Help us give Geov Parrish a hand up

As some­one who’s been involved in pro­gres­sive pol­i­tics for almost half a life­time, I have great admi­ra­tion and appre­ci­a­tion for peo­ple who have ded­i­cat­ed their lives to activism and orga­niz­ing. Most of us in the pro­gres­sive move­ment are part-time activists; we choose to be involved because we care, but our oblig­a­tions to work/school and fam­i­ly lim­it the time we’re able to give.

But there are a few among us who are full-time activists. Not con­sul­tants or lob­by­ists, mind you… con­sult­ing and lob­by­ing gigs typ­i­cal­ly come with decent com­pen­sa­tion. I’m talk­ing about peo­ple who have delib­er­ate­ly cho­sen to for­go oppor­tu­ni­ties to make mon­ey in favor of try­ing to build community.

Peo­ple like Geov Parrish.

Geov has been writ­ing, orga­niz­ing, and agi­tat­ing for a more pro­gres­sive region and coun­try since before there was a blo­gop­shere or a net­roots com­mu­ni­ty. Remark­ably, he’s per­se­vered at activism despite bat­tling many health problems.

This Wednes­day will mark the twen­ti­eth anniver­sary of his dou­ble organ transpant (kid­ney and pan­creas!). Doc­tors told him years ago he did­n’t have much time left, but decades lat­er, he’s still around, try­ing to make our region a bet­ter place.

I am per­son­al­ly grate­ful to Geov for show­ing up to sup­port NPI at some of our events, par­tic­u­lar­ly our annu­al Spring Fundrais­ing Gala in April, and donat­ing what he could. He real­ly believes in build­ing com­mu­ni­ty and encour­ag­ing oth­er pro­gres­sives. I so appre­ci­ate that, as does every­one else here at NPI.

Geov recent­ly wrote to me and many oth­er friends to let us know that he and his fiancée Rev­el Smith could real­ly use some help. They’re broke and home­less, hav­ing strug­gled for months to find a place to live, in part because Rev­el has mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis and a sen­si­tiv­i­ty to many chem­i­cals. For those inter­est­ed in all the details, Geov’s penned a Decem­ber mis­sive (2014 – It Was Not A Very Good Year) and giv­en per­mis­sion for us to share it with you.

It’s one thing to endure being broke and home­less; it’s anoth­er thing alto­geth­er to sum­mon the courage to ask for help to escape those circumstances.

Geov has done that, and I’m real­ly glad he did. Until he sent out his let­ter, many of his friends were unaware of his sit­u­a­tion. But now we know what’s going on. That means we can empha­size and respond.

Prin­ci­pled pro­gres­sives walk their talk and reach out to help those in need. Geov has a pro­gres­sive work eth­ic and is capa­ble of work­ing, but before he can focus on get­ting a job, he and Rev­el need to get out of sur­vival mode.

That’s where we come in. HA Seat­tle and NPI are team­ing up to help Geov and Rev­el. We’re ask­ing our read­ers and sup­port­ers to join us in giv­ing them a hand up.

If you’re will­ing to spare a few dol­lars to assist a good pro­gres­sive activist in need, please click this Pay­Pal but­ton to send mon­ey Geov and Rev­el’s way.

You can also send Geov a check in the mail:

Geov Par­rish
PO Box 85541
Seat­tle WA 98145

Build­ing NPI has been adven­ture in more ways that I could have imag­ined when I set out over eleven years ago to set up a strat­e­gy cen­ter ded­i­cat­ed to inno­v­a­tive research and imag­i­na­tive advo­ca­cy. Our work has always been sus­tained by the gen­eros­i­ty of fel­low activists — includ­ing peo­ple like Geov Parrish.

I hope you’ll con­sid­er help­ing Geov, so that next Decem­ber, he’ll be able to tell us that 2015 was a good year filled most­ly with pos­i­tive changes.