March 19, 2013

Harrison Ford Heads To Congress To Talk About Planes, Yet Again


Harrison Ford is all that is man.

He has played two of the most iconic roles in cinematic history. His global box office grosses amount to a sum equal to the GDP of three Sierra Leones. And in his spare time the 70-year-old Harrison Ford goes before Congress to talk about airplanes:

The “Indiana Jones” star – who is also a pilot –  will join members of the House General Aviation Caucus [on Tuesday] to discuss “issues of importance to the general aviation community,” Missouri Rep. Sam Graves’s office announced in a press release on Monday.

“I’m pleased to welcome Harrison Ford to tomorrow’s discussion, and look forward to hearing his thoughts on the timely issues of importance to America’s pilots,” Graves, a co-chair of the caucus, said in the release.

This is hardly the first time Harrison Ford has gone to Congress to talk about planes: In October 2011, Ford stopped by the Senate General Aviation Caucus during discussions about jet fuel and tax burden on pilots. Ford’s background in aviation includes piloting a Bell 407 helicopter to rescue a dehydrated hiker in Idaho in 2000 on behalf of a sheriff’s department (“I can’t believe I barfed in Harrison Ford’s helicopter,” remarked the grateful 20-year-old hiker Sarah George). “Bikes and planes aren’t about going fast or having fun; they’re toys, but serious ones,” is probably Ford’s most Harrison Ford-y comment on planes. There’s also this ingeniously terse statement on planes, which doubles as an edict on muscular foreign policy:

Basically, Harrison Ford spends most of his time talking about planes and helicopters, rescuing strangers with helicopters, and going to Congress to talk about planes.

As for his other political activities, Ford is a staunch Democrat who’s been critical of hawkish neoconservatism and America’s lax gun laws.

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.

payment methods

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.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate