Tsunami donors -- all of you who are going without lunch ...

[Lisa]

Turning down the thermostat, skimping on groceries, or walking to work because you gave the Red Cross the money you were saving to get your car fixed

Gave your Christmas/Hanukkah/birthday money

Emptied your wallet into the collection envelope at your place of worship

Signed over your most recent paycheck to Unicef even though the office/shop/restaurant was totally slammed in December, and you prized that money above rubies

Decided that the money you were saving for that once-off trip to Southeast Asia should be spent there ... by a charity


There are a LOT of you out there. George W. Bush may have given $10k, but I just met someone who gave nearly ten times as much, taking relative incomes into account -- his salary is a twentieth of his leader's, and unlike Bush, he will be hungry for the rest of the month! I've been hearing snippets of conversations, and reading between the lines of e-mails and postings. So many people are going without, in the hope that they can help just one person, whom they haven't even met and probably never will. Already some politicians are trying to take credit for these genuine sacrifices, or triumphantly brandishing them as "proof that we aren't stingy" ("and now, let's go liberate Iran").

But for all that, what you have done is being noted. It's putting a wrench into the post-Christmas sales hoopla, and the pomp(ousness) of the Inauguration. Today the Plaid Adder expressed despair that the art and activism of her form of writing has been commodified. But looking at the spontaneous human response to the disaster so far, maybe it's not as final as all that.

Happy New Year, everyone.