We don’t know. Maybe by the end of the day we can say . . . we are so close to the goal of our 2019 Spring Webathon that, yeah, we can taste it! We approach the goal, and the end of this month of being — the latest is Kevin Williamson’s tremendous case — grateful to the 1,471 folks who have helped us reach our current point, and we are hoping for many more to find it in their hearts and wallets these last days so we can reach that goal (to taste it!) and even surpass it. Here is a selection of the good souls who have given of late. Maybe what they have done, and their attending wise remarks, will inspire others. Maybe even, you!
- Kathleen tenders a quite generous $300 and utters this: “The finest and most relevant-to-our-times education I’ve received is from reading National Review. Thank you for your courage and determination to stand on the front lines. I’m committed to standing with you.” Damn that is some kind of bracing!
- Katie finds $50 to send our way, along with this: “Thank you so much for NRPlus. What a great community on FB. Your articles are great too. I feel so much more grounded and not frantic when confronted with Left wing arguments.” So glad to know this means what we intended it to mean.
- Jarom also sports a $50 gift and his thoughts speak for many: “I consider NR to be one of the most important publications of our day and I am grateful for the opportunity to express my esteem for NR by making a donation.” We like how you express!
- James contributes $100 and shares a slice of his bio: “We were ex-pats in Brazil in the 1970’s and my dad used to receive NR via US mail. It was an oasis to the pedestrian Time/Newsweek/NY Times that was available locally. It still is an oasis . . .” Park your camel right here and drink up!
- Dave gives $200 and a story so worth sharing: “ I was inoculated against socialism and all other forms of leftism while I was in high school some forty-five years ago. The vaccine was National Review and the (unwitting) doctor was Mr. Chalupa, the father of a good friend of mine. He had emigrated to the U.S. from what was then Czechoslovakia, and as a young man he had defended his country from both Nazis and Communists before fleeing for his life (Czech was spoken in their home.). Mr. Chalupa was a serious man. He always had a copy of the latest National Review amidst the books and papers piled high on the dining room table where he worked when he was home. One day I picked up a copy and read the very short pieces that comprised ‘The Week.’ That was all it took. It wasn’t the ideas that impressed me at first, it was the writing. Clear, concise, witty, biting. It was fun to read and it drew me in. It was only later on that I realized how important the ideas were and are and will always be.” God bless you and Doc Chalupa. This story means a lot to us.
- Clarence makes with the $50 donation and offers a glimpse into what makes for a happy marriage: “My wife and I are dribblers, contributing separately, sitting in different rooms, reading, occasionally hooting our joy at an especially bon bon mot or apt apercu. Here’s another $50 noting my happiness at nearly everything that Kevin Williamson writes.” I liked the bon bon part the best!
- Andrew permanently lends us a C note and slaps the back: “I look forward to the Morning Jolt and the G-File. I have been a subscriber for several years now. National Review is, perhaps, as needed now as it was in 1955 when the nationwide conventional thinking was almost uniformly liberal. Even conservative Republicans were probably a minority within the party. Now much further left influence seems rife in the Democrats which are even less tolerant towards conservatives than they were then.”
- Eric bequeaths 25 bucks and tells tales from the battlefront: “As an alumnus of Williams College, I have recently seen at close range the forces arrayed against logic, common-sense, and even free speech. Thank you to Jonah for helping us have the LF label at our fingertips, and thank you to the whole cast at NR for helping us to bear arms in this fight.”
- The duo of Cara and Bob make with a $50 tip, a get all Dead Language on us: “Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.” All we can say is, thankus multibusque.
Et tu, Brutus? How about you Tom, Dick, Harry? Bob and Carol? Ted and Alice? All you NR regulars out there who have yet to give, who want to give, how about doing that now and helping close out the Webathon as a success. Your $10 or $25 is not too small, your $500 or $1,000 is not too big — whatever you can give can best be described as selfless. Make that contribution here, knowing it is sorely needed, and deeply appreciated.