[cure-news] To CURE Members, Allies and Friends

[Ida Hakim]

Dear Members, Allies and Friends:

Thanks to all of you who have responded to our recent appeal for 
donations to CURE. We began to raise funds just eight days ago, and the 
response has been very encouraging.

Today I am especially grateful to a CURE member who has offered to match 
donations in response to our appeal, up to $500. Please help us collect 
those matching funds, and double the size of your donation.

CURE's appeal letter is included below. If you haven't had the time to 
review it, I encourage you to take a moment and read about what your 
organization is doing, and what is planned in the near future. We do 
need the support of our members, allies and friends.

Sincerely,
Ida Hakim

 


Dear Members, Allies and Friends:

It doesn't happen often, but it has to happen sometimes - Caucasians 
United for Reparations and Emancipation (CURE) is making a call for 
contributions to support our vital work.

I trust that like me you receive many appeals from worthy organizations 
doing important work in a wide range of fields, on a wide range of 
important issues. But of those groups, few are working for justice for 
the descendants of enslaved Africans and fewer still are doing that work 
within the white community; working to educate those privileged by the 
injustices suffered as a result of the legacy of slavery, working to 
build white support for the Black-led movement for Reparations.

No government grant will support this work. No corporate philanthropists 
are lining up to underwrite CURE projects. If our work is to continue, 
it will require your support to make it happen.

I want to highlight four CURE projects that need your urgent financial 
support. Besides the media interviews and speakers bureau we offer to 
show a white face in support of Black Reparations, besides our online 
'Dialogue with White America', besides the self-funded educational 
membership conferences, besides the news lists and action lists in 
support of Black Reparations, besides providing our assistance when NGOs 
address the issue of slavery Reparations before the UN and other 
international bodies, there are four initiatives we are currently 
seeking funds to support.

1) On June 20th our organization filed a Friend of the Court (Amicus 
Curiae) Brief in support of the plaintiffs in Farmer-Paellmann v. Brown 
& Williamson. Though attorney Craig Alan Webster and project manager 
Hugh Esco (a CURE member) undertook this project on a pro bono basis, 
the cost of printing and filing the document was met by borrowing $1,200 
from funds set aside to reprint our book. For more information about the 
brief, see CURE-news distribution, "White Advocates File Brief in 
Support of Corporate Restitution Claims." If you haven't received a copy 
of this press release, let me know and I'll send it to you. Deadria 
Farmer-Paellmann informed CURE of the opportunity to give support at 
this vital moment, and we responded. This is the sort of support that 
CURE was organized to provide to the Reparations Movement. We eagerly 
await the new term of the U.S. Supreme Court, beginning this coming 
October, when we should learn whether the Court will hear this important 
appeal.

2) We want to put some funds in the bank so we can respond to requests 
to present at conferences and to table at gatherings. On June 27th CURE 
conducted a workshop at the U.S. Social Forum which attracted nearly 
10,000 to Atlanta this past June. We created two panels with the first 
being made up of leaders from All For Reparations and Emancipation, 
National Coalition Of Blacks for Reparations in America and the National 
Commission for Reparations. The second panel consisted of CURE members. 
As a result of our workshop and four others that were held on the topic 
of reparations, a promising petition was written which we circulated on 
the CURE-news list. This project cost roughly $400 in registration fees 
and for duplication costs for handouts prepared for the event. Again 
these funds were borrowed from funds set aside to reprint our book.

3) We are making plans to upgrade the CURE website, making it far more 
interactive. We want a vibrant dialogue section, a place where CURE 
press releases and news posts can be viewed
as they are distributed, a place where the public can sign-up for the 
CURE-news list-serve, member only features to provide a space where CURE 
activists can post directly, helping us
build our web resources, and more. Our current web format is several 
years old, and as our primary point of contact for the general public, 
you'll probably agree it could use a facelift. We anticipate $1,200.00 
in costs for a new design, installation and hosting for the first year.

4) CURE's book, "The Debtors: Whites Respond to the Call for Black 
Reparations," has nearly sold-out its first printing. CURE activists are 
already at work preparing not just a new printing, but a second edition. 
It'll have revisions, completely new chapters and a new cover. Our book 
has been a great success, reaching organizations and classrooms as well 
as libraries, bookstores and individuals. We're anxious to get the 
second edition into print and into the hands of the public. The 
estimated cost of doing so is $4,000.00.

CURE needs to raise $6500 within the next three months in order to move 
its plans into action. CURE has more than 120 members, friends and 
allies, so we believe this goal achievable.

We printed 100 extra copies of the Amicus Brief because we want to share 
this document with the people whose support made its filing possible. 
We're prepared to send a copy to each contributor who donates $75.00 or 
more in response to this appeal. This is a piece of history. I know that 
as an advocate for reparations, you must be proud of CURE as well as 
grateful to the persons who helped to make it happen. I know that I am.

Please consider making a gift to CURE. I'm sure you'll agree that we are 
working hard to fulfill our mandate of educating white America on the 
long-standing need for justice through full and complete reparations.

There are two ways to donate. You can send a check via mail to CURE in 
care of:

Ferrell Winfree
P.O. Box 58
Kingston, TN 37763

*Please indicate that the check is a contribution.

Or, you can donate online via Pay Pal. There is a link on the CURE 
website that makes it easy for you. Go to 
http://www.ReparationsTheCURE.org/.

Please open your heart, mind and wallet in response to this request. 
Your commitment to this work makes our work possible and our country a 
better place.

In Solidarity,
Ida Hakim
CEO, CURE