Editor's note: Crosscut is in the midst of its important Spring Membership Drive, and we hope you'll become an Annual Member or renew your Membership. It's easy to donate online, and your annual Membership is tax-deductible. There is still some of the matching grant money left for donations above $75, which are doubled thanks to Gordon and Celia Bowker's challenge donation.
Donations through the weekend will be entered in a drawing for two tickets to the famed Emerson String Quartet, performing late Mozart quartets at Meany Hall on April 17. Winners of the Thursday drawing — each getting a pair of tickets to the April 6 performance by Seattle Opera's Young Artists of Donizetti's comic opera, "Don Pasquale" — are Thatcher Bailey of Seattle and Claudia Hirschey of Newcastle. The grand prize drawing is for an Xbox Kinect.
Please be generous. Crosscut depends heavily on the annual contributions of Members, and this public support enables us to produce journalism in the public interest, free from commercial constraints. You may donate by automatic monthly installments if you wish. And Members receive many benefits: discounted tickets, free events, and opportunities to meet writers, thinkers, and political figures.
In the world of fund-raising one of the axioms is that you never invite people to do what you haven’t done yourself. So I am happy to report that I am a contributing annual member of Crosscut.com — and I invite you to join me.
Why join? Well, Crosscut both sustains and deepens our civic conversation here in the Pacific Northwest. Here we talk and report about what’s going on, why it matters, and what difference our choics and actions make. Also, next week is Crosscut's fifth birthday, so it's only courteous to send in a little present in the form of your Membership.
The argument can be made that any community worth its salt is a sustained conversation about matters that matter. Crosscut certainly is that. All sorts of people with all sorts of viewpoints and expertise chime in. Some initiate. Some respond. As the conversation goes on and deepens, we move, here in the Puget Sound and Northwest, beyond proximity to community.
These days I try to contribute an article at least once a week to Crosscut. Most often my columns appear on Thursday. My aim in what I write is to stir people to think and to deepen our civic conversation. I aim to do that by adding a perspective that is, perhaps, a little different.
Had I a magic wand, Seattle would have a lot more open air cafes, where we would be in conversation about the matters of day, the values and people that shape and influence our lives. I’m grateful for the number of those we do have — given our often inclement weather.
But I’m particularly grateful for Crosscut, which to me is one such “virtual” open air cafe for probing conversation.
And here’s a bonus. Every now and again, members of Crosscut get an invitation for free forums and ticket discounts. You might also be eligible for an invitation to in-person conversation at a pizza lunch hosted at “world headquarters” in Pioneer Square. If you join me as a Crosscut member you will not only be supporting this unique civic conversation; you’ll possibly get an invitation to drop by in person for a chat. When you do, chances are good I’ll be there, along with numerous other Crosscut writers and editors and a prominent guest being interviewed on the record. I'm looking forward to talking with you.
