Patriot Daily’s circumstances are dire. She is suffering from metastatic bone and lung cancer, and she needs our help. Rather than write about that, though, I wanted to give new readers a glimpse at why so many people at Daily Kos care about her — and to draw attention to some of the not-as-current intellectual content she’s contributed to the site.
I first became acquainted with Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse when we participated in a fundraiser for Feeding America in December, 2008. It was organized by noweasels, who wanted to help food banks nationwide. The recession had stripped pantries bare because need so outweighed supply. Many Daily Kos bloggers took part in this fundraiser, and they all wrote excellent diaries about different topics surrounding hunger. Patriot Daily’s diary was one of the last in the series, and it totally blew me away. This is when I noticed she was someone special.
I got to know her better while she was working on Torture News Roundup — a series she wrote with Valtin and Meteor Blades. Together, they collected information, analyzed important concepts, offered important legal insights, and held the Bush Administration accountable about torture when the conventional media gave them a pass. This series was meticulously well done, and confronted the Bush/Cheney sleight-of-hand regarding torture from many different angles.
I spoke with Valtin the other day, because I wanted to make sure he knew about Linda’s illness. He wanted me to share this message:
Linda is an extraordinary individual whose caring transcends politics into the realm of the ethical and the moral. Her work on the torture series she did with Meteor Blades and myself I consider a highlight of Daily Kos's activism, a real achievement. I am so very sorry to hear about her health, and want to convey my best wishes for her and those close to her. --Jeff Kaye
I was regularly writing about torture during the time when Torture News Roundup ran weekly. One day, I got an email from Linda with a question about something I’d written — and this began the first of many long conversations, research discussions, and assorted arguments about current events. For years. I don’t mean we spent time having meaningless arguments designed “to win.” Ours were aimed at trying to understand progressive issues — ethical, moral, and the generally practical — better. Some of my favorite arguments ever have been with Linda.
She puts her ideas to good use, too. Her legal analysis on torture will surely provide direction regarding the policies we’re about to face with the Trump administration. If we can believe what Trump says, his approach to torture will be appalling. Bush and Cheney were more nuanced in using the Office of Legal Council to lie about their methods being criminal, where Trump appears to treat such legality as a cost/benefit analysis. Trump will always choose to break the law until it simply costs him too much.
What’s archived in Torture News Roundup can help us in that regard.
Linda is a major contributor to the high level of analysis and attention to detail that set the standard for everyone who writes about torture at Daily Kos. And if our mission is to affect human rights and dignity in a positive way, this is a useful thing to draw from.
In other things, Aji recently called Linda The Blogathon Queen — which is apt. Lin spent years organizing and co-organizing countless blogathons about climate, environmental justice, and social justice. She’s worked persistently to help bring high profile names to Daily Kos to write as blogathon guests. And while she’ll remind us that the blogathon team did the work as a group, she was always doing the repetitive, painstaking work that made the thing actually run smoothly. Guests included:
Former White House Officials: Vice President Al Gore, Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, Special Advisor Van Jones; and
Lawmakers: Former Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Whitehouse, Sen. Boxer, Sen. Sherrod Brown, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Sen. Jeff Merkley, Sen. Ben Cardin, Sen. Al Franken, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, Rep. Edward Markey, Rep. Henry Waxman; and
Political Leaders: Gov. Howard Dean, Former Governor Jennifer Granholm; and
Climate Change Scientists: Jean-Pascal van Ypersele (UN Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), Mike MacCracken (Chief Scientist for Climate Change Programs with the Climate Institute in Washington DC and adviser to Clinton administration), Michael Mann (Professor at Penn State University and director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center), Dr. John Abraham (University of St. Thomas), and Amanda Staudt (Climate Scientist with National Wildlife Federation); and
Labor Union Leaders: SEIU President Mary Kay Henry, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO Executive VicePresident Arlene Holt Baker, United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez; and
Environmental and Justice NGOs: (Bill McKibben (founder of 350.0rg), Marty Cobenais (Indigenous Environmental Network), Nikki Silvestri (CEO of Green for All) and Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins (former CEO), Rev. Lennox Yearwood (President of Hip Hop Caucus), Jeff Mears (Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin), Jane Kleeb (Executive Director of Bold Nebraska), Ross Hammond (Friends of the Earth), Michael Brune (Executive Director of the Sierra Club), David Turnbull (Campaigns Director of Oil Change International), Tzeporah Berman (Canadian Environmentalist and Co-Founder of Forest Ethics).
I suspect that most people do not realize how hard Linda worked to make the blogathons successful. I can testify that she did, because I was one of those that pitched in to lighten the load over the years, especially during the early days when she was building contact lists and discovering the better methods for organizing these events. Let’s just say this woman has some capacity for detail and hard work...
She started working on each blogathon — really spending a significant number of hours every week — at least two months before it was time for other bloggers to sign up to write in them. And each time a blogathon ran, it was nearly impossible to detect the effort behind it. That’s what happens when an event is well-executed. She made it look easy.
Linda has given so much of her time and spirit to Daily Kos. I thought I’d try to list all of the community projects she’s led or participated in, and I wasn’t able to collect them all. It’s daunting. Please do have a look at her home page to get an idea. Keep in mind that the list doesn’t convey what she did before DK4 went live.
During the time I've known her (and prior), she’s produced a prolific body of work that will make a real difference in the world, if we just pay attention. I am sure that most of us who have been around a while have a favorite PD diary or two. And most of them contain must-read work that is relevant today.
What’s to come during the Trump administration? She probably already wrote something about it during the Bush/Cheney years…
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If you can, please help our dear Lin, so that she can focus her energy on this struggle with cancer.
Previous posts in this series:
Fighting for breath, for life – our own Patriot Daily, Our Lin, needs our help to breathe– by Onomastic
A Lake for Lin – A Community Fundraiser for an Eco Warrior in the Fight of Her Life– by Aji
You can donate to the fundraiser here.
If you want to donate directly through PayPal, please use lauramcclure01 at gmail dot com.
If you want to help and cannot use the fundraiser link or PayPal directly, please leave a comment, and we’ll sort it out in a private message.
Lin’s story, as told by her sister, gabriella:
Meet my sister, Linda McClure. Her friend Aji said, she’s been a warrior her whole life: for everyone, for environmental and climate justice, for the wildlife and natural resources. She’s had a successful career as an environmental lawyer, practicing on the side of Mother Earth. She’s an activist, a community/activism organizer, a writer, a sister, and friend. She was so honored when Bill McKibben stated that he could "think of no higher praise than 'great organizer,' and you're one of the greatest!"
She’s in the fight of her life, and she needs our help.
Five years ago, Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer. She completed a rigorous and difficult treatment protocol that enabled remission, and we all breathed a sigh of relief.
Since April, she has experienced severe pain in her right knee, right leg and ribs. Because of her medical history, she was concerned that her breast cancer had returned. She sought additional screening, but her mammogram turned up no evidence of new disease. Since then, her condition has progressively worsened, with severe joint and bone pain, first in her legs, then spreading through her body, and finally culminating in what doctors stated was fracturing of ribs. She continued to seek medical tests to obtain a diagnosis and treatment — her concerns were dismissed as simply arthritis and fractured ribs treated with pain pills.
Last week, Linda finally was able to see two specialists who ran diagnostic tests showing her breast cancer has now spread to her lungs and her bones.
She has been told that she has only months to live, possibly only weeks . . . except for the possibility of pursuing clinical trials or perhaps aggressive chemo. A surgical biopsy this week will determine options available.
I am hoping to raise $30,000 to cover our regular bills of $4,000 a month for housing payment, utilities, food etc. which would be needed for 6 months for the beginning of a fighting option (like clinical trial or specialized chemo) or will cover end of life if no other options. Linda is on current leave of absence from work and I work very few hours so that I can take care of her.
In addition to this base of $24,000, there are medical expenses piling up with increased co-pays: each CT her co-pay has been $500-$700; and her co-pay for lung biopsy is $3,000.
And we need medical equipment for breathing that is not covered by insurance. We have purchased a nebulizer and oxygen equipment that is 62 pounds that I must push around so Linda can walk to the bathroom. We need to purchase a truly portable "oxygen purse" for around $3500 that will enable her some mobility at home and hopefully outside our home.
Linda and I are very close; we have lived together for nearly three decades. She is my North Star. Without her income, there is the very real possibility of losing a roof over our heads, even as I face the prospect of losing my sister and best friend. We are trying, in what may be a very short time available to us, to raise sufficient funds to ensure that Linda can get the medical (and, if necessary, palliative-care) treatment that she needs, that her day-to-day needs will be provided for, and that we can keep our home while she fights this battle of — and for — her life.
Please help us remove the burden of basic survival from her shoulders, so that she can focus her energies on the battle ahead of her.
In gratitude, Laura