CHARITY IS FINE
(…but shouldn’t it begin here…at home?)

This is the time of year when we receive all sorts of solicitations from a wide variety of charitable organizations. It is the nature of non-profit charitable entities to be on such a fund raising treadmill, and a seemingly never-ending treadmill at that.

One of the striking things about so many of these fund raising efforts is their focus on the dire needs of children and people in remote parts of the world, all needing basic food, shelter, medicines, books, schools, etc.. And leading the charge for such donations are a swarm of deep pocket individuals, business, entertainment, and sports celebrities, all of them touting a particular program for folks way off in another corner of the world from us.

Meanwhile, almost every day of the week, we see and hear in the news about the same deep pockets of poverty right here in the good old USA…kids without proper food…kids without books…and so on. Yet, we hardly hear of any celebrity lending their name to any kind of domestic effort equal to what we hear them crowing about…over there.

How come?

How come all these well-heeled celebrities pop up on all sorts of talk shows promoting their latest project in Africa, Central America, all over Asia, but nary a peep about any similar initiatives on their part for something here in America? Charity is fine…but shouldn’t it begin here…at home?

Here’s an example. Everyone from the President on down is making noises about how the opportunity for a good education is critical to the future development of a dynamic middle-class, and, the best means of breaking the poverty cycle here. But due to fiscal mismanagement at Federal, State, and Local levels of government, budgets for things like…Pre-K facilities, Head Start, computer labs and equipment, books, and so on…just aren’t available, and an estimated 4 Million American kids…aren’t getting the “opportunities” our charitable types are doling out elsewhere…all over the world.

So we can’t help but wonder…what makes our kids, here in America, less worthy of attention and help than those in other parts of the world? Perhaps the crux of the problem is because everyone, here, has the notion that only the “government” should be doing all these things, and that, somehow (despite evidence to the contrary) it has the means to do so. And the reason all those charitable donors pour their funds…over there….is because, supposedly unlike ours, those governments have neither the means nor the will to take care of their own people. That seems to be the presumption.

It is a false presumption, of course, because the reality is our governments (at all levels) aren’t much better at it than those foreign ones. So perhaps we need to re-reconsider our priorities of charitable giving for a change, and start looking around for what needs to be covered right here at home.

To paraphrase an old saying…if government ran it…crime wouldn’t pay…and since government is running education…that’s why it isn’t producing results. That being the case, perhaps it’s time for those who have the means, to step up, and fill in the gaps where government programs fail. And that should yield better results because, as we all know… those that write such charitable checks can tell you…how high you should be jumping.

Maybe all those nice hot young chicks under 65 on – The View – can start doing something useful…like rounding up a bunch of well-heeled ones to adopt a school lunch program, or a Pre-K program, or some such. Who knows, that could catch on.

CENTURION