I feel like a televangelist hitting viewers up for love offerings in exchange for a parchment paper prayer rug or a vial of sand from the mountain where I’m planning to go to pray for you (honest, I heard a televangelist offer to send sand from a mountain he had yet to travel to).

But at least I’ve not sunk to the depths of one, a Rev. Silas Strut, who offered for sale on his radio show his “Christian weight loss plan,” a cassette tape (remember those?) called “Help Me, Jesus, the Devil wants Me Fat.” He also offered a tape called “Those Satanic Smurfs,” but nothing topped the special diet plan, though I’ve often wondered about what constitutes a satanic smurf.

Anyway, I hope I don’t come off like any of those guys when I hit you up for contributions to LouisianaVoice. But the truth is, we do need some semblance of cash flow to keep the lights on.

And since I don’t accept advertising or charge a subscription fee, that leaves the old honor system as our only option. It’s Sorta like when I coached that sandlot baseball team, the Ruston Ramblers. We never charged admission (none of the teams in our old North Central League did), but we did pass the hat at games to try and raise enough money to pay the umpires and to replace lost baseballs that opposing batters routinely knocked out of sight and the wooden Louisville Sluggers that some batters were certain to break because they never learned to hold the bat correctly.

So, if you haven’t contributed yet, please consider doing so by either clicking on the yellow DONATE button to the right of this paragraph to pay by credit card or by sending a check to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727

I promise not to send you any parchment paper prayer cloths or cassette tapes about special diet plans or about smurfs—satanic or otherwise. And as much as I’d like to be able to do so, I won’t promise you your contribution will bring you a financial miracle—just a continuation of coverage of stories the mainstream media doesn’t cover.

And as they said in the old Bartles & Jaymes wine cooler commercials: Thank you for your support.

Tom Aswell