WASHINGTON, DC, Day 2 of 40 — This is how I start most days. Before dawn and firing up some espresso coffee. Today is a bit different because it’s Day 2 of a 40-day Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for my documentary series, FREELANCERS with Bill Gentile. I’m up earlier and staying up later than usual. See https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/freelancers-with-bill-gentile-mexico/x/13900262#/
I’m not accustomed to asking people for money. I suspect this is a result of my upbringing as the grandson and son of immigrants who left Italy in the 1930s to find work and a new life built on hard and dangerous work in the steel mills of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We never asked anyone for anything.
So this is new to me. And it’s the source of much soul-searching. How do I justify asking people to help fund this project? The answer is: Without your help I can’t tell this important story. I can’t show people how these dedicated professionals, these FREELANCERS, seek out the Truth — so you and I can better understand the world we live in. It’s an important story. And it needs to be told.
So from now until the end of the Indiegogo campaign, I’ll be using the day-by-day countdown as my “dateline,” as opposed to the traditional dateline that I typically use.
Welcome to my mornings.
(Photo by Bill Gentile)