October 3, 2008

“Let’s Cover This Nation in Prayer For Sarah Palin”

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The Internet brings the world to your fingertips. You can buy books, read news, get directions, reserve a table at your favorite restaurant, listen to music, or any number of other things. But did you know that you can also engage in “a spiritual war in the heavenlies… where battles are won or lost?” So says Vicki Garza, a Dallas advertising executive, who launched a new website where you can direct your prayers—online, virtually—to Sarah Palin and her family.

Here’s the idea, according to Garza:

Many people are excited about the thought of having a strong believer like Sarah Palin in office but how many of us can say that we pray for her daily? This website is dedicated to doing just that. Whoever would like to make a commitment to pray for Sarah Palin can go to www.prayforsarahpalin.com and enter their zip code. A marker will automatically be placed on the prayer coverage map, which can be viewed live in Google maps. There are approximately 43,000 zip codes in the United States. Our goal is to have people praying for Sarah Palin in every zip code. I believe prayer changes things.

Not a fan a Sarah Palin? No problem. Turns out the Internet is brimming with ways to channel your psychic energy to the politician of your choice. Would you prefer to include McCain in your prayers (I mean, the way things are going for him lately, he could use the help)? Well, visit prayformccainpalin.com. Is Obama more to your liking? Worry not. You can pray for him and his friend Joe here. Oh, and at the risk of “pointing backwards again,” as Palin put it at last night’s debate, you can also offer up your prayers for President Bush.

I can’t speak for the one in the heavenlies, but the spiritual battle online is raging.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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