Tuesday, December 05, 2006

what i want to know is...


Which bitch outed me to the local charities?

I happily donated to Felines, Inc. because that's where I got my beloved little Posey-kins, but now
I've got the Night Ministry, PAWS Chicago (Pets Are Worth Saving), The Chicago Fund on Aging & Disability/Meals on Wheels Chicago, and Father Scott Donahue from Mercy Home for Boys & Girls all beseeching, begging, or otherwise hitting me up for charitable donations to help the kitties/puppies/homeless/aged/infirmed/abandoned/abused in my area.

I can ignore large-scale national organizations
like Easter Seals and Amnesty International with no problem, but when I've got a heartbreaking letter from the president of a local charity telling me that his shelter is overflowing with abused and abandoned children, it's got a waiting list a mile long, and that my $35 could "make a real difference in a hurting child's life," I feel like a total fuck-o for not whipping out my checkbook.

And what about the poor, abandoned, homeless baby animals? My $27 could buy antibiotics for six kittens or puppies with respiratory infections, or my $103 could provide critical medical care for a sick homeless pet.

First, jury duty summons, now daily guilt-trips.

Aiugh.

As an aside, thank you Matty for the book-love. Reading about someone else's strange voyage makes me feel a little less weird about mine.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I gave up on giving. I donated to moveon.org once & Kerry once, and now I get a bunch of mail. Not as heart-rending, usually, but sucky. Especially when it means the mailperson has to crunch down the mail you actually like, just to get another half-dozen pieces of crap in.

Anonymous said...

^ That was me. I don't know how the intarweb tubes work very well sometimes.

pixiemartin said...

Ironically, I recently volunteered at work to be the one to coordinate the donation of a bunch of beauty items from the store to a local women's shelter.

You know, in the event that I am actually able to track such a shelter down.

They're sort of secretive by nature, you see.