UPDATE: FIVE donors have sent enough to cover 15 new gift memberships! Thank you, MS, JS, SL, JW, and FT. 🙂 I’ve extended offers to five likely recipients and hope to hear from others who are interested in joining the Cabal but not able to afford membership on their own. We’ll “bank” any excess funds to help others who come along or to provide renewals for those who can’t afford them.
Within minutes earlier today two Commentariat members offered to buy gift memberships to the new Cabal for dedicated freedomistas who can’t spare the cash.
And they weren’t the first to make such pay-it-forward offers. (I knew you guys were cool.)
So let’s do this. While the full-price of a three-month membership is $35, I’ll give the same deal I did during the fundraiser, but with a twist: $20 buys a three-month membership for someone other than yourself.
I’m not putting the donation button back up. If you want to help a poor-but-deserving freedomista by giving him or her a Cabal membership, go to your PayPal account and use the Send money –> Friends & family option to send $20 to paypal-at-hermit-dot-cotse-dot-net.
OR if you don’t have a PayPal account, you can still donate via credit card using the button below. This donation button, which I swore I wouldn’t put up again, will be here for a limited time and for this one limited purpose.
I already know of three who’d like, but can’t afford, memberships (MR, ML, and G). If you’re in the same boat, just speak up in comments or email me if you’ve got my addy. Every $20 that comes in will buy a gift membership.
If it turns out we have more donations than people needing them, I’ll keep a tally here and at the Cabal and we’ll create a “bank account” for sharing with others over time. The money can be used for initial memberships or for renewals by people who couldn’t otherwise afford them.
How’s that?
Sounds Great…
Whoever you are, I want to thank you for giving me this lovely gift. 🙂 I’ll be looking for ways to pay it forward.
I’m in!
Wow, you sure are, Comrade X!
Enroute.
And I disavow all knowledge of, and catagorically deny the existance of, that linky button 🙂
Well, there went the neighborhood.
In a good direction, of course. All of us greedy don’t-care-about-others can’t-work-together rugged bitter-clinger individualistas.
You always have the best way of putting these things, LarryA.
In fact, at the moment, the “greedy don’t-care-about-others can’t-work-together rugged bitter-clinger individualistas” who want to give money are outpacing those who want to take it. Two potentially on the receiving end have accepted and are now Cabalistas. One has yet to respond (limited online time). And one has refused the gift on TANSTAAFL grounds, despite my assurances that these are more like pay-it-forward grounds.
So if you’re out there, quiet people, and would like to be in the Cabal but don’t have the resources right now, please speak up.
LOL, thank you, Fred. Got it. And have updated the post.
Having a hard time keeping up with all your blogging here on just the new blog, Claire. It’s so good having you “back”. One day, I suppose, I will have the time to catch up on this great new community getting together too. In the meantime, the rain arrived last night and I still got projects to finish. You are doing good work too!
From Wikipedia:
The term “pay it forward” was popularized by Robert A. Heinlein in his book Between Planets, published in 1951:
The banker reached into the folds of his gown, pulled out a single credit note. “But eat first—a full belly steadies the judgment. Do me the honor of accepting this as our welcome to the newcomer.”
His pride said no; his stomach said YES! Don took it and said, “Uh, thanks! That’s awfully kind of you. I’ll pay it back, first chance.”
“Instead, pay it forward to some other brother who needs it.”
—
TANSTAAFL, I’m pretty sure, is a whole different thing.
I had no idea “pay it forward” was (yet another) Heinleinism! I assumed the phrase was more modern, perhaps from that movie of the same name with Haley Joel Osment. Very cool find, John.