Broke and frustrated last night, wishing I could
get to Crawford, wishing I had the cash to send to the
Crawford Peace House for supplies, wishing there were something I could do other than hit "Refresh" at
Daily Kos, I turned to my own hands and made this:
"Casey": Sterling Silver with Blue, Bronze, and Silver Glass (wire-strung)
The Casey bracelet was originally designed simply as an outlet for me. I intended to wear it every day the President refused to talk to Cindy Sheehan (I'm wearing it now), even if, perhaps, I'm still wearing it in January of 2009.
When I
mentioned it at Daily Kos, however, several people were eager to buy one for themselves, both to honor Cindy's current struggle, and to honor all of our continuing struggles to uncover the truth, save lives, and reclaim an America we seem to have lost.
Not comfortable with making money off of the
Sheehan's loss, I initially said no, but after some thinking, and some cost calculation, and some prodding from Kossacks, I've come up with this solution:
My goal is to use this space to allow people to order a Casey bracelet, knowing that every bit of the profit is distributed to
Gold Star Families for Peace* and the
Crawford Peace House*. [
Update: Should a legal defense fund become necessary for Cindy and her supporters in Crawford (and it looks like a
real possibility at this point), the donations will go there as well.]
To offer this sort of transparancy, I will be doing my best to document everything here on this blog: costs/receipts, orders (anonymized for privacy, of course), and payments made to
GSFP and
CPH.
I should be able to produce an intial run of 100 bracelets for a material and shipping cost of just under $5/bracelet. That means each Casey bracelet sold for $15 should result in $10 or more going directly to
GSFP and
CPH. (But, you can keep track with me!)
Payment can be made with Paypal. I will do my best to send an acknowledgement of the order as soon as possible (understand that I have a day job, though).
Each bracelet is made to order by hand, so your patience is appreciated.
Tomorrow evening I will post my anticipated cost calculations and links to the online catalogs where I purchase my supplies so you can see exactly how much I'm spending.
**
Gold Star Families for Peace is Cindy Sheehan's organization. Here is their mission statement:
We as families of soldiers who have died as a result of war (primarily, but not limited to the invasion/occupation of Iraq) are organizing to be a positive force in our world to bring our country’s sons and daughters home from Iraq, to minimize the “human cost” of this war, and to prevent other families from the pain we are feeling as the result of our losses. We are also hoping to be lifetime support for each other through our losses.
The
Crawford Peace House is a small but mighty peace-advocacy organization in the President's "backyard" in Crawford, Texas. They have been instrumental in helping Cindy and her supporters with their August standoff.
