Surely We Can Do Better Than This
Giving
I don’t have a lot of money to give, and I’ve really been trying to eliminate my credit card debt, but I think that helping Katrina evacuees is more important. I found Charity Navigator: Your Guide to Intelligent Giving very helpful. This article lists all of the 4-star rated charities involved in Katrina relief efforts. I think I’ve decided to give to:
- The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank and
- The MSPCA Natural Disaster Relief Fund
(which, as it turns out, is right in my neighborhood!)
Where are you donating your money?
I read on the cover of a local paper today that people in Boston have set up all these shelters, but they haven’t had any people arrive yet because so many evacuees are reticent to leave the region. Makes sense, but I hadn’t thought of that. I can see why they would feel that way. I feel bad just having moved away. I feel I should be closer, helping out.
Go IU!
My alma mater is accepting students who have been displaced by the hurricane. I was reading last week about how schools in Boston are donating laptops, and it seemed somehow silly to prioritize such things when many have lost families and their lives. Still, there are people from all walks of life who are now homeless: poor, wealthy, educated, and uneducated. My ex’s new significant other had just received a tenure-track position teaching at the University of New Orleans. It’s hard to prioritize when there are people in need at every level. I look at people like myself, people like the people I worked with in Memphis, and all the animals. I don’t want to forget the poor, but in remembering the poor, I don’t want to forget the middle class who are also homeless, the sick, the young, the elderly, the recently orphaned. And while I remember all of those people in need, I don’t want to forget the people who were more directly affected by the hurricane itself in Mississippi. Triage in a situation like this is nearly impossible. It’s overwhelming. When it comes down to it, though, there are so many people who do not have other means of support. They need their government. They need us. Help your family. Help those who can’t help themselves. Give, give, give. If everyone helps in some way, maybe we can eventually get things closer to right again.
Volunteering When You’re Not in the South
I just saw this posted on Boing Boing. It’s a way to donate time without going to NOLA. It involves taking unstructured information and putting it into a standardized form so that it’s easier for people to search for loved ones. I think I’m definitely going to donate at least an hour or two to doing this.
