I'm sitting here staring at a pile of mail on my desk. Not bills (most of my bills come to my email now, and are paid online... yippee!), but requests for donations from charities. This morning, I was awakened by the Leukemia guys. Two days ago it was the heart guys. Before that, Breast Cancer or Planned Parenthood or the Police Chiefs of PA or the Firemen of PA... the list goes on.
I was reminded of an episode of "Sports Night" (a wonderful show that you should have watched... so now, if you haven't seen it, you should go rent it) where Dan is trying to decide what to do with his money. (Read the
transcript here.) He spends the entire show quizzing people on what they give money to, and agonizing over who deserves his money.
I'm often like that, as I stare at the pile of mail, or debate whether to blow off the person on the phone. As Dan says, "I'd love to give money to all these people, but then I'd have no money and I'd need someone's mailing list just to pay rent." There are so many charities, so many worthy people who need my money so much more than I do. And, like Dan and Casey on Sports Night, i need to ease my liberal guilt.
But in the end, you do what you can. As Casey says:
Casey: You're not going to solve everybody's problems. In fact, you're not gonna solve anybody's problems. So you know what you should do?
Dan: What?
Casey: Anything. As much of it and as often as you can.
So it's time to go write a few checks. Ease my liberal guilt for having a wonderful, comfortable life. And do the little tiny bit I can do ease some of the suffering in the world.
For the record, I support animal charities (Humane Society, Alley Cat Allies), nature conservancies (World Wildlife Federation, Pennsylvania Conservancy), my local VFD, the local food bank, the National Cancer Society (in memory of my mom), and the local public radio station.
