Friday Action!

Ladies and Gentlemen-
The battle is raging right now on all fronts.  We need 8 people to donate $20 or more this week. Will you please help? It would be exceptionally helpful at this time. Great thanks to Joan, Greg, Cynthia, Madeline, and Donald for their recent contributions! 
Lots of shameful stuff going on right now against us, reflected in today’s action:

• Retweet this, this, this and follow us.

We really need to hold the bad guys accountable folks.  If we don’t, they'll bury us.
*** Special Note for those of you who don't know me or this group:
I'm 54 years old. I've spent nearly my entire adult life fighting for student loan justice, at a massive personal cost. I live in what was a decades-long-abandoned building in the woods in North Wisconsin which has no working plumbing, a badly leaking roof, and many other deficiencies, particularly during the coldest winter months.  

I have no healthcare, no retirement savings, don't take welfare or any other public assistance, and struggle constantly to even pay the phone/heat/internet bill every month.

But nonetheless, I fight.  Every day.  For you. For Student Loan Justice.

Because I refuse to do deals with bad people, won’t sell our members out to the student loan industry, or do other bad things for money that would corrupt our mission, it has been, is now, and probably will be very financially difficult for us to operate for the foreseeable future.

I won’t bore you with the details of the hardships this has brought over the years. Suffice it to say it’s been rough. But necessary. I wake up every day…EVERY day…and for nearly every waking hour fight this battle, because it must be fought, and literally no one else in this country is actually fighting it. Those darkest days are (hopefully) behind me now, and our group is much stronger for them.

I am actually privileged to be fighting for this very necessary and noble cause.Our group has, in fact, led the national, public discourse on student loans for the past 20 years, but  particularly in recent years, and that is remarkable, given the hurdles we’ve faced.

Make no mistake:  But for this group, our decades-long efforts, our petition, and so much else, student loan cancellation by executive order would have never become a national issue. But for this group we would not have seen- and will not see- meaningful bankruptcy legislation in Congress. Do you not know this? Please just google this group and go back 20 years to see for yourself.  

I don’t complain, but a little help to ensure that this group, all that we've achieved- and all that we are poised to accomplish- doesn't disappear from existence for lack of the nominal funding we need to continue is of paramount importance to me. A little support from the members towards that end doesn't strike me as expecting too much.

Do you NOT see how hard I, and others are fighting?  Do you not see how MUCH we have accomplished?  Do you not see how close we are, now to FINALLY getting this thing done? Do you NOT get how discouraging it is for us to see so much APATHY out there, from the very people who we are fighting SO HARD FOR?  Do you NOT appreciate all of this that we’ve done for you, even a little bit?

To those of you who have been helping in this historic fight (you know who you are) with financial support (and most significantly, your actions): you know I appreciate, respect, and salute you to no end. We are truly the pioneers, and history will judge us most favorably.

To everyone else, I can only implore you to take this battle, and this group, more seriously going forward. We are literally the only group in the country that is fighting this battle as it must be fought. This could go very well for us, but at the same time, it could go horribly bad.  For ALL of us.  The stakes- your stakes- are extremely high right now.

The other groups in this space have all made deals with the student loan industry that guarantees they will never actually solve this problem, but rather will only perpetuate it and exploit it. This has become a very big fight. We can and MUST win this.  It really is up to us!

So Please…Will You Just Help?

Sincerely,

Alan