Plea to All Friends of Mike Vanderboegh
I looked at various "crowdfunding" sites, but there are hoops to jump through and/or a cut they take. For now at least, in order to get the ball rolling and hopefully growing as it does, I'm asking all of Mike's friends to spread the word and to send gratitude offerings directly to him:
- Paypal to georgemason1776@aol.com
- Check, money order, cash, etc. to Mike Vanderboegh, PO Box 926, Pinson, AL 35126.
You'll note I called it a "gratitude offering." That's proper, as this is being directed to those of you who have received value from Mike's work over the years. That gratitude should also extend to Mike's wife Rosey, who has had to make plenty of sacrifices of her own to enable Mike to do so many necessary things you and I have benefited from.
In truth, many people have and owe Mike plenty, and don't even realize it.
There are people who identify as "Three Percenters" who don't know Mike is the originator of the concept, and who have never heard of Sipsey Street Irregulars. You can generally tell, because, by their words and conduct, they reveal absolute unfamiliarity with the Catechism of the Three Percent, and its "ironclad commitment to no first use of force."
Plenty more have heard of "Fast and Furious." Few know the first report came from Mike, and how creatively and hard he worked after that to dig out more exclusive information, and to make certain the story got noticed by politicians and the press.
The entire movement to restore recognition of the right to keep and bear arms -- and more -- owes Mike for his uncompromising leadership, for his refusal to comply, and for the risks he has assumed with acts of public defiance.
Everyone who is a War on Guns regular and a Sipsey Street Irregular owes Mike for being a constant source of information and inspiration. So no, I'm not begging anyone for donations on his behalf -- I'm flat out observing we owe him, and now's the time to show it tangibly.
You need to first be a force multiplier and spread the word about this to everyone within your sphere of influence -- email, social media, forums, blogs, whatever, and that includes requesting help from bloggers whose sites you frequent. If you're a member of a group, you need to pressure it to help. And I'm not talking a one-time deal -- I'm going to be posting regular updates asking you to send reminders.
The next thing you need to do will actually cost you something. You need to donate something. Those of you without similar personal or family medical issues who you think you can't afford to, remember the widow's mite.
Don't assume someone else will be picking up the slack, so you don't need to do anything.
That's enough for now. I'm going to be regularly following up on this, including with updates. I guess we'll find out who Mike's friends are
2 comments:
http://waronguns.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-few-words-of-clarification-on.html
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
A Few Words of Clarification on the Vanderboegh Fundraiser
When people have needed Mike,
he's been there for them.
I've seen some discussions on other sites about my fundraising effort for Mike, and unsurprisingly, some quickly devolve into ignorance, squabbling, attacks, and everything EXCEPT caring about our friend and doing the two simple things being asked for: Spread the word and make a payment acknowledging value received from his work.
I disagree with the contention that "Absolved" would be an automatic money-maker, and question the industry experience and qualifications of anyone making such an assertion. If it were, a publisher would have offered Mike an advance sufficient to complete it. As is, my sense is that without a dramatic increase in willingness to help, better odds portend a garage full of self-published boxes of books, with most sales on Kindle, and the vast majority neither spending any money OR encouraging others to check it out.
Hopefully I'm flat-out wrong and future sales of whatever product emerges will exceed wildest expectations. I don't claim a crystal ball, merely an ability to observe that anything not backed by establishment interests generally requires a committed grassroots effort.
As for the contention that Mike should have pulled back from Fast and Furious to work on the book and let someone else pick up the slack, that's just plain ignorant and comes from those who doesn't know what they're talking about. I don't even have words, so I'm just gonna let that one go.
And did someone say "blog ads"? Revenue there is driven by page views, click-throughs and purchases, and guess what: The same people who won't help with the fundraiser won't help with that, either.
By way of a project status update, and corroborating my observations, I put out my plea for Mike four days ago -- that post, as of now, has brought in as many page views as this blog typically gets in only one day. My Facebook post only has 80 shares. My Twitter post has one retweet and two "likes."
"Profiles in Apathy" is the name of that self-defeating game, and I've seen it more times over the years than I care to recall.
But all is not negative. Far from it, thanks to a happy few.
Thank you to all who have shown leadership in this, made donations and spread the word. Just so you know, your efforts have already made a real and positive difference for Mike and Rosey, and I'm committed to growing things even more, with additional posts planned. My cynicism isn't with you, but with a majority that never lifts a finger beyond sharing discouraging opinions
Here's the deal: I didn't do this to argue with anyone about anything. I intentionally titled my appeal "Plea to All Friends of Mike Vanderboegh."
I didn't address it to anyone else. I don't care about them.
If you're not his friend, if you won't share the link and if you won't make a gratitude offering, your reasons why are neither important nor solicited here. That isn't what this is about. Go do something else and leave those of us who care about him to do our work in peace.
And if you are Mike's friend, act like one.
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