Update 9 – Emergency Fundraiser: Nail-Biting

Starting off Week Number 3 and, sorry to say, it’s not looking very promising. No contributions or pledges in the last 24 hours, and that sinking feeling maybe it’s not going to have the happy ending I had hoped for. A little over a third of our goal with 17 days left of the Past Daily Emergency Fundraiser and I don’t know how we’re going to pull this one out of the hat.

There are people, a lot of people, who are just overdosed on news and the world situation. I don’t blame you. Every time I go to a news site it’s always a stomach-churning experience. It begs a strong desire to isolate and watch cartoons all day.

Admittedly, the world has become a strange place – people saying and doing things they’ve never said or done before.

Or have they?

Is it because we now have the ability to cast a microscopic eye within seconds of an event that we are now overwhelmed by everything that’s really been going on all this time? Or is the human race just a little crazier than it ever has been before?

Maybe both – but I suspect it’s our new instant access to all-media/all-the-time that makes us painfully aware of just how troubled life on this planet is – and always has been.

So why would you want to know about the insane actions of people or countries from 60, 70 or even a hundred years ago? Isn’t it bad enough to know that the world is insane now, and not realize it was just as insane 70 years ago?

They always say that not learning from the mistakes of your past is a sure sign you will be repeating them over and over. And maybe knowing there has always been turmoil in the Middle East makes the current events seem not so shocking. Knowing there have always been economic worries makes our current state of the economy not so laced with doom. Knowing the political outrages on Capitol Hill, the extreme stances, the name-calling was just as prevalent, if not more so in the time of President Roosevelt in the 1930s as it is today. The religious extremists have always been with us – there have always been mass murders, there have always been revolutions. There have always been power shifts. There have always been scapegoats. There will always be winners and losers and there will always be a shift, a tipping of scales.

So . . .does knowing that make you feel any better? Is there some comfort in knowing we’re just as screwed up as a society as we’ve always been?

Maybe not comfort, but perhaps understanding and awareness that these are recurring events of life puts things in a different perspective.

Look – I am not doing Past Daily, or archiving the events and achievements of the people of Planet Earth as a way of saying “it’s always been screwed up – get used to it”. What I am saying, is that knowing these events occurred before can give you the opportunity to question why we do these things repeatedly and get the same results. And maybe with that awareness look for another solution to a persistent problem.

And I’m not advocating all this passing on of information and history rest on my shoulders. I wouldn’t even dream of having that kind of responsibility. But what I am trying to do is to present the possibility and the awareness to change things, as one person – and hope that others do the same thing.

I am one person – one archive – one collection of historic materials. There are thousands of us all over the world. Libraries, organizations, News outlets – individual collectors. The difference between me and many of them is access. There are libraries and organizations with vast archives sitting in dark warehouses collecting dust and deteriorating with age, unwilling to share this history and knowledge with you. I don’t want to do that.

It’s your past and it’s your future and it’s my obligation to you to make history available to everyone – hopefully others will follow suit. We just can’t afford ignorance and unawareness of our culture anymore – in truth, we never really could. But in these days of a shrinking planet and instant information, it’s critical.

And that’s why I’m doing this and why I’m doing the Past Daily Emergency Fundraiser. I don’t want to be part of the problem – I have always worked to be part of the solution. And that’s why I’ve been asking for your help.

17 days left and I need to raise a little over $2,500 more. And I’m appealing for your help, your contributions, your support and your telling friends what we’re trying to do here. I need your help and whatever you can do to make this happen, in whatever amount you’re comfortable with. The price of a cup of coffee works wonders. And every dollar, every cent, goes to keeping Past Daily up and running.

So please do what you can and be part of the solution. Please click on the link below and give whatever you can. My deepest gratitude and thanks to those of you who have chipped in so far. You’re making a difference. We just need more like you.

Until next time . . . .

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