Revolution #265, April 8, 2012
Determined to take BA Everywhere
Determined not to let the bad weather shut down plans to raise funds for the BA Everywhere campaign this past weekend, some supporters of the campaign quickly adjusted their thinking and fought to creatively push through. The bake sales and garage sales that had been planned for the weekend had to be postponed due to weather. So instead we called up some people who had already contributed to the campaign and asked them to go door-to-door in a commercial district to raise funds that way. Equipped with a laptop and the Get BA Everywhere DVD, BAsics, and the Trayvon Martin issue of Revolution, a small team went to some of the bars and restaurants in downtown. They went back to places who had previously bought tickets to the New Year’s party and to some new shops. Quickly they raised $50. The discussions dealt a lot with the impact of the campaign so far and what does BA have to say about the murder of Trayvon Martin. The team quickly learned that playing the “Emmett Till and Jim Crow: Black people lived under a death sentence” selection from the Revolution DVD moves people and gives them a sense of what a difference it would make for that piece of hidden history to get out there in a big way in the way that BA projects it. Another $20 was raised by shaking the can in an immigrant area of the city. Those doing one of the garage sales that had to be shut down found other ways to continue to sell for a while and raised another $86. Finally, someone stopped by the bookstore to make a $100 donation. Altogether $256 was raised, far short of our vision and goal for the weekend, but also indicative of what can be done when we persevere in finding ways to get BA out whatever the conditions. Now bigger and bolder plans need to be made to bring more people into our plans for the re-scheduled fundraisers the weekend of April 14-15.
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