Seeing Red!!!!

[Keith_Hixson]

Your advice is right on. Send it directly to the Salvation Army. Keep your receipts and place them in the United Way bucket. But, I don't trust the United Way. They like the Red Cross take an awful lot out of the pot before it gets to the people who need it. Do they do good, yes. But, they could do much more good if they thinned down the overhead. The big major charities, except the Salvation Army, have a big built in administration costs (overhead).

Keith

[Tamaroa]

One day right after a SAR patrol, we were docked at Staten Island. Everyone was at quarters and an announcement was made that we were ALL to CONTRIBUTE to the United Way. The old man wanted 100% participation because that would mean the Tamaroa would get a plaque. Well even back then I had no use for the United Way. I said I would contribute directly to the Boy Scouts or the USO or other worthwhile organization but NOT to the United Way. The long and the short of it was I did not kick in for principle's sake, we did not get the 100% plaque and I was restricted to the ship for the weekend because I did not ante up. I have not given a cent to the United Way since.

BillD.

[SuperScout]

After my second tour in RVN, my family met me in Bangkok for our next assignment. While awaiting shipment of furniture from the States, we were living in a local hotel; little did I realize that Thai fire standards bear little resemblance to ours. Late one night, the hotel caught on fire, taking 29 lives, some Americans. The next morning, international news crews were all other the place, and as I got my family settled into temporary safe quarters, I attempted to use the only phone available, that of the Red Cross, to notify my folks that we had not died in the fire as origianlly reported. They told me that there would be a significant charge for the call, a comment that caused some of them to learn some new words.

Fortunately, a Thai friend knew the situation, drove me to the local telegraph office, and I sent a wire back home to Buchanan Dam, Texas, to the instant relief of my good folks.

Bottom Line: screw the Red Cross and all their money-grubbing ways.

[HARDCORE]

My original piece on the ?American Red (Double) Cross? certainly stirred a whirlwind of indignation against that organization. One that I hope remains vivid in the minds of humanity during calamities yet unrealized! Only through ire and knowledge can an ogre repent and change its ways (opinion)!

So what was my run-in with the ?Bloody X?, outside of the obvious media expose on this organization of late! ?Well, actually there were several!!?

First off, some years back 1983 (I think), the injuries that I am now claiming service-connected on struck with one of it?s first vengeance attacks. I was laid up with degenerative arthritis, bi-polar disorder, hypertension, complete intolerance to stress, chronic fatigue syndrome and as such, unemployability etc.

Well at the time, of this initial severe attack, my wife contacted each and every organization in North Carolina, including VA organizations who refused to drive outside of their county, let alone take me to a local MD?! Our old VW had transmission problems and the VA was in Salisbury (50 miles away in another county)! We did not have much money, but we did offer to pay for the gas. We even called two churches and sundry veteran?s organizations in an attempt to get a ride, as well as the Welfare Department, all equally refused!

In all fairness the Red Cross did offer a bus ticket for the 50 mile trek, but the bus stop was over a mile away and they, nor anyone else for that matter, would help to get me to that point. As it stood, I was totally crippled and could not even move the 50 feet to the bathroom in our mobile home, having to relieve myself in baggies with my wife?s help!

Finally in desperation, and against my demands to the contrary, my wife attained the 800 (toll-free) number for the then governor (Jim Hunt). The man came unglued when he heard of how the vet groups, Red Cross, etc, etc, had behaved in this emergency. The Governor immediately ordered a public affairs nurse from a neighboring town to our door out in the woods, many miles away She, in turn, called a pharmacist who rushed a prescription to our door, and both the nurse and pharmacist agreed that I had only about three days left in which to lose my leg or my life! I still walk with a pronounced limp to this day, and I will never forget the caring and kindness of Governor Jim Hunt!

The second incident came about when I got somewhat better and was offered a job in Dallas, Texas. My car had been partially fixed and I loaded up the family, baggage and all, and drove slowly westward on oral guarantees of employment. When We arrived in Dallas, the (so-called) decent reservations that we had been promised turned out to be in a noisy, run-down bordello of a decaying motel. The advanced expense money that we had been promised was non-existent, and even though I made an immediate and large truck tire sale, the business manager of the company was quick to point out that as I was now half way between the east and west coast with no options, the deal had been changed!

I immediately contacted United Way telling them of my family?s predicament and offered to show them records where I had given to them for years (automatic deductions) at a former employer. They, without hesitation, informed me that they were not a charity but rather a fund-raising organization with a high overhead, and would not help us!

From there, it was over to the Salvation Army, and in all fairness, they did offer my wife, and two sons and me, several bologna sandwiches, no temporary lodging or gas help, to wit I told them what to do with their kindness? Had it not been for calling (collect) two former employers for help, my family might well have been buried right their amidst this southern hospitality!

In the early 90s, I was a bit better off financially and came upon a K-Mart/Salvation Army Tree in El Cajon, California. Upon the tree was the names of children in need and the gifts they hoped to get. My wife and I walked around the store and bought the requested gifts for two of the needy kids listed upon the tree.

Two days later, we noticed the same kids pics back on the tree, requesting the same gifts. When I questioned this with management, I was informed that all bought gifts were returned to the shelves, and that the price was credited to the charity itself?!

Lately, I recalled some years back (1989?) when my middle son was injured at a national air carrier terminal in Charlotte, North Carolina. This prompted a wheel chair waiting for him at the San Diego Terminal. Our transportation however, failed to show up for the 25 mile ride to our pad, and we were almost broke. There we were, tired, dirty, a son with a painfully broken leg, and even Travelers Aid refused to pay for transport back to our digs!

We finally found a cab driver who agreed to take us home for our remaining $10, we were overjoyed. We got the lad to the hospital later that night. And for the record, Travelers Aid attempted to pawn us off at Lindbergh Field to several other (so-called) charitable agencies to give us a painfully needed lift home! NOT ONE OFFERED A RIDE (25 lousy miles)!!

Yes indeed, charity does belong at home, and to answer that question about the so-called help donated for mountain (San Diego) fire relief some years back - DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Any aid that did make it (and that was not much) to the victims, took months if not years to arrive. Charitable personnel were fired as a result of this monstrous fiasco (should have been jailed), and some of the victims still, have not totally recovered on their own!

Had it not been for the ire of a county supervisor, the media, and a plethora of nasty articles from me and others, the charities tasked with distributing the funds would still be perched atop them! AND THIS, I FEAR, IS BUT THE TIP OF A FESTERING AND GROWING (POLLUTED) ICEBERG!!

Hell, why should organized charity be any different than a few high-rollers within Government, the VA, and it?s odious entourage of bootlickers (opinion)!!!!

VERITAS

[Wazza]

You can interpret history whatever way you like. Hell, you can even interpret historical facts any way you like, but if you want to be respected, you cannot be selective about the facts.