During the HCAN campaign, I received an email from one of our activists who said, “Thanks for all the great work you are doing and for helping me find a way for me to be politically effective. But I wish you didn’t keep asking for money.”
I laughed when I read this because, at that point, I had never asked anyone for money to support HCAN.
But now I am going to ask you for money, not for a particular project, but to sustain Penn ACTION with $25 or more by becoming a member of the organization.
n recent weeks I’ve heard from many of you—in emails, on conference calls, and in response to an on-line survey—about what you want Penn ACTION to be. The answer has many parts, but it really comes down to this:
You know that we are up against powerful interests that are determined to block legislation that improves the lives of working people and the middle class. Instead, they wanto use the power of government to enrich themselves.
And you know that the only thing that can stand up to the power of organized money is an organized force of people like yourselves.
And you know that we have to do it on a whole range of issues: health care, social security, progressive taxation, environmental protection and many others I told you about recently.
With the help of the HCAN staff in Washington and Pennsylvania, we did it before. We didn’t get everything we wanted from health care reform but, together, we enacted legislation that will have an enormous impact on the lives of our fellow Americans.
We have to do it again and again. If we want progressive change, we have to build a strong force of people willing to give a few hours a week to lobbying, sending emails, ad taking part in events, press conferences, rallies and marches.
You also know that we can’t do this without organizers who are connected to people in Washington and Harrisburg who know the levers of power and who can help you design actions and events that move those levers.
Political action is too necessary and too important for us to waste our time. During the HCAN campaign, I never asked you to take one action—no matter how small—that I didn’t think would make a difference. And I had the connections in Washington and around the state to create actions and event with you that did make a difference.
We can’t create the popular force, led by organizers connected to the levers of power without the resources your membership will bring us.
Penn ACTION runs on a spartan budget. I’ve been spending much of my time in the last few months raising funds from Washington and from progressives in Pennsylvania with the resources to help us. But money is tight and the most important resources—the one that will guarantee that Penn ACTION is never guided by anything but what you want it to be—is the small donations that come with your membership. Indeed, the commitment shown by your membership in Penn ACTION is critical to raising large donations from Washington and Pennsylvania.
So please, click here to go to our donation page and become a member of Penn ACTION today. Membership is only $25 ($10 for those with low incomes), though of course higher donations are always welcome.
You will get some special benefits as a member of Penn ACTION: special conference calls with me and our staff and political officials; a free, easy to use, platform for creating a political blog; and the opportunity to take part in planning sessions to build a progressive agenda in our state. In addition your membership in Penn ACTION automatically enrolls you as member of USACTION/True Majority.
But the key benefit is this: You will play a central role in sustaining the force we need to make Pennsylvania and the United States little by little, more just, more tolerant, and more progressive than it otherwise would be.
And in these difficult times, that’s certainly worth about 7 cents a day.
So please, click here to join Penn ACTION as a member.
Thank you,
Marc
Marc Stier
Executive Director
Penn ACTION
MarcStier@stier.net
(215) 880-6142