Dear Progarchists,
One of the only (well, probably the ONLY!) good things about PROG being shut down is seeing the amount of support being shown for our beloved friends. On Facebook, everyone from Greg Spawton to Matt Cohen to Mike Portnoy and beyond has offered great words for Jerry and everyone at Prog.
Mike Morton of The Gift has taken this to the next level. He’s set up a link to help donate to all of those who just lost their jobs. Remember, they had no idea this was coming at work. Not only were they let go this afternoon, they were denied pay for the previous three weeks as well.
As I mentioned in a previous post, Jerry and PROG have been nothing but great to us at progarchy. Though we’re relatively new upstart punks on the street, Jerry has supported us time and again. Not only did he promote us, but he sent us tidbits of news when he could. When I (-Brad) published my book on Neil Peart, Jerry made sure to have it reviewed. Amen, amen, amen.
Here’s the link (all legit) to donate to Jerry and gang, thus allowing them a semblance of a normal Christmas as they prepare for their next steps in life.
Thank you, Brad
Progarchy 
The funding campaign has now passed the UKP60,000 mark. The community is pulling together for something that they believe in.
In the immortal words of Joni Mitchell, you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone, and that may have been the wake-up call for a lot of people (myself included.) There are others that have been long-time supporters and subscribers. I haven’t been so I fall into the former camp, but I am still happy to donate to the people who put in the hard yards to make this a vibrant community. Regardless of the reasons it’s still great to see people rallying around those who put themselves out there to create such an amazing bunch of people.
Having said that, there’s currently plenty of “How dare you donate to this cause when my pet cause is more important?” on display.
Also, there’s the even more ridiculous “How dare you donate to this cause when I need the money more?”
In response to both, I have two words, neither of which are printable here.
Nobody tells me what causes I must support. The moment they do, it’s called a tax, and I pay enough of that already.
And I’m pretty sure the prog scene wouldn’t be what it is without the contribution of people like Jerry Ewing. Kudos to you mate!
We need to rock on, make our own mark, and ensure that us, as Progarchists and readers thereof, are constantly spreading the word about our amazing genre. If Prog Mag is to be absent I will redouble my albeit paltry efforts to publicise our muse.
No, not Muse. I hate them.
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