Since our daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes ‘lo those many years ago, my husband and I have been involved in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation as volunteers, fund raisers, moral supporters and technical advisors. This is, some might point out, pretty self-interested of us, to be involved in an organization that holds a key position in finding the cure to a chronic disease that affects our family.
Well, duh.
Before my daughter’s pancreas crapped out, I was engaged in the usual self-interested pursuits of fund raising for the CNIB and the SPCA and even, way back in the time when
dinosaurs roamed the earth, Greenpeace, to protest nuclear testing in Amchitka. Well the Amchitka thing was partly so I could skip out school on a Friday afternoon and there was this guy…but I digress.
As you may have guessed, this is going to be a cranky rant. A long overdue cranky pants, kids get off my lawn rant. Only it’s not directed at kids. It’s at the people who insist on wrapping themselves in the flag of righteous indignation about never giving any money to this organization or that one because, well, they heard from someone whose cousin is a friend of an accountant who heard all the money goes to pay for computers for the executives.
This is the sack-cloth and ashes argument. If a charity is a real charity, has truth in its heart, then not a penny shall be spent on the people actually doing the work in question.
you have your vision of an angel, I have mine...and it's my blog...
The money given shall go forth on the wings of snow white doves, transforming magically upon landing into housing, food, clothing for the most needy of the world. No bullets shall harm these birds of charity, no borders shall impede them and they shall be fed by angels.
I had started out with the intention of talking calmly, reasonably about Kiva, an organization that facilitates microloans from them what have a little to them what only need a little help getting started. It was going to be a lovely little piece weaving the word “kindness” and “Kiva” together in a breathtakingly simple homily on peace, love and the great common muck that binds us all.
Instead I came across bickering websites that go on ad nauseum about how this organization is hypocritical in not explaining the loans go out with interest attached. And you should put your money in some other organization. There is no problem with the other places mentioned; it’s that this sort of thing will be used by some as rationalization for not giving money to any of them.
I’m not going on any more about this because it is just plain petty and most definitely not kind. What it comes down to is there are many worthy organizations working hard
to get food, medicine and economic stability to parts of the world…heck, to the majority of the world from this small, blessed, comfortable, smug, fortunate piece of the earth…and what they do, that is the important thing.
So, I’m not going to try to convince you to give money to JDRF or Kiva or the dudes in the goofy hats in Greenpeace. Just help somebody out…even if it’s putting the pennies from your change on a double double to the “send a kid to camp” jar.
And do it often. Putting a penny in that jar each day for a hundred days is more important than putting in 100 pennies once because it is teaching your hand to give.