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I've just got the TV mag with the christmas listings. What a load of rubbish! When I was
a kid, christmas was the only time TV was on all day. Rest of the year, it was only working
from about 4pm till about 11pm!!! Just two channels back then. But christmas day was full
of movies like Old Mother Riley Meets The Vampire and cartoons. In the 70s we had variety
shows, and decent movies only five years old! Now, on christmas day we've got three hours
of Judy's favourite soaps. Same as the rest of the year, but hour long episodes. Judy is very
happy.....
I agree, we've been bombarded this year with these charitie people everywhere you go. You'd have to be a millionaire to give every time you go out shopping or are solicited by mail. We've had over 120 mail solicitations from so called charities this past 8 weeks. My wife donated one time to one of the charities and they must have sold our mailing address to them, now we're inundated daily. Phone calls too. The DNC doesn't work for charities. You need to tell them to take your number off their calling list. Some do, some don't, one of life's miseries.
I was at Walgreens the other day and outside was two different charities asking for donations and then the cashier inside was asking for a donation for another charity.
Don't get us wrong we do donate to 3 charities frequently so we're not scrooges. You just have to pick and choose the ones you can afford to work with. We do a lot of volunteer work also and donate locally household goods, clothing, and non perishable food items to a few organizations also.
This past week, I got two letters from the same-named charity but one was mailed from [example] our local #232 but the other was mailed from one 30+mins drive from us, #300. The same reading material was in both envelopes even. Seems they could come together on this to prevent wasting the money spent making copies and postage.
Some of these people are like "people are starving and it's Christmas!" Well guess what, people are starving in February, March, April and the rest of the year too!
That's what I always say too, homeless animals and people are hungry 365 days a year. But the vast majority of sheeple only activate their conscience for a short time around the holidays so the charities jump on it. I don't like large organized charities for the reason Dave mentioned, you never know for sure how much is going to those needing it. Some have very high "administrative costs". The shelter operating on a shoe string is more likely to get my donation than the ones calling and pestering people. The ones calling and pestering can bother the Hollywood celebrities, the pro athletes, the CEO's, and the politicians.
Government and educational institutions that ask me for proof of my citizenship when I tell them I'm adopted. Don't they know that being adopted makes you a citizen of the country you're adopted into (at least with the U.S.)? Ever heard of the Child Citizenship Act??
1-Advice givers-----they give you advice that you did not ask for.
2-Driver by shooters---they can't mind their own business, they just shoot off at the mouth.
^^^ Other peoples kid's - don't get me started! When my son Scott was a little boy,
there was a kid who lived up the street who made his life a misery. They went to the
same school. This kid bullied my son. I knew Scott was frightened of him. I would try
and talk to his mother, explain the situation. She would say, kid's are kid's, would'nt
listen. I would sit Scott down, explain to him he had to stand up to this kid, or he would
never leave him in peace. One day, I went to pick Scott up from school in the afternoon.
Scott came out, then all of a sudden, this other kid's mother came rushing over, her son
in tow. "Your Scott has hurt my son, look, he burst his nose fighting." I just looked at her
and said "kid's are kid's." Scott had finally found the courage, and fought back. Never had
any trouble with that kid again.
This is a vent. I have to say I am tired of being bombarded by endless charity groups right now due to the holiday season. We are one income household and we are always on a strict budget. My husband was ill and we have some unexpected medical expenses that dug deep into our Christmas fund so I already feel a little stressed as it is.
On friday I ran some errands. Before leaving the house I had 3 charities call my phone. UGH. I am on the do not call list so not sure why its happening. I then go to Petco and get bugged for donating a dollar. I declined (even though 9 times out of 10 I go ahead and do it) the cashier then goes on and on about how its a wonderful charity and I could change the life of a dog or cat if I just say yes. I said no and she just shook her head like a puppy is going to die now because I didnt give up a buck. I leave there and go to Target, the Salvation Army door ringer gives me sad eyes as I walk in. I go to the grocery store, same thing by the door ringer. I get inside and right away this woman jumps out at me about donating to a Senior group. There was a table of wrapped presents and all I had to do was pay for one as it would go a needy senior. I declined. The woman was pushy and kept going on and on walking with me as I tried to get away from her. I finally had to get quite curt with her on my refusal. She then shoved a small list into my hand of items that maybe I could pick up and donate "as many seniors go without the basics that we all enjoy."
The thing is I donate a lot. I buy GS cookies, BS popcorn, give bags and bags of stuff to goodwill several times a year, I drop change in the Salvation army bucket but not at every single store, I buy christmas cards that donate money to the Humane Society, I contribute to the Ronald McDonald house and Riley's children's hospital, etc. I could go on and on. It doesn't have to be Christmas for me to feel generous and in fact, its probably the one time of year I am the least generous because I can't afford it. Wouldn't it be better to contribute 10 months out of the year vs 2? It peeves me off that certain pushy types want to make me out as a bad guy. I was going to head out shopping today and decided to shop on-line instead. Okay, thats my rant.
I totally agree, and another even bigger peeve of mine is when people beg you to donate to causes that really aren't that important. Examples are baseball teams trying to save up money for uniforms (really do you need uniforms to play?) or camps for kids and the like. Recently in our class we had to do presentations on an organization related to deaf people and then as a class we would donate money. A lot of the organizations were things like deaf camp and deaf socials. I'm all for deaf people socializing but they don't need my money to do that. I was the only person of two people in the class that actually presented on an organization for people in need and not for some sort of luxury or hobby. Why should I give my money to something people want but don't need? If they don't need it but want it, they can raise their own money.
You have hit on one of my pet hates here! Everywhere you go someone is waving a
collection tin at you. We go to town, people come up to you, generally wearing some
sort of charity T-Shirt. "Excuse me, can you spare a minute." I just ignore them, and walk
on. Most of these charities have people at the top on large salaries. Some give only a very
small amount of the money raised to the charity!! Same at the supermarket entrance, with
their stern look when you ignore them. I give to the Salvation Army, and to the Royal
British Legion Poppy Appeal each year who collect for injured military members and their
families. That's it, those two only for me. Judy guiltily donates left right and centre. She is
even supporting a gorilla somewhere in Africa!!!
Call me awful but when they do this I just start talking to myself in sign language, which nine times out of ten, leads them to believe I'm deaf. Works every time. I don't even think you need to know real sign language to pull that one off. And English Dave, if you ever come across someone who does sign, just act like you speak a different sign language (British Sign Language if you live in the U.S. or American Sign Language if you live in the U.K., etc.)
Or if pretending to be deaf doesn't roll with you, if they say this: ""Excuse me, can you spare a minute," you can just reply: "It's not a minute of my time you want, it's money out of my wallet you want, and no." Lol. That works pretty well too.
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The Day?
