By Vaughn Greenwalt
Keeping with the spirit of giving this Christmas holiday season, we at The Legal Satyricon are giving back to the causes we support. It is our hope that you, our readers, will also give back in any way you can. If you haven’t tucked one of those long-shaped cards (that every kid knows has money in it) under the shedding pine of an organization yet, here are some ideas from yours truly:
Tatiana Von Tauber supports the Young Survival Coalition Savannah and is a driving force behind The Art Cure project.
THE Marc Randazza will be donating to The Art Cure . Marc is donating to The Art Cure for no particular political reason. He just did it to support Tatiana, because that’s how he rolls.
Marc will also be donating to Public Citizen, because despite the fact that he disagrees with them pretty often, they support free speech fights where others dare not tread. They often take on over-reaching intellectual property owners — and even have resisted some of Marc’s own own efforts. But, even when they make Marc’s paid gig more difficult, he recognizes that it has nothing to do with ego, and that PC and its people are the real deal. Marc feels that they are, quite possibly, the most important group fighting for free speech today.
Satyricon henchman, J. Malcolm Devoy is donating to The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) . Ever since his newspaper imbroglio in college, he has been trying to support them annually, along with everyone else caught in that situation. On one level, it’s fun to get under the skin of people who wear ugly hats and use “other” as a verb. But FIRE has been an important force supporting students in the face of self-preserving faculty members and college/university administrations, and participated in some important impact litigation.
When asked what charity he was donating to this year Jason A Fischer replied “Fuck charity (just kidding).” Jason supports Medecins Sans Frontieres, a.k.a. Doctors Without Borders , and Feeding America. Jason know these organizations don’t have anything overtly to do with political causes, but that’s how Jason rolls.
This year Jessica Christensen gave to the non-profit “Margins of Faith,” which is the organization that supports the online magazine Killing the Buddha. Ktb was founded by and is run by friends of hers from her undergraduate days at Hampshire College, and had its 10th anniversary this year. Normally, in the past she has given each year to NPR and then volunteered locally. This year, she volunteered with CUESA CUESA (her local farmer’s market in SF), but she’s giving to KtB in lieu of NPR (in part because NPR has pissed her off of late). Jessica will also be volunteering at a soup kitchen in Bremerton, WA on Christmas Eve this year.
Vaughn Greenwalt is a broke-ass law student and this job only pays him in an ABA Top 100 voice to talk shit. However, this year he will try to muster up enough text book buy-back money to donate to Helping Hands: Monkey Helpers for the Disabled. Helping Hands is a national nonprofit serving quadriplegic and other people with severe spinal cord injuries or mobility-impairments by providing highly trained monkeys to assist with daily activities. Vaughn is donating to them because his simple mind thinks it is cool as shit; he’s always wanted a monkey helper and he’s not even (technically) disabled. If it would make his life easier he’s sure it would make a handicapable person’s life easier too! If he has anything left over he will donate to the Electronic Frontier Foundation because he will probably be asking for them for a job after graduation and he hopes they will see this post. EFF is a donor-funded nonprofit and depends on your support to continue successfully defending your digital rights. Because two-thirds of their budget comes from individual donors, every contribution is critical to helping EFF fight — and win — more cases.
Charles Platt donates to everyone from “crazy far left journalist” to cacti. Charles will be showering his (apparently) excessive funds on The Institute for Justice (fighting eminent domain laws right now), The ACLU, Families Against Mandatory Minimums (still fighting, although not winning), Counterpunch (puts slightly crazy far-left journalism online), Infowars (the Alex Jones site, puts extreme libertarian/conspiracy
videos online), and The Desert Botanical Gardens: Phoenix, AZ
Happy holidays from all of us here at The Legal Satyricon to you and our organizations of choice. It is our hope you will find one of our causes to your liking and contribute as well. Best of luck in the new year!
