Consider forgoing gifts in favor of donations this holiday season

I was never very politically active until seeing the reputation of this great country totally run into the ground by the complete arrogant and detructive policies of the Bush Administration. This year I am telling all my family and friends to please not give me any gifts. Instead, if they want to make me happy, I tell them to please donate to any of the Democratic presidential candidates (preferably Dean) or progressive groups like DU, Bartcop, Moveon, Atrios, etc. We are in a critical period and we must organize in the most serious fashion in order to vote out these dangerous freaks currently running our country.

Very well presented too... I will be using your idea this Christmas!

Because Most of my relatives are very conservative.

Cant afford it...besides, I am boycotting the whole idea of celebrating anything...F*ck it...whats there to celebrate? over 9000 wounded soldiers and 400 dead? Those families wont be celebrating..they will be in trauma..I see absolutely no reason to buy a goddamned thing from corporate AmeriKa right now...and I wont..I will enjoy the company of my family, and eat a good dinner. I am making it a resolution not to buy anything I dont need ever. I am not going to feed anymore into the machinations of corporate AmeriKa and it's shallow thought process it foists on the US public. F*ck them all, and I hope all the companies go under from their greedy short term profits. It feels good to never walk into a store again except for food .

"I see absolutely no reason to buy a goddamned thing from corporate AmeriKa right now...and I wont..I will enjoy the company of my family, and eat a good dinner"

What I am trying to say is a lot of people may try to diminish the severity of the situation and say "look, we don't mix family and politics" or "I leave all that stuff behind when I am with my relatives and we focus on what we can be grateful for", etc. But this country is in such a dire situation that I feel we must let our friends and family know that this is of utmost importance to us. I have extremely conservative friends too, but I know I have to at least let them know that I consider our country in a state of emergency right. Anyways, I really feel this is a diffent time than just standard 'political' debate and election politics. What is at stake is the future of this country, whether we will continue down the path of domination, destruction, and debt under Bush. Our very lives and the future of our families is at stake.

Because I love the christmas season, and I refuse to allow Bush to have an effect on the way I merry myself at Christmas time. Christmas has always been a very important part of our familys history, and its not going to stop being that on my watch. Coprorate america blah blah blah blah. I don't care. I'm not interested in a bunch of bitter rheotoric. If I want to buy a gift for one of my loved ones, I will. Period. It's not about having "things" - its about the fact that I love expressing my love through the giving of gifts as much as through other means - and I'm not going to stop doing that because of this fucking administration. In my opinion, when I do that, when I change the way I live or surrender traditions or things that are near and dear to me - then they win.

We get a good chunk of change every year from the folks and I've been thinking of asking them to donate it instead. I don't know if they'd do it; they might want to send me to therapy instead.

I have already maxed out in my contribution to the Dean campaign. My folks are probably not supporting him. But they have given me a monetary gift every year and I will ask them to instead donate it to the Dean campaign since I have already reached the limit. And I'm pretty sure they'll do it even though they aren't Democrats.

My brother died of AIDS about a week before Christmas. I asked everyone to give me money instead of gifts to donate to our local AIDS society. It made me feel really good to do that. It was probably one of my best Christmases considering the circumstances.

where you can donate to the eventual nominee. Does anybody have a link?

I never give cheap plastic crap. I'd rather do something nice for someone that doesn't cost a lot, if any, money. And I much prefer that others do the same for me. Christmas has become a truly disgusting exercise in corporate glutony (apologies to the religious, my comments aren't aimed at you). Christmas is about love - junk is no substitute.

If you must buy, buy quality. Avoid the cheap plastic crap that clogs our landfills and harms the environment by its very existence.

and there's a number of progressive sites that will get a donation from me.

:kick: