I feel like a complete asshole, but I am sick and fucking tired of hearing about people soliciting donations for Haiti. Yes, it was catastrophic. Yes, it’s terrible. Yes, they nee everything from toothpaste to beds. But where the fuck are all the people soliciting donations for our own needy at any other time of year? Our own homeless (and working homeless and disabled and down on their luck and fire victims and whatever else) need donations day to day as well. Where are the “24/7 until it’s filled” trucks here being filled up with toothpaste and tents and clothes and blankets and food for our local needy? Why are we, as American’s, expected to give to every world-wide catastrophe, but we take out loans and beg for aid when it’s us? Why are we conditioned to give unconditionally, as long as it’s to some country other than our own?
I know, some people donate their time and money year round to local organizations. Good for them! I do it too. And my heart goes out to people who are in need when disaster strikes. When we’re hit with a hurricane, people are not coming out of the woodwork to donate to us. There are still homes with tarps for roofs from fucking 2005. The aid ran out. Homeowners Ins. didn’t pay out, or didn’t pay out 100%. FEMA was a joke.
So I’ll send in my can of food to Haiti (and you can bet your ass SoFl is going to have a HUGE influx of Haitians soon enough anyway, so I may as well wait and donate more to my local homeless shelters) and smile and be happy, but really, stop asking me at *every single business* I enter to donate to Haiti. Even our Homeless Voice corner dwellers taped Haiti signs over their buckets today. I wonder if they made any more money today and they did the day before.
