The first "newspaper" I ever "published" was hand-drawn for classmates in third grade. I remember handing it out in the back of a van headed to some museum field trip in L.A., circa 1967-68. By fifth grade, I was editing the "real" newspaper at another school. Mimeographed. I still have copies.

On it went, with various self-published projects that'd now be called zines, including a parody newsletter I started as a teen in Chicago in 1976. In 1991 I sold my share of its direct descendent, by then a profitable national publication. Today it's owned by Clear Channel and worth millions. Honest.

The first actual newsprint publication I edited was also the first political publication I edited, in 1986: Houston Peace News. (It still exists, and its current longtime editor is a friend.) My first issue, I wrote and substituted in a last-minute lead story on the unfolding disaster at Chernobyl. (Two years later, I'd be in the Ukraine visiting the exclusion zone.) The woman who did our layout lived in her van and had no phone. I drove around North Houston until I found her at about 3 AM. She got dressed, we made the layout changes, and in the morning the paper went to the printer on time.

I also played, sang, and wrote music and poetry for various punk bands. I kept writing and starting DIY publications: a political newsletter in D.C., On Indian Land and Activist Men's Journal from Seattle. I've been doing this sort of thing a really long time now. And I never dreamed, when I thought up the idea for Eat the State!, that it would become the most unique and valuable project I'd ever work on.

But here ETS! is, now in its 11th year, and it's an independent media fixture in our city. More importantly, it's an all-volunteer collective, one that over the years nearly 400 people have helped out with. We've managed to continuously, reliably publish despite being chronically broke, as a paper and (far too often) as individuals.

Which brings us to the very first ETS! fund appeal of our second decade.

The accompanying article is something of a cautionary tale as to what can go wrong with even sympathetic commercial media outlets. The only way we'll see the changes we want in this world is if we organize, and if we control our own messages. That's where independent, noncommercial media come in.

I'm thrilled that ETS! is still going. Sure, we have holes--at present, the biggest is the major gaps in our central Seattle distribution the last couple of months, so if you can distribute every other week in Queen Anne, downtown/Belltown, Capitol Hill, the CD, Southeast Seattle, or Beacon Hill, please e-mail info@eatthestate.org--but, always, our biggest need is simply cash. It costs about $1,500 a month to put out our print edition, and yeah, we could go strictly online, but then we only reach the converted, the people already seeking out the paper or an issue we've written on. If you wanna change the world and stuff, you gotta teach new people to sing new songs.

This is the first time we've asked you for money in 2006. We try to keep this to a minimum, but it is a necessary part of staying afloat. As the Tiny Print says, if you value what we do, help us do more of it. The goal for our drive: a modest $6,000. Donate, buy subscriptions (or t-shirts!) for yourself or friends, send us money online or to PO Box 85541, Seattle WA 98145. If you would rather donate time, that's fabulous, too. Ask us how.

Editing the 10th Anniversary issue last month reminded me how many essential things we've published over the years, and--not to put too fine a point on it--how often we've been right. If that matters to you, help us keep doing it. Thanks.