Longtime readers know what a great value we put on the work of Arthur Silber here. We draw on it constantly, because he offers illuminating insights and courageous perspectives that you simply cannot find anywhere else. Longtime readers also know that Silber’s health is very precarious, and that like many truth-tellers through the ages, he has been forced to live on the margins of society, in poverty, with no insurance to provide care for his ailments, and no income other than what he is given by readers for his writing.
Now we learn that Silber’s health has taken a serious turn for the worse – a heart problem that struck him down in the street, and will require medication to keep it safely regulated. You can read about the incident here, where Silber – writing just after his return from emergency hospitaliztion – displays the same brio and spirit that he habitually brings to his essays.
But brio and spirit won’t pay the rent, or buy medicine – or feed cats. And the heart problem only adds to the prospect of total financial ruin that confronts Silber month after month – even as he keeps turning out essay after essay of genuine importance. As we have often said here before, his is a voice too valuable for us to lose, while we still have it. I know these are hard times, but if you have any spare cash at all, I would urge you to visit his site and drop something in the tip jar.
Consider it an investment in the possibility of a better world.