First, we have a drum roll (!!), followed by New Year's eve sounds - corks from champagne bottles go POP!, silly horns go BEEP!, cheering crowds say HOORAH! - and then all is quiet.
Cryn steps up to the microphone. The room's ceiling holds nets of balloons.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," I say. The microphone squeals for a moment, but I quickly fix it to spare your already bleeding ears.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," I say again. No squealing this time.
"As of August 29, 2009 at 10:16 A.M. (EST) Robert Applebaum's Forgive Student Loan Movement
membership is at . . . 226,885!"
Balloons fall, more champagne bottles are opened, and we all celebrate the holiday!
However, I interrupt all of you for a moment. This large crowd filled with so many of you out there (!!) - students (over the age of 21), waiters, bartenders, lawyers, artists, accountants, biologists, automotive mechanics, historians, economics, and so on - somehow quiet down.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I will allow you to resume your celebrating this evening. But there is still much work to be done. I hereby challenge all of you to recruit at least one if not two people to join our cause! It is our goal to reach 500,000 members within 3 weeks. Can we do this? Can we recruit?"
In unison you all yell: "YES!"
Let's DO IT!
