April 12, 2010

Wishing for Christie’s Death

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, wants to slash state education funding. The state teachers' union isn't thrilled. |Flickr/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cwalker71/4073779929/">cwalker71</a> (<a href="http://www.creativecommons.org">Creative Commons</a>).

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A memo released by the New Jersey Education Association, New Jersey’s state teachers’ union contained this “prayer”: 

Dear Lord: This year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett, my favorite singer, Michael Jackson, and my favorite salesman, Billy Mays … I just wanted to let you know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor.

Stay classy, folks! Christie, New Jersey’s Republican governor, wants to reduce state aid to school districts by $820 million and has asked teachers to accept a one-year pay freeze. According to the New York Post, the “prayer” first appeared on “an NJEA Facebook page called “New Jersey Teachers United Against Governor Chris Christie’s Pay Freeze.” NJEA President Barbara Keshishian has apologized, awkwardly, to Christie: “Language such as that has no place in civil discourse. It was intended as humor, but it’s not funny.”

h/t Daily Intel, which adds, in response to Keshishian’s statement, “That might be a little much. It was at least a little funny.”

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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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