From the Editors

Help sustain Asheville independent media

The Asheville Global Report is currently enterning the third week of our fall fundraiser for 2002. In the past, this bi-annual event has been critical to us, generating a substantial portion of our yearly budget. Your support is urgently need now in order to maintain the AGR in the coming months.

In the course of the three years since its inception, in January 1999, the all-volunteer staff of the Asheville Global Report has been dedicated to providing timely, accurate, and valuable information to anyone who wanted it, free of charge. Our efforts have been focused on searching out the news that the mainstream media has ignored; the news that people in this country need – and have a responsibility – to know if we are all to be conscientious members of our world community.

The AGR has been fortunate to find support from many people in a variety of ways. Our subscribers and advertisers have sustained us. Individuals and organizations have made financial contributions to help keep us afloat. Bands and performance artists have offered their talents to the cause. Our writers and volunteers have contributed their time and skills to make the paper a quality publication, and to keep it coming out every week without fail. You, as a reader, surely can count yourself among our supporters. We’d like to take a moment to express our deep gratitude to everyone who has helped and supported the Asheville Global Report. Without this amazing community, your newspaper would never have made it this far.

The fact remains, however, that we are a community-based newspaper. The AGR is local and it is truly independent – we have no corporate “backers” on our backs – and as much as its staff may wish that it was “free,” the fact is that there is a cost attached to putting out this news every week. The fact is that the AGR can not survive without your continued support.

If you feel that the Asheville Global Report is a vital resource, and you value what this newspaper offers to you as an individual and to your community as a whole, please, take this opportunity to send us a donation. Every contribution you send will help to sustain the AGR, and will allow us to continue to pursue and publish real news in a culture in which news has become merely entertainment.