On Thursday, September 27, 2018, millions of us watched and listened around the country and world as Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified about her assault at the hands of Brett Kavanaugh. We watched a woman forced to defend herself for a crime in which she was the victim. Many of us, watching or hearing her speak, relived our own trauma and that of our friends and family.
At the beginning of her testimony, when asked if she needed anything, Dr. Ford said, “I anticipate needing some caffeine if that’s available.” This simple request went straight to our hearts. She was tired. Tired and vulnerable and afraid. We can all relate to that.
We’d like to support Dr. Ford. We’d like to buy her a cup of coffee and tell her we believe her. Maybe we can’t do that in person. But we can sure buy her a cup of coffee and tell her how thankful we are for her bravery.
We thought you might want to, too. Here’s what you can do.
(1) Make a donation to one of the following organizations that supports survivors of sexual assault:
Victim Rights Law Center: https://www.victimrights.org/about-vrlc
RAINN: https://www.rainn.org/about-rainn
FORGE: https://forge-forward.org/about/
National Sexual Violence Resource Center: https://www.nsvrc.org/about/national-sexual-violence-resource-center
(2) Share the “I just donated” link on social media with the tags #CoffeeForChristine #SupportForSurvivors
(3) For every one of these donations, we will put $5 on a coffee gift card for Christine Blasey Ford, from one of a number of fine purveyors of coffee including Philz, Peet’s Blue Bottle, Starbucks, et al.
If you don’t do social media or can’t share your donation publicly (e.g., because your terms of employment limit your political activity), you can email your donation receipt (with whatever redactions you need to make) to dr.freeride@gmail.com and your donation will trigger the same $5 worth of coffee for Christine Blasey Ford.
If you can’t donate right now, you can still signal-boost, to show your support for survivors of sexual assault and for Christine Blasey Ford.
We’ll coffee-match donations made between now and October 13.
A generous anonymous donor has put up the first $1000 (= 200 donations) worth of coffee matches. I stand ready to fund the next $1000 (= 200 donations) worth of coffee matches. I reckon if we pass 400 donations, we can find additional coffee patrons, too.
(Note that I had the math wrong here initially — possibly because I needed a bit more caffeine…)
