April 27, 2010; Source: News 8 Austin | This campaign puts us off slightly but that does not mean it may not be effective. An Austin based nonprofit, Mobile Loaves and Fishes has launched a donation-by-text fundraising campaign to try to get homeless people housed. A video of the unusual approach (also below) on the I Am Here website shows a large billboard that says “I am here!” and on the platform, Tuesday and Wednesday, was Danny, a homeless man who, with his wife, is the face of the campaign. We won’t explore our discomfort here because we may very well not have all the facts.

Of course, “We are Here!” is what the Whos yelled in Horton Hears a Who, Dr Seuss’ classic parable about the need for collective voice. We highly recommend it to inform your practice (we are dead serious) and want to acknowledge the rhetorical power of using this widely recognized iconic phrase that many of us know from childhood in a public awareness campaign about people who often remain unacknowledged.—Ruth McCambridge—Ruth McCambridge