"Sweet Charity"

What is it with this direct approach of asking people for charity? I believe in giving to church and charities as much as anyone but I think it should be a personal matter, and not a response to a direct question. Lately the choice of giving or not giving has become an "in your face" issue.

At the grocery where my wife and I shop, you can not go through the check-out without being asked if you would like to make a contribution to a certain charity. Now I go back and forth to the grocery many times a day and I don't want to have to explain on each return trip that I already gave. I always manage to look and feel guilty even when I am telling the truth.

Also tonight I went to my local fast food place to get a burger. As I was paying for it the guy behind the counter asked if I wanted to contribute to a certain charity. So now it is do you want to contribute, and oh by the way, do you want fries with that contribution? 

If you do say no when asked about contributing, you feel like the scroogiest person ever. The clerks even look at you like man you are so cheap! I want to blurt out the places I do send money but isn't the whole idea of being charitable, keeping the whole thing private?

Then there are people who descend on your car in big cities like Atlanta, and wash your windows. I want to holler out the window that my windows are just fine, thank you. But have you ever tried saying something like that? You get such open hostility back that you won't say it twice.

I do think we owe something to those less fortunate than we are, and I have places I send my money. Places I have investigated enough to think the money will actually reach those in need. I do not buy the random assertions that it is for the needy. I want to know specifically which needy we are talking about.

Today I got a call from a lady saying she was with the American Cancer Society/Red Cross/Leukemia Society or something like that.. She said she would be sending me information about their campaign to get donations. I said fine. Then she said that she wanted to put me down for twenty dollars. I told her I would decide the amount of my gift when I got the paperwork in the mail. She then said something about she knew it would be at least twenty dollars. I repeated I would make up my mind when I got the paperwork. She closed by saying, "It is only twenty dollars, sir!"

Do I sound put upon? Well that is how I have been feeling lately. I don't think giving should be the result of pressure. I think it should be from the heart and done privately. That's just the way I am, and that is the way I intend to stay.

 

 

 

 

 

©2006 Jackie K. Cooper

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