Helping the less fortunate

What’s Your Favorite Charity?

Several of the folks who criticized my essay, “I’m Tired” suggested that I’m a typical Republican, well-to-do, and with no compassion for the less fortunate. They said that rather than “just complaining,” I should do something to help others.

Of course, the stereotype of Uncaring Conservatives so beloved by the left has been well debunked by researchers, most recently and thoroughly by professor Arthur C. Brooks:

“In Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism (Basic Books), Arthur C. Brooks finds that religious conservatives are far more charitable than secular liberals, and that those who support the idea that government should redistribute income are among the least likely to dig into their own wallets to help others.

“Some of his findings have been touched on elsewhere by other scholars, but Mr. Brooks, a professor of public administration at Syracuse University, breaks new ground in amassing information from 15 sets of data in a slim 184-page book (not including the appendix) that he proudly describes as "a polemic."

“‘If liberals persist in their antipathy to religion,’ Mr. Brooks writes, ‘the Democrats will become not only the party of secularism, but also the party of uncharity.’”

Here’s the full article from the Chronicle of Philanthropy:
http://philanthropy.com/free/articles/v19/i04/04001101.htm

It turns out that Conservatives help the less fortunate from their own pockets, while Liberals prefer the Robin Hood approach, taking money from others to help the causes they like. (Liberals say they prefer “science” and “data” until presented with data like this, or data about tax cuts, free trade and the economy. Then they prefer to go with what their gut tells them.)

My wife and I, of course, have the lavish wealthy-conservative lifestyle that liberals love to criticize. Not only does our 1,000 square foot apartment have two bedrooms, but it has a half bath as well as a full bath. To add to the luxury, there’s a coin laundry right in the building, just down one flight of stairs. Sure, we’d like to have a garage for the Chicago winters, to keep our 4-Cyl 2002 Toyota covered. It has over 100k miles on it, and we both depend on it for our commute. But we are content to live the simple life, much like Al Gore, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, the Clintons, the Kerrys, Michael Moore and George Soros.

Our current major charity, unfortunately, is that we are fully supporting two households, hoping that our daughter will finish college and be able to support our granddaughter, now 8, before we can no longer work.

And friends biking-for-this or running-for-that or walking-for-something-else know we are good for a touch, for a good cause.

Despite the costs of both households, and giving to the church when we can get there (we are out of town weekends a lot on business or visiting the granddaughter), we try support some other charities, with modest contributions, as we can. They are pretty personal, and conservative readers will have their own, but I list them in case some of my liberal readers are looking for something good to support by spreading their own wealth around.

Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund
Helping Marines wounded and disabled in the wars. We also give to individual vets when we can.
www.semperfifund.org/

Marine Toys for Tots Foundation
Provides Christmas for thousands of disadvantaged kids.
www.toysfortots.org/

Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation
For the kids of fallen Marines and Corpsman.
http://www.mcsf.com/

The Vietnam Healing Foundation
Helps disabled ARVN soldiers who were our allies, who get no help from the communist government, as well as Vietnamese kids.
thevhf.org/

The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation
www.pulmonaryfibrosis.org/home.htm

American Diabetes Association
www.diabetes.org/

Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation
http://www.oref.org/

I invite readers to post their favorite charities in the comment section below. We rich conservatives must give what we can, with what we have left after the liberals take their chunk in taxes to give to their causes, such as public art that they like but won’t pay for, and public TV & Radio carrying programs liberals prefer, but don’t want to pay for themselves.