Let's face it. The notion of a fundraising breakfast doesn't exactly inspire most of us to leap out of bed. We anticipate some egg-like substance, lukewarm coffee of dubious quality, and a basketful of danishes destined eventually for the non weight-conscious homeless. At breakfasts priced at $75 and up, black and white clad servers are de rigueur. Four asparagus spears -- desperate signifiers of presumed class standing -- will limply grace the side of your faux china plate.
For most of us, this is an obligation we'd rather forgo.
The Real Change Annual Breakfast is different. This year's -- the Fifteenth Annual, Tuesday, October 20th, 7:30-9:00 a.m., at Seattle Center's Fisher Pavilion -- is especially different.
As you enter, the first thing you notice is that nearly everyone who cares about the same things as you is there. It's a gathering of the tribe. Despite the clearly ridiculous hour, there is joy in the air. As you settle in, rising hip-hop star Laura Piece Kelly takes the stage. Your jaw conveniently drops as breakfast commences. A short video that's as real as real can be and our vendor recognition ceremony puts a lump in your throat, thus impeding the progress of your toast. Moments later, an attractive piece of Lucite is placed in the hands of Seattle icon Roberto Maestas, who says god-knows-what to mark the occasion.
Then comes the call to arms, typically delivered by me. This year, the stakes are unusually high and the future more than uncertain. Our purpose is brought to mind.
Your coffee is warmed just as mild-mannered PBS travel guide Rick Steves takes the stage. He is passionate, engaging, and more radical in his essential belief in our common humanity than you imagined possible. He winds up and makes the pitch. Love-flavored endorphins course through your veins as you reach for your checkbook, knowing that any gifts of $200 or more will be matched by the Lucky Seven Foundation.
Piece takes the stage again and performs something that, not long ago, inspired a bear hug from the Dalai Lama. Your jaw drops again. As the morning wraps, you realize that little more than an hour has passed. Your quiche, now cold, is still on your plate. You don't care. You are warmed. The feeling stays with you a long while.
If Not You, Who?
This year, the Real Change breakfast comes amid an unusual set of challenges. With a week to go, we find ourselves well short of our modest 500-attendee goal.
Beyond the normal fall field of competing events -- which include the Downtown Seattle Association's City Council Candidate's Forum, weirdly scheduled for exactly the same date and time, and the Interfaith Task Force on Homelessness' next-day conference -- there is another set of complicating factors.
In two weeks, the Seattle Housing Levy will be on the ballot. Its passage cannot be taken for granted. With the governor talking zero-funding for the State Housing Trust Fund, the need is beyond critical. The overlap between our supporters and levy supporters is roughly 100 percent. Time, energy, and dollars are unusually stretched.
Add to this a set of local electoral races that will shape city government for better or worse for years to come. The stakes are high. Dollars are flowing in many directions.
All of this takes place during a time of nerve-wracking economic uncertainty. Many of our past supporters are feeling the pinch. Organizations and businesses that typically sponsor tables have downsized and reduced unnecessary spending.
How does all this add up? One week before our Fifteenth Annual Breakfast, featuring an all-star line-up, we're roughly 150 people short of where we want to be.
We too, are feeling the pressure, and much hinges upon the event's success. We're hoping that you, and perhaps a few of your friends, will step up this year and step out for breakfast. That's how Real Change happens.
The Stakes
This is an unusually critical time for Real Change to have the resources we need to continue. Our Fifteenth Anniversary finds us poised to either move forward or fall behind. As an uncompromising voice of those who have the least, an utterly necessary vanguard of authentic, community-based journalism and a caring community in action, we understand that the stakes are high.
Times are hard, and we are focused on building the strength of our core operations to prepare for challenges to come. Our "Plan for Sustainability" will upgrade the space we have grown out of, upgrade our obsolete equipment, and build the capacity upon which our effectiveness depends.
Over the past three years our vendor numbers have doubled in response to rising levels of need. The challenge of the past year -- with a 20 percent circulation increase and a corresponding rise in vendors served -- has, on the heels of two similar years of vendor growth, brought us up against our limits. With more than 400 active vendors a month, expanding their geographic distribution to the south and east is a critical priority.
As our vendors compete for insufficient services, we find that our need to offer effective resource referral is no longer optional. This is a challenge that must be met.
Over the past year, we have ambitiously organized against homeless sweeps and the planned city jail. Both of these organizing efforts have challenged and altered "political reality" in Seattle. Real Change's organizing will continue to oppose the criminalization of poverty.
As we enter winter, downtown office vacancy rates of 20 percent or more and the failure of condo developers who should have known better, have brought a new round of attacks upon the city's poor. The Downtown Seattle Association and their friends on the City Council are mobilized this session to hide visible poverty by legislative fiat. Panhandling is not, 99.9 percent of the time, about "bad behavior." It's about desperation on public display and class discomfort. Driving that desperation underground ultimately serves no one.
In 2010, there will be a new mayor. Both candidates say they oppose the planned new city jail for misdemeanants. This $220 million bricks-and-mortar commitment to institutional racism and criminalized poverty would cost another $20 million annually to operate during a time of declining public resources.
Without organized pressure, the new mayor is likely to accept the logic of our times: short-term "fixes" to "urban disorder" are preferable to long-term investments in human capital. A different political reality desperately needs our support.
Finally, our newspaper is the core of all that we do. With recent changes in the local media landscape, our ability to break news, support local activism and effectively mobilize for change begins with the quality and strength of our journalism. We are working toward additional investigative capacity, a multimedia web presence that builds the synergy between the newspaper, vendor program and organizing, and strengthened ties to our broad range of community allies.
Support Real Change
Attend the breakfast. Bring your friends. If you can't attend, make a donation. Real Change is an institution that supports the good work that takes place throughout our entire community. When Real Change is strong, we are all better able to meet the challenge of tough times. For more information, visit realchangenews.org, or email [email protected].