UPDATE 41! BIG ONE-WEEK PUSH TO MAKE GOAL: For JoanMar, Shelter, Warmth, and Light

Photo copyright Aji, 2021; all rights reserved.

NEW UPDATE! I think the current overall total (GFM, PayPal, CashApp, etc.) is $8,763!  Soooooo close. Come on, let's do this:  a big one-week push to make goal! That's about $1,300 on the original $10K goal, but to make the $5,500 GFM goal, it would be about $2,800.  We've got 7 days, which would be raising $400 a day; we can do this! Details below:

Wednesday is behind us. The Nazi is officially out of the White House; a man who is fundamentally a decent human being is in. That was not the end of anything. Now? Now is the beginning of the THE WORK.

And courtesy of the mess that colonialism and white supremacy on steroids have left us, there will not be much in the way of tangible help for a while yet from any taxpayer-funded source. There's never enough in the first place. But it's the dead of a winter, and there's a deadly global viral pandemic raging unchecked. People are suffering, and yes, they're dying, too. And it is our work, ALL OF OURS, to prevent that from happening.

When we know that one of our own is in dire straits? It's our job to do something about it. Folks have known about this now for about four weeks. But we haven't managed to get this to goal. So.

Time to reignite this effort: for JoanMar, shelter, warmth, and light. Come on, folks; this is doable. Easily. But folks need to commit to sharing it.

BUT FIRST, the links:  The GoFundme is here; her PayPal address is nevfai [at] optonline [dot] net; CashApp is $ForYouMaria.

You can read the earlier posts here and here. The short version is that JoanMar, upon whom her entire circle depends, has been left unemployed courtesy of this pandemic and has been struggling in silence to survive since last March. No help; no shoulder to help bear the load; just people who need help coming to her repeatedly but not returning the same to her. We know what that's like, and it's a burden that Black and Indigenous women particularly bear.

Initially, we were hoping to raise $10,000 to cover back rent, back and current utilities, car insurance, and other bills that had to be left unpaid while there was nothing coming in and nowhere to turn. Of that threshold goal, we managed to raise $6,846, leaving a balance unmet of $3,154.

Enter another friend, Michele. [Y'all at the Great Orange Satan know JoanMar as, well, Joan Mar, and you know Michele as michelewln.] She set up a GoFundMe on behalf of JoanMar last week. Michele had begun this process back when the amount raised was only $4,500, then was sent to bed by illness herself. When she was well enough to complete the set-up, she elected to leave the goal at the original $5,500 . . . because those of us who have ever been in this situation know that no matter how hard you try, how carefully you budget every penny, SOMETHING always come out of left field that you can't anticipate, can't plan for, and smashes all your efforts to smithereens. Given what we now know about lack of vaccine availability and the utter shambles the country's public-health system has been left in, returning to a steady income is unlikely for the foreseeable future. Better to have a small safety net to cover future rent and essential bills.

Since the posting the GoFundMe, it's taken in $800 toward the $5,500 goal. That's a good start, but donations have stalled. Look, I get it; everybody's been wrapped up in the Nazi's departure and the inauguration, but that's all done, and the work still waits. People are in harm's way NOW, and cannot afford to wait for "help" that may never come.

As I said in an earlier iteration of this post, JoanMar has been struggling to make ends meet for herself, as well as for everybody else, in the middle of this deadly pandemic where there's no work and no income and no help to be had, where too many this week are again being forced out onto the streets in the middle of this danger, and the more ordinary dangers of winter. And she's one of the "lucky" ones: Her landlords are a couple who understand well what she's up against, and who are not going to evict her. But she owes three months' back rent, she owes arrearages on utilities and every conceivable bill and expense, because that's what happens when there's nothing coming in even as the whole world continues to suck you dry. That $10K+ may sound like a lot to you, but she lives in a place where this is very ordinary for cost of living — for 3 to 6 months? It's actually low. She also lives in a place where winter is both already here and also already cold and deep, and everyone needs warmth and light now.

Everyone also needs not to be alone, struggling through what's left of this god-awful year with no one to help shoulder the load. JoanMar hasn't had that; she's been doing it all by herself.

No more. Now that we know, it's our job to do something about it.

The breakdown is more or less as follows: About one-third of the $10K is three months' worth of back rent. The remaining two-thirds are a mix of state and local taxes still due (and federal taxes are coming up again in a few months), plus utilities like electricity, heat, water, probably garbage/recycling, too. Then there's vehicle insurance, maintenance, gas in the tank. And, of course, food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, other essentials. These are all sort of off-the-cuff calculations, thrown together one night at the end of December. I can tell you that if it errs, it will be in being too conservative. I want her to have some breathing room.  A room with a safety net in it. And that's why Michele made the GoFundMe goal $5,500; it will give her a couple grand to put aside to cover things she can't predict.

Look, we all know how terrible this year has been for everybody, us included. Sales are way down; we're struggling, too. But we're blessed: We have a roof over our heads, wood for the fire, food in the cabinets and the fridge; our power is on, and we have good clean water. With such good fortune, how could we NOT help? We have to. This is a friend, someone we love.

So we gave $100 the first day, via PayPal. Will you match it? Wings put in $100 out of his Social Security last week. Will you match that? When the GFM went up, we put in 1/100 to kick-start it. That's only $55; will you match that? If you can't, will you donate whatever you can spare? And if you're comfortably situated, will you donate more than that, to help get her $10K and beyond as fast as possible? None of this is about we did, other than trying to get folks to match it. This is what money is FOR; helping folks survive. And JoanMar is one of us. But efforts like these are like a warming fire; they eventually burn down, and we need to reignite it and get this going again.

Here's that donation info again:  PayPal address is nevfai [at] optonline [dot] net; CashApp is $ForYouMaria.

And Wings and I would consider this a personal favor.

Thanks.

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