Well folks, we are moving from the Summer of 2013 to the Fall of 2013 on this very day. And of course that once again marks the time for the launch of the AVFM Quarterly Fundraiser.
It is an activity that I do not much enjoy doing (few people like asking for money), but one that is nonetheless a complete necessity for the continued survival of our work, especially as we look into a future that now seems brighter and more promising.
The long standing members here will bear with me as I point out to newer people that AVFM started from humble beginnings and has grown into the most influential website on the internet as it relates to issues affecting men and boys. In the course of our growth, we have begun to change the cultural dialogue about sex and power and have attracted a growing, impressive pool of talented thinkers in the process.
Recently many of you saw the teaser video of a discussion between Dr. Warren Farrell, Tom Golden and myself on the future of the men’s movement. The full length version of that will soon be posted, but you heard enough in that one to know that coordinated activism among many more people is now in the works.
In other words, this exciting coming together does not signal the end of our growth and cooperation with other key, influential persons, but the beginning.
Unfortunately, all of this comes with a cost: Dedicated servers, image royalties, legal fees, internet radio premiums, various kinds of computer and media hardware — and now traveling to different locations, like Toronto, in order to do what has been in the plans all along. That is to take the largest web-based men’s advocacy group in existence, put boots on it, and put it in the streets.
That is what we, the management and staff of A Voice for Men, have every intention of doing.
I said early this year, on these very pages, that 2013 would be the year of the MHRM. I don’t want to brag, but here we are in September and I already get to say that it proved true. We have come further, faster than at any other time ever. With all respect to the many organizations doing fine work on behalf of men and boys, that is largely true because of AVFM and your support for it. We, you, have finally laid a true, solid foundation on which the future of men’s rights in this culture will be built.
As 2014 approaches I want place the gauntlet at your feet and at my own. Let’s make 2014 the year we put a structure on that foundation; a fortress and a testament to the countless disenfranchised and disaffected men and boys who are counting on us to be their voice, and to force change in this god-awful system.
We can absolutely do it. We can expand our operations and increase our share of the cultural consciousness by a thousand fold. We can build the men’s issues groups in our colleges and universities. We can force the world to recognize that the issues for which we advocate must and will be addressed.
We can’t can fix every problem, or heal every hateful heart, but we can foster a new consciousness in which the agents of hate that perpetuate so much evil realize fully that their days are numbered.
And then we can start X-ing off the days on the calendar until they are gone.
We are already witnessing it to a certain degree as gender ideologues become more and more desperate and stupid in their attempts to silence us. And as we document those acts of desperation and stupidity and put them on full display for the world to see.
I am now estimating that there will be a turnout of over 200 people in Toronto for the Rally for Men and Boys in Crisis that we are sponsoring. Note: this is not a just another family court or a father’s rights demonstration, but a general demonstration protesting the treatment of men and boys in our culture.
It is a historical first, a landmark moment that we will, in retrospect see as a tipping point in the times.
Men’s rights are human rights, and men and boys are human beings long treated like they are anything but. It is high time the society at large is shaken from the coma that prevents it from realizing those simple truths.
I invite you once again to be the solution to that problem and to help us carry this message to the world for the sake of our sons and all those who follow in our footsteps.
Fundraiser ends Thursday, October 3, 2013 at 12:01 a.m.
