Sometimes people tell me that when they read the Downsizer-Dispatch they get so angry with what Congress is doing that they just have to take action. This is good, but . . .

Responses from anger are only a small part of what we need to really change things.

It is all too easy for anger to slip into fear, and the emotion of fear is right next door to feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.

This can lead to depression, apathy, and inaction. Apathy and inaction make defeat certain. So . . .

We need to do something other than push your anger and fear buttons. We need to push your hope and vision buttons too.

And, in order for our Downsizing cause to be successful, we need to have you respond to that just as well as you would to anger.

It is far more meaningful if we take action out of hope -- with a vision of how the future can be better than the past. Doing so avoids the slippery slope of anger, fear, helplessness, and apathy.

As I told several of the new friends I made during my trip to New Hampshire, we come to work each day full of vision and hope, not anger and fear. We have a great desire to transmit our hope and vision to you . . .

And to have you make that hope, your own.

We need to be honest with ourselves. Things are not so bad. Yes, our cancerous government is growing more cancerous every day, but there's a lot more to the world we live in than the actions of Big Government.

Look around you. In so many ways, there has never been a better time to be alive. More people are healthier and wealthier than at any time in the history of the world. This is because civil society works so well, even if Big Government does not.

Indeed, the power of civil society to create and build is outstripping the power of Big Government to destroy. We do what we do at Downsize DC because we want to shift the balance more in favor of creation, by reducing the impact of Big Government destruction. This is our hope and our vision for the future.

We are very clear about how to do this. We do it by creating and building.

* We must create and build a huge army of DC Downsizers.
* We must make Downsizing proposals seen and heard by everyone, everywhere, everyday.
* We must use these resources to apply overwhelming pressure on government to become less cancerous.
* We must move resources away from cancerous government, and back to the forces of creation.

We must do these things as much out of hope and vision as we do them out of anger and fear.

Our vision for today, and our hope for tomorrow, is that we will take another small step on the road to a brighter future. The step we need to take today is small indeed.

It is the last day of the month. We need $518 today to make budget for February. It isn't much, but we can't do without it. We have $518 in bills that need to be paid in order to continue creating and building.

This amounts to only a few cents per subscriber to this list, but few will contribute, so we need a handful who are willing to invest more.

One person could cover the whole amount.
Five contributions of $100 would also do it.
Or 10 giving $50, 20 giving $25, 50 giving $10, or 100 giving $5.

Please contribute what you can on this last day of the month. And we will begin AGAIN the process of creating and building tomorrow.

Thank you for being a DC Downsizer.

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

Are you motivated by hope and vision? Tell us about it at our blog.

The mailing address for a check is . . .

Downsize DC
1931 15th St.
Cuyahoga Falls, OH  44223