We Only Ask Once a Year!
It’s hard to believe this is CounterPunch’s 20th year. It’s even harder to comprehend celebrating this anniversary without our guiding spirit Alexander Cockburn. The last year has been an extreme challenge for all of us CounterPunchers. But we’ve put our noses to the grindstone and tried very hard to live up to Alexander’s lofty standards to produce every day a style of radical journalism that is smart, unconventional and enlivened with wit and humor.
Many of you have told us you’re proud of the work we’ve done keeping CounterPunch going and developing the magazine format that was one of Alex’s last wishes. Now it’s the time of year when we need to implore you for your financial support. We only interrupt you with one fund appeal a year. And you can be assured that when we ask you for your financial support, we really mean it.
We’ve been telling you for a week that either we meet our fundraising goal of $100,000 over the next month or we’ll be forced to drastically curtail the operation of our website. Many, but not nearly enough of you have rallied with donations. With three more weeks of our fundraiser to go, we’re still far from our make-or-break target.
We’ve been asking some of our readers and writers for our website to say why they value CounterPunch.
Here’s what NOAM CHOMSKY wrote us:
“It is, regrettably, no exaggeration to say that we are living in an era of irrationality, deception, confusion, anger, and unfocused fear — an ominous combination, with few precedents. There has never been a time when it was so important to have a voice of sanity, insight, understanding of what is happening in the world. CounterPunch has performed that essential service with unusual success. It is a matter of paramount importance to ensure that it will continue to do so, with even greater resources than before.”
And RALPH NADER:
“A roaring colosseum of commentary, columnists and tell-it-like-it-was,-is,-and-should be original reportage, complete with a bookstore whose readable volumes tear away the lies, evasions, cover-ups and myths of a censored world. Taste, digest and deepen your mind from this fresh cornucopia called CounterPunch.”
Many websites on the progressive side of the spectrum are cut-and-paste affairs, a mix of columns culled from mainstream newspapers, weeklies, blogs and so forth. Every day our CounterPunch site offers you up to a dozen original articles, and often forty across our three-day weekend site.
Unlike many other outfits, we don’t hit you up for money every month … or even every quarter. But when we ask, we mean it. So this month we humbly ask for your support. We offer in return our independence, our unique position and our editorial choices.
Please, use our brand new secure shopping cart to make a tax-deductible donation to CounterPunch today or purchase a subscription and a gift sub for someone or one of our award winning books (or a crate of books!) as holiday presents. (We won’t call you to shake you down or sell your name to any lists.)
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Mother Agnes and the Story of Syria
As a teenager living in Belfast, I admired the American Peace Movement and many prominent figures within it. Fifty years later, two of the most inspiring people still remembered across the world are Americans: Martin Luther King and Dorothy Day.
American peace activists and civil rights workers were imprisoned, some killed. But a generation spoke and sang about love.
Like Mahatma Gandhi in India, the Berrigan Brothers in the Peace Movement and the American Civil Rights Movement show us that the path to freedom and equality is a peaceful one. This journey of transformation in the pursuit of peace and justice is a constant challenge to the entrenched powers which thrive on hatred and war; acting as a constant challenge to blind prejudice and the lies that are necessary for war.
In making this journey of love we must always acknowledge that those we regard as enemies are fellow human beings and we are called to love them . If we don’t, when do the killing fields stop?
I first came to you from Northern Ireland to speak to you about what was happening in my country. I was met with great kindness in America. Now I write to you to about Syria.
We must not allow a war to go on for decades, as many did in regards to Ireland. We must have the foresight to stand up for peace, nonviolence and reconciliation now, before the suffering is entrenched and before prejudices and lies seep deeply into the consciousness of a new generation, acting as seeds for more yet more war.
I write to you to ask your help for the people of Syria. All the people of Syria deserve your attention. Like you, they want the opportunity to live, love and labour in support of their children’s dreams. With your efforts we can make it a bright future in a peaceful and prosperous country where love will conquer all.
The people of Syria are a diverse people, a courageous and generous people with a proud history of tolerance. Over many centuries, their country has welcomed millions of disparate people seeking refuge just as the United States has done.
I visited Syria in May 2013. Despite the on-going violence, I found it to be a land of hope. I met tribal and religious leaders, political dissidents and grieving parents and widows. In Syria, there are millions of ordinary folk risking their lives for a peaceful, reconciled and united Syria they can all love.
Mother Agnes Mariam, one of the leaders of the Mussalaha (reconciliation) Movement in Syria, is on a speaking tour of America this November. Mother Agnes Mariam has sat at a table with the prime minister of Syria has and has eaten olives with a rebel leader. And recently she risked her life to negotiate the safe passage of thousands of civilians and of many fighters from a conflict zone.
Your heroes, the heroes we all uphold, show us bridges of nonviolence and peace must be built between people. War stems from hatred and lies. Peace requires courage, wisdom, and love. And foresight.
Mother Agnes is bringing to America a universal message your country knows well. She presents it through the story of Syria. I encourage you to hear the story of Syria.
Mairead Maguire is a Nobel Peace Laureate and a co-founder Peace People.