July 15, 2000

Killer power poles

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Which do you think is more dangerous: slithering on your belly under enemy fire in the jungles of Borneo, or driving your pickup past a power pole in New Zealand?

Wrong. Forget the snakes and snipers — they pale beside the danger of roadside power poles.

Hard to believe, but more New Zealanders were killed in collisions with these underappreciated menaces during the last 40 months than in all armed conflict since World War II, according to a story from the New Zealand electrical industry magazine ELECTROLINK, reprinted in SCOOP. Adding up medical treatment, legal expenses, property damage, and social costs, a government agency calculates that power pole accidents have cost about $2 billion (in New Zealand dollars) over the past decade. And it’s not electric companies who foot the bill. When car meets pole, electric companies actually bill victims for damage to their property.

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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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