November/December 2009 Issue

The Public Option

Photos: Radhika Chalasani

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The Public Option

Remote Area Medical was founded in 1985 to treat isolated villagers in the developing world, but the nonprofit has also seen a desperate need for its services in America. In July, RAM provided free care to 2,715 people during a weekend at Virginia’s Wise County Fairgrounds (pictured), where many slept in their cars to nab a spot in line. In August, the volunteers set up for eight days in the Forum near Los Angeles, where they did 8,775 medical checkups, cleaned 1,889 people’s teeth (extracting 2,274 rotten ones), conducted 2,266 eye exams, and filled 1,984 eyeglass prescriptions.

The Public Option

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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