Lessig's Letter to Everyone

Lessig — 2014-07-04

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You did it. Amazingly, dramatically, beautifully, you did it.

I won’t say I knew you would. I wasn’t that smart. And I won’t even say this crowdfunding idea was mine. It wasn’t. But when I heard it, I knew it was right, and that we had to do it.

And that was right.

No one expected we could do this. Neither the $1M nor the $5M. Of course, when we crossed $1M, plenty said they knew we would — though most of them were quite sure we could never make the $5M. And now that we’ve crossed $5M, you can be sure there will be plenty who say they knew we’d do this too.

But the truth is, no one knew — because the fact is, this time, the time we live in, is different. The frustration with the mess we call Congress is palpable, and the desperate urge to do something about it is raw. There are campaigns happening everywhere to rally people to the idea that we must find a way to end this corruption — from the amazing 480 mile walk of 99Rise from LA to Sacramento to fight for corruption reform, to the incredible campaign in New York by Zephyr Teachout fighting for corruption reform, to the New Hampshire Rebellion, crossing 185 miles of New Hampshire in January to rally that state to ask every presidential candidate one simple question: What will you do to end the system of corruption in DC?

This may be this movement’s most incredible moment so far.

The pundits say “America doesn’t care about this issue.”” This is America caring. And this is America demanding something more. Ideally now. But if we have to wait till 2016, then ok: Because by 2016, we’re going to elect a Congress that will fundamentally change how campaigns are funded. You have guaranteed it.

After we get some sleep, you’ll hear more from us. But fear not: the campaign to raise money is over for this cycle. I won’t be asking you to DONATE NOW again and again. That bit is done. Instead, for the rest of this cycle, what you’ll hear from us is about how your campaign is working.

We’ve got lots of ideas about how to make this work. We’ll be testing them and improving them and building lots that’s new. But you’ve raised the money. It’s time to get down to work. So stay tuned.

I can’t help but think back to where this all started for me. Or maybe, to who.

I’ve told the story about how my friend Aaron Swartz turned me to this work. I struggled to tell the story of how his death convinced me that the most important thing that we must do is to give this democracy exactly the thing that he lost — hope. Our march across New Hampshire tried to do that. And now this has done that too: if nothing else, this has given people hope that something is possible.

If Aaron had been here, he would have been skeptical. He would have said, “why do you think anyone will give you anything?” But then he would have embraced the amazing and undeserved humility that defined everything about him, and he would have opened his computer, and helped build the system.

And tonight, he would have smiled. At you. At us. At what we’ve done. And at what all this says about what is possible. Tonight we would have given him hope — just the thing that he, that all of us, needed.

Thank you for this.

– Lessig

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