**A Plea for Help** -- and please keep kicked

TorchTheWitch

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Sat Jul-23-05 09:59 PM
Original message

I've hesitated about asking for help here after the evil people caused so much trouble for Andy, but after today, I'm biting the bullet and doing it anyway.

I just got back from a benefit concert for Mary Kate Holt-McLaughlin, a family member of some friends of mine. Mary Kate ("Kate" or "Katie") has brain cancer. Like the rest of us average working folks, her family has been devistated by medical costs for her treatment. Info about Mary Kate is here:
http://www.music4mk.org/
This site is mostly about the benefit concert we had today, but there are additional links there for more info, questions, comments, donation info, etc.

At the end of the concert, Kate got up to say a few words and thank everyone who donated time or money or raffle prizes or even just kind words. She was incredibly moved by the outpouring of love particularly from strangers. She got quite a bit choked up, and several of us (including me) had to step outside for a little private "emotion overload moment". It reminded me very much of that outpouring we had here for Andy.

I hardly know Kate myself, but I do know many members of her family pretty well. It was members of the Holt family and their friends that beat me over the head and dragged me out of sheeple status to get interested and involved in politics... if not for them, I still wouldn't be a voter, and I'd have been hard-pressed to know about the differences between Democrats and Republicans or care. It was a member of the Holt family from whom I first heard and understood the term "tinfoil hat" and why I should wear my inside-out potato-chip bag headgear proudly. So, this is also a big THANK YOU to them for making me see the light when I was oblivious and had zero inclination to know or care what our government was up to.

Whether you want to donate or not, please offer some encouraging comments to Kate and her family in this thread since I'd like to forward the link to them. She was so moved and encouraged by the kind words and support of total strangers in her struggle with her illness, and I'd like her and her family to see just how many strangers are out there who don't know her or anyone connected to her, but truly care all the same.

Specific donation info at the "Friends of Kate" site is here for anyone who wants to donate:
http://kate.lunarpages.com/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=4&MMN_position=4:1
Peter O'Kane is the Coordinator/Administrator and his contact info is on this page of the "Friends of Kate" site for any questions.

There is something DESPERATELY wrong with the U.S. that it WILL NOT take care of the health of its citizens. It isn't a matter of "can't", it's a matter of "won't", and that just pisses me off more than I can possibly say. For average working people to have to humble themselves to hold benefit concerts and beg for handouts to take care of the illness of a hard working tax payer is twisted and warped and WRONG.

Please help me keep this thread kicked. I'd love to be able to forward a thread full of encouragement and support that's so huge their computer explodes.