This Is Not About Politics

At this point, I don't know how easy it is to read these messages on white paper. I imagine that clicking on the image will bring the words into better focus.

This is a solicitation letter from one of our Presidential candidates. I switched parties to be able to vote for this man in the primaries. I sent him a donation at the time. Even then, I wasn't sure whether I'd vote for him or the eventual candidate of my party.

The first line of this solicitation letter is as follows:
I want you to know that I don't take sending you this $1 bill lightly.
The candidate goes on to say:
Today I need you to send this $1 bill back to me along with $400 or $300 of your own to help our campaign take the next crucial steps in this pivotal presidential election.

This is not the first time that I've received money from an organization in the hopes that I'll contribute an even larger sum. One of the animal rights organization to which I've never contributed has sent me at least three dimes in three separate mailings over the years. I've tossed these dimes into a bag in which I keep my spare change.

I get a lot of solicitations from animal groups each day. Some of them come with gruesome pictures of abused animals. I try to avoid looking at these pictures when I shred them. I contribute to ten organizations that help animals in one way or another. I maintain a chart with the amount that I intend to contribute, along with whether the contribution is monthly, quarterly, or yearly. The chart was an act of self defense against all the worthy animal causes that come pleading for financial help.

Many of these organizations send me gifts to make feel obligated to send a donation. I particularly dislike receiving address labels. I use scissors to cut them up because they'll gum up my shredder. Unless I live well beyond the century mark, I'm unlikely to exhaust my current supply of these labels.

Sometimes I contribute to causes that are not animal related. In January 2005, I sent a donation to CARE to help the victims of the tsunami in Phuket, Thailand. They sent me a thank you note along with a form to sign if I did not want to receive future donation requests. I signed and mailed the form. I continue to receive their solicitations at least once a month.

I get a request for more money from the Presidential candidate just about every day; sometimes two arrive on the same day. This does not include the e-mails that his organization sends me.

I notice that the candidate addressed me as "Arlene" in the note that accompanied the $1 bill. At the bottom of an autographed photo of him and his wife that I received a few days earlier, he wrote, "Dear Mrs. (last name), Thank you for everything you do for our Party and our country." He and his wife signed with only their first names as if they are subordinate to me. I guess the candidate thinks that sending me money puts us both on a first name basis.

I wonder if this dollar bill is a test of sorts. Maybe if I don't send the money back to him it will be a clear signal to stop wasting the resources expended on trying to get cash from me. I also wonder how many people are getting these dollars. Certainly, the candidate has sent out more dollars than I originally gave him.

In the second paragraph of the note that accompanied $1, the candidate allowed for the chance that I might not return the dollar to him. "But I'm willing to take that risk," he wrote, "because after all that we've been through together in this historic campaign, I believe I can count on you." I hope his beliefs about how to run a country are more reality based.

It may be the case that this is not the last letter that I will receive from the candidate. I'm wondering if the next one will include a $5 bill. How much money will he be willing to send me?
And wouldn't it be funny if I end up contributing to the candidate running against him.