Valentines Day is over – Presidents Day is hours away and your contributions are trickling in. I’m heading into the Third Week of this Past Daily Emergency Fundraiser a little apprehensive. Sure, yesterday was a holiday for a lot of people – dinners and reservations and flowers. The mass outpouring of Love that one day of the year can be pretty overwhelming. Strange, we pick one day to do it all – maybe spreading it out over the other 364 days would make a bit more sense? Just sayin’. . . .
I can’t tell you how grateful I continuously am for the support and words of encouragement to keep the struggle going, and for all your contributions and pledges. Sure, it’s Tax Deductible, but that’s an incentive – one way I get to show gratitude for your support. I keep saying how important it is to keep this going – the website and the archive; the availability of information and historic perspective. It’s just not available everywhere.
There was an article in The Guardian a few days ago – the gist of it was Vint Cerf, Google’s vice-President warned that we are at risk of losing an entire generation by way of defunct software and the inability to preserve the massive amount of material which is, even now, disappearing.
Trouble is – the same thing has happened, and continues to happen with information ever since it was first presented on a mass scale. Books have deteriorated due to being printed on unstable paper. Recording formats have changed and vanished over the years and the materials they are recorded on are deteriorating at a rapid rate. It’s not just our current state of culture, it’s been that way for over 100 years.
Worse – there’s that thing of destroying what is regarded as not important. News on a Tuesday may not be considered so important by Thursday to deem it appropriate for keeping, so a lot of current culture is being tossed out. But in addition to the deterioration of what has been kept, there is also the on-going process of destroying what’s been unearthed or found in garages, attics and abandoned warehouses. History is being dumped every day; erased and destroyed.
And that’s what Past Daily and my Archive is about – preserving these pieces of history, these artifacts of our culture. Presenting them to you now – but also preserving them to be available for as long as they are needed, no matter how technology changes or evolves. It continues and will continue. My Archive is not just about preserving the past, but also preserving the present. We are actively recording, digitizing and preserving on average of 40 hours per day of news, information and culture from around the world. Even though it’s a minuscule drop in the drop in the bucket, keeping history alive is by keeping it going – it never stops.
You’ve read about how important I feel the preservation of history is – why you need to know, be aware, familiarize yourself with aspects of our culture and society from the past as well as the present. Not to bask in the glow of nostalgia, but to be informed of the recurring nature of things – so as to possibly not repeat the same mistakes over and over.
So, to break it all down – this is why I’m here. This is why I run Past Daily every day. This is why I collect and preserve those pieces of our culture and history and hand them back to you. And this is why I need you help. This is why your tax deductible contribution is so important. And that’s why any amount, any nickel or dime you contribute to this mission is used for that purpose. You’re not just helping me, you’re helping the cause of history.
And that’s why I need your help.
I continue to be grateful for all the amazing and wonderful support I’ve been given the past two weeks. We need to keep it going until we’re out of the woods. With your help we can do it – if you tell your friends, we’ll be sure to do it.
Please click on the link below and make your pledge, in whatever amount you’re comfortable with today, before it’s too late.
Until next time . . .
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