Life, Love, and Liberty

Arthur Silber is in very deep trouble. I strongly urge people to read his writings and donate to his continued existence. His latest post reminds me that he may very well die before I get a chance to meet him.

Click on his name above to visit the post on his website, but I have excerpted it below:

P.S. Hey, y’all. Next week, I may tell you a bit more about what happened this summer, and why I was absent from these parts for so long. Basically, it was an unrelievedly awful time. For over a month, I wasn’t certain I would ever get back to writing, or to anything else at all. Yes, it was that bad. And yet, here I am. I’m not in good shape exactly; in fact, I still feel pretty lousy, but at least it’s not as bad as it was. And I am enjoying the writing I’m doing now, and I hope you are, too.

Thanks to some very kind donors — and thanks to several donors who have been outlandishly generous — I was able to survive the summer even though I was immobilized most of the time. And thanks to some donations just this week, I can still eat and I have part of the September rent. Which is due next week. Ackety ack. I’m still short of about two-thirds of the rent, and I need to pay some overdue bills. And the cats need to eat too, of course. People sometimes tell me I should post pictures of my beautiful children, and then you’d all shower me with lots and lots of donations. Cat pity, ya know. Hard to resist. And I’d do it — but I am very, very, very poor. No “luxuries” of any kind — like teevee — so I don’t have a camera. Haven’t had one for years. So no pictures. But my cats are the most gorgeous, the funniest, and the sweetest cats in the entire world. But you probably knew that.

So, if you have some money you’d care to throw in this direction, I would be deeply grateful as always. And Cyrano and Wendy say thanks, too. Given my health, I can’t predict what next week might bring, but I’ll keep up this writing streak as long as I can. I much prefer life when I’m able to write regularly, although that reality tends to fade away almost completely during the worst times. I hope this comparatively good time will be here for a minimum of several months, at least through the election. Who would want to miss all this fun and frivolity?!?

As always, many, many thanks for your time and consideration, and for your extraordinary generosity. Okay, Wendy, I’m almost done, so you can write to your friends in a few minutes. (They both write a lot of email. You wouldn’t believe the friends they have, all over the world. It’s true, I can show you emails they’ve written. A few of you out there have even received some of them. It’s a battle for the computer every day. We need a mediator.) All right, finishing up right now, Wendy. Kids.

Arthur; you’ve always been a source of inspiration to me. And it makes me so angry to see you wasting away like this. If there was ever a justification for a social safety net, then what you have written above is it. You’re an amazingly creative writer who produces original material. I just wish the rest of the world could see you the way I do. I wish they could understand why it’s a crime that you have to suffer like this, while a Bill Kristol gets a spot on the New York Times editorial page.

To borrow and modify the end of your Maria Callas essay: for you, truly and incomparably Arthur: now and always. If you ever read this post, I hope you will view my adoption of it as a fitting tribute to you.

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