• Emergency Actions for Middle East Peace
  
• Our Own Emergency: Funding Has Almost Run Out
  
• Results We've Achieved on Progressive Issues
  
• Our Users Debate Israeli-Palestinian Crisis
  
• Upcoming Progressive Portal Action Campaigns
  
• Needed: 30 Responses in 30 Days
  

Dear friend:

The past 30 days have been an incredible time -- frightening as events spiral out of control in the Middle East, yet inspiring to see activists stepping up to the plate, including the people who've come to Progressive Portal to send more than 300,000 letters calling for peace since March 29.

Emergency Actions for Mideast Peace

With your help, we will take several emergency actions:

In a moment, I'll report on other actions we have planned, on this and other issues. But first, I must tell you about ...

Our Own Emergency:
Funding Has Almost Run Out

If you check the top left corner of most Progressive Portal pages, you'll see that there is no Sponsor of the Day today. This means our work is not funded. We aren't paying our Internet hosting service, our telephone and online costs, our editor/publisher, or our office costs. It means we cannot implement the emergency measures listed above with the urgency required by the Middle East crisis. It means delay for the other campaigns we have in the works (more about those in a moment).

We also must delay work on the new features, including a quick-and-easy telephone-call action to complement each letter, the option of having your letters printed on paper and mailed, or faxed, to any recipient, and a packet of resources you can order to go with each campaign. And we cannot obtain upgraded equipment and software to keep up with the rapidly growing participation in our campaigns.

Our very limited initial funding (a loan, really) is almost gone. Every day without a Sponsor of the Day brings us closer to the end of our resources.

But here is the good news. We have made it easy and affordable for individuals to sponsor a day of Progressive Portal. A pledge of $31.25 per month for one year will sponsor a day of Progressive Portal (more than 21,000 letters for progressive causes!).

Please sign up now to sponsor a day:
  http://www.progressiveportal.org/feedback/sponsor.html

We Go for Results

Already, we have one of the most effective activism centers on the Internet. Our special emphasis is on pressuring people who aren't used to the spotlight -- and our track record shows that it works.

We're the ONLY site letting you write to more than 150 Israeli, Palestinian, and U.S. officials, the ONLY site whose thousands of letters helped demolish the union-busting effort of the Mondavi winemaking family in Napa valley, the ONLY site whose one-million-plus letters helped restore grassroots control of the progressive Pacifica radio network. Our campaigns are unique from, and often more effective than, the work of better-known, more mainstream organizations.

Since we launched in May, 2001, our users have sent more than 4,700 messages EVERY DAY, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Since our Middle East campaign was launched March 29, that number has soared to nearly 21,500 PER DAY! We've already generated more than 1.6 MILLION messages for progressive causes. Please help us stick around and become even more effective in the months ahead.

Our Readers Debate
the Israeli-Palestinian Crisis

Conflict in the Middle East is once again mirrored by verbal sparring around the world.

We've caught a lot of flack for our letter calling on the Israelis and Palestinians to forego violence. For simply opposing violence, we've been told we're part of the "Israeli propaganda machine," or conversely, "in league with Palestinian terrorists."

The correspondence has been surprising. The critics are about equally divided between those who call us too pro-Israeli and those who charge that we're too pro-Palestinian. However, once we've engaged the writers in dialog, we've been able to develop open, respectful communication. We've compiled excerpts from the sometimes touching exchanges, and we hope to post them soon, as resources permit.

Could our experience be a metaphor for the actual Middle East conflict? Does the dialog we've been able to have with people who were originally adamant provide any cause for optimism? Once we are able to post this dialog, I hope you'll take a look and judge for yourself.

Some Upcoming Campaigns

Here are just a few of the campaigns we hope to launch within the next few weeks, providing we have the resources:

We Need 30 Day Sponsors Now,
90 Sponsors within 90 Days

Within the next 30 days, we need 30 more people to become Day Sponsors. Within 90 days, we need 90 sponsors. It's a tall order -- but many of our users have written to us about how indispensable we are, so I'm hopeful you'll come through for us now.

If you sponsor a day, you enable 21,500 messages promoting peace and justice to reach key decision-makers.

If we are able to get every day sponsored this year, we can reach our goal of having 100 issue campaigns operating by the year's end, and we can implement strategies and technologies to markedly increase our impact on progressive causes.

If you can sign up now, we will get to work without waiting for the money to reach us. Make your pledge at:
  http://www.progressiveportal.org/feedback/sponsor.html

If you cannot make a pledge of $31.25 per month, we welcome a one-time contribution of any amount. See the "Click to Give" button to make a one-time contribution.

The pledge page also tells how to contribute by check or money order.

Two other ways to support us are to purchase peace flags, sweatshirts, and posters, and to purchase books from your local, independent bookseller by using this unique link.

Every bit helps. But we need every possible supporter -- including YOU if at all possible -- so we can continue our groundbreaking work, and expand it in the months ahead.