Daily Kos Groups. Link to your Facebook pages. Tweet to your friends. Many thanks on behalf of the entire fundraising team.
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