Though I Walk Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death

** Fall 2010 Fundraiser — Day One **


Well, that’s one way to begin our quarterly fund-raiser. As you read further, I hope the meaning becomes clearer.

During the coming week we’ll be discussing what has happened and what is to come in this dangerous world of ours. Since the start of this bleg coincides with our national mid-term Election Day here in America, I will be focusing at times on the particulars of this event. There will be lots of time to analyze what the remarkably abrupt swerve to the Right by the American electorate means for our commonweal and for the short-term future of the legislative bodies in Congress. Not to mention the “state of the states” as some of the governors’ seats and statehouses change hands. A fractured, fractious Union for sure, often held together with spit and baling wire, but held together nonetheless.

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As an introduction to this week’s fundraising posts, I offer the email below. It arrived after the events in Amsterdam last weekend. We receive many courteous emails, but this particular message touched me deeply. It appears to have changed me, but I can’t know the full ramifications of the alteration as yet; the experience is still too close to be able to say with any certainty what will be the longer-term, lasting changes.

This note arrived at exactly the right time. Unknown to the sender it came just as the Baron and I were questioning whether or not I was able to participate in a fund-raiser at present, and to what extent I could do so. If I couldn’t be of significant help, then there would be no quarterly bleg. The Baron’s time is already stretched so thin there is no more give. It follows that if there were no bleg, we wouldn’t have sufficient funds to continue to maintain Gates of Vienna for very long.

As many of you know, my health and stamina are chronically at a low ebb. I leave emails unanswered even though I would dearly love to respond. Unless it is just one of those fleeting times when my energy is sufficient for the moment, far too many messages go by with no reply from me. At times, I will promise to follow up on someone’s idea for a post only to sink back into pain and fatigue. There are days I can’t even sit at the computer.

But the email you will read below changed the physical and emotional equation for me, in a most astounding way.

In my experience with this blog, I’ve learned the hard lesson that words have tremendous power to wound. The many slings and arrows from people who’ve questioned our motives and our integrity sapped my energy and my will. We have been called names and scorned by those who are nominally on the same side in this endeavor to preserve the remnants of Western culture. The dilemma one faces on learning that one’s allies are one’s enemies is, for me, a crushing blow.

Would that I possessed the Baron’s tenacity, his ability to get up again and proceed on with his work despite the discouragement and setbacks, despite the concerted efforts of others to construct around Gates of Vienna a cordon sanitaire. At those times when I am able to distance myself from the experience it is fascinating to watch the preferred tactics of the Left applied to us by people on the Right. Unkind behavior is not confined solely to liberals. The Right is all too human in that regard.

Perhaps, for both groups, be they from the Right or the Left, the principle of scarcity is in operation. Those caught in this delusion are trapped by the deep fear that if another succeeds then one must needs fail. If another gains renown, then one must be cornered into obscurity. That is not reality, but it is the prison in which some are condemned to live — never to realize that living from a sense of abundance produces that very quality, while being trapped in scarcity means a pervasive sense of impoverishment, no matter the reality of plenty. This is a foundational understanding that dates back to America’s beginnings. It is part of her “exceptionalism” to see the prospects of abundance, based on shared effort.

This abundance is what I see the Baron practice every day. He eschews the MSM idea of “exclusive” stories or images, simply asking for an acknowledgement of any material created by him or his team members, but otherwise leaving his work for the taking.

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Now, with the receipt of this email as this Quarter’s Funding Week begins, I have experienced words with the power to heal, to absolve, and to permit their recipient (me! — even though the email was addressed to the Baron) a surrender into the recognition, once again, that goodness does indeed exist and sometimes one’s cup is filled to overflowing, if I were only to look down at the goblet in my hand. Reading the email was one of those moments where justice and mercy followed. For the moment I am experiencing one of the three things that Isaak Dinesen claimed brought happiness: I know that I have an excess of energy for the tasks of this week as we begin our appeal for donations.

Back in the days when I was pursuing a degree in theology, there were several courses on the foundation of Christian moral theology. One professor summed up this subject better than I’d heard before (or since). He said that an authentic encounter with the reality of the Christ meant that one finally understood (in an experiential way having naught to do with Reason) that in such a numinous moment we could comprehend truly that “love is possible, evil is reversible, and we can live freed from our past”.

Though I didn’t take notes in that class, obviously the desire for the experience he described sank deeply enough that his words have echoed down the years. Those three conditions, taken in their totality, surface on occasion. Reading this email was one of those moments

May it touch you as it did me. May, for a time, the infighting and dissension be put aside. This will be my intention and my goal for the duration of this fundraiser, and I hope, well beyond it.

Whatever transpires, my gratitude for this blessing will remain with me always.

Dear Baron,

With this email, I would just like to thank you for all that you do and already have done, to help us in Holland with our Counterjihad.

From some of the people who are members of the DDL [this is the Dutch Defence League — D] I’ve heard how much you and Dymphna do! Also my father has told me a lot about Gates of Vienna, and about all of yours and Dymphna’s efforts! Two years ago, he started to tell me things about the changings in the political scenes all over the world, and from him I learned about the islamisation of the Western world. I’ve never been Leftish but still, I had some doubts about what he told me so I decided to seek the truth for myself. What I found shocked me very much!

I voted for Wilders this last time (June 2010). Since August I’ve been reading and learning a great deal. I know what I’ve discovered is only the tip of the iceberg, but even that little bit is quite enough to scare me! I realise now we must fight for our rights in Holland and in that way for the rest of the Western world: together we stand strong!

On Saturday, I saw some events from the demonstration in Amsterdam. I felt so grateful to know people like Elisabeth Wolff, Paul Weston and Gandalf would come to my country and speak on our behalf. I hope to meet them sometime. It’s amazing to me to think how these speakers are willing to say things in public which help all those people who don’t even realize yet they need to be helped!! And by putting themselves at risk by talking freely about these things — how encouraging and brave of them!

Imagine the effort the speakers were and are making for all of us! Even as someone who just watched this historic moment as a bystander, I still feel honored to be, in my small way, part of this brief moment of world history.

I am also very proud of the organization from DDL without whose efforts Saturday’s events would not have happened. And though Wilders rejected the demonstration that was organized partly to support him, I still do admire very much this brave man with all his rhetoric strength and humour.

Through my reading and talking to others, I try to find my own way to help this world stay free. I encourage people to become part of this by joining the DDL forum and organising with others. In doing so, they could help it to become an organization big enough to make a difference in our country! Together with movements like EDL and EFI, and of course like your Gates of Vienna, SIOA, etcetera, we can expand the consciousness of the people around us. Saving our Western civilization is only possible by standing strong together and by education of the people around us.

Thanks for having put the stories from Paul Weston, Elisabeth Wolff, Mr. Mannheimer, and Gandalf online on Gates of Vienna for everyone to read. In that way people who weren’t at that demonstration can see and hear what was said, and like me, know about the changings.

I want to say thank you again, and to wish you all of the wisdom, happiness, and inspiration you both deserve and need [my emphasis — D]…

Many friendly greetings,

A Dutch counter-jihadist

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