July 3, 2017

Lunchtime Photo

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This young man is surveying the vastness of the Pacific Ocean and pondering the meaning of humankind’s existence in the face of such overwhelming power. Is it evidence of God’s infinite presence, as the theologians tell us? Or merely the chance confluence of heavy elements created in the fiery furnace of distant supernovae and then agglomerated under the force of gravity, as the physicists tell us? Will we ever know? Can we know? Will the theologians and the physicists ever get their shit together?

Actually, our young hero was waiting for the waves to roll in, and then running gleefully away just before the water could touch his toes. It was pretty cute. But really, who knows what was going through his mind while he waited?

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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