PLEASE READ
PayPal users, at your earliest convenience, I beg you to donate 5 or more dollars to the Poppy Fund. By doing so, you will be doing something to help a struggling New Orleans writer rebuild her life in a way that she will never be able to do on her own.
This might seem very nervy and presumptuous for me to ask. I for one am a very selfish and not-too-wealthy person, and I am leery of all established charities. I don't like the idea that my 20 dollars to the Red Cross will probably be used to fix a toilet paper dispenser in the head office restroom before the leftover change gets tossed to the efforts of the people in the thick of Katrina's warpath.
But by sending funds directly to Ms. Poppy Z. Brite (docbrite ), you know that your five dollars are not only going to be utilized entirely by this one needy person, but you will be giving aid to an individual who is in the position to help all the others who have been devastated by this horrible tragedy.
Poppy Z. Brite is a New Orleans-based writer who has dedicated much of her published writing and pretty much the entirety of her blog to celebrating the beauty and character and flaws and integrity of her home city. While giving short thrift to the red state hypocrisy that plagues the region, she is quick and happy to point out that New Orleans is an island of cultural treasure, and a free-thinking distinguished community in its own right. Reading her blog everyday was reading the testimony of someone who was proud of her hometown and loved it with all her heart, warts and all.
As a writer she's had some success and recognition, but anyone who knows anything about the publishing world will confess that unless you have a crowd-pleasing Da Vinci Code under your belt, you might as well be making minimum wage at the local greasy spoon. Poppy and her chef husband Chris might be piss poor (I'm really not at liberty to say), but this has not stopped their selfless effort to transform their home into a halfway house for the a bulk of the city's abandoned pets. Thanks to their kindness, nearly thirty felines who would have otherwise died mercilessly on the hot city streets of New Orleans were able to live a reasonably happy life in the loving care Ms. Brite and Mr. Chris.
Until, perhaps, now. When docbrite and Chris finally return to their home after their forced refuge in outer Mississippi-- a homecoming that will probably not be allowed to transpire for weeks and weeks-- they will more than likely arrive at a scene of total devastation. All their combined efforts to maintain a home on the shoestring budgets of a freelance writer and a sous chef might be for naught, and I dare not explore the fate of all the harbored animals during that time. The city that Poppy has known and blogged her love for right up until the hour of her forced evacuation is going to be forever changed, geographically and perhaps socially as well. Hell, she might not even be able to ever return to the city in the near future. Her entire life could now be uprooted, and for all we know there might be nothing left.
So, we can't help everyone. I am not saying that your Red Cross donations were useless, far from it (and hey, they're tax deductible). But if you throw just a tiny chunk of change this person's way, you will absolutely, without a doubt be doing a great good for this one person, a person who will probably play an important role as the voice of a community in shambles in the days and months to come.
Please, please consider this. If my selfish ass can be moved to dish out a hundred bucks her way, your kind heart can PayPal a few bills towards a very worthy cause. Poppy will appreciate our efforts more than any of us will ever know, and perhaps a little kindness will keep her from venturing too deeply into dark places, and maintain a certain optimism that will inspire everyone through this black period.
PayPal donations can be made to funkyegret@yahoo.com. You can read more about this effort at this site: http://www.livejournal.com/users/matociquala/588783.html. And you can read the worried testimonies of her fans and those close to her in the prime_liquor and nextroundsonme communities.
Also, if you are really interested and in a saintly mood, you can post some mention of this on your own lj.
Note: As far as any of us know, Poppy (who is holed up in a shelter without electricity, water or phone lines) has no idea that this effort is underway, so at the very least she will be pleasantly surprised by this one little ray of light when all is said and done.
If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me at red.sleeves@gmail.com, or comment on this post.
Any contribution you make will be rewarded in the next life, if there is one. And for what it's worth, I for one will be very grateful, and my faith in humanity will be restored. That is all.