Supporting our military — with baseballs and blankets

Jim Hake’s Spirit of America nonprofit is bridging the gap between troops and Iraqis and Afghans with wish-list items, giving ‘a reason for interaction outside of a hostile encounter.’

By Sandy Banks The Los Angeles Times

Left: Marine Sgt. David Wilson hands a radio to an Afghan boy. The nonprofit Spirit of America has raised more than $12 million in the last five years and has sent tons of supplies to troops. Photo by (Sgt. William Greeson)

When I first met him six years ago, Jim Hake had yet to reconcile his peacenik credentials with his fervent support for our country’s newly declared war on Iraq.

Hake had — as you might expect from a man with a Stanford MBA — spent months researching the subject before deciding that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was "the right thing for our country to do."

That’s what he told me in March 2003 as we sat in the sun-dappled living room of his hillside home in Pacific Palisades and the first round of bombs rained down on Baghdad.

I could hear his intellectual conviction that war was the only way to protect our national security.

But I could also sense the emotional unease of a former yoga student who had spent years investigating human rights abuses in El Salvador and spreading technology to developing countries in Africa.

So I wasn’t surprised to see Hake’s name in news accounts about Spirit of America, a charity that straddles the line between doves and hawks, and supports military needs that have nothing to do with tanks and guns.

The project has raised more than $12 million in the last five years and sent tons of supplies — from solar-powered radios to saffron bulbs — to Afghanistan and Iraq. Read more at The Los Angeles Times