The world has not come to an end, I am just bursting at the seems with a constant stream of gripes and otherwise self-proclaimed interesting things to say, and can't narrow it down to whom I want to share it with, so I might as well go global.
Now that I am no longer so poor I have to decide between either food or gas, a few months ago I decided that I would donate money to a charity or 2 as the occasion presented itself. In the past I have donated at work for the various organizations that lawyers support to be able to sleep at night. But this time, I wanted to be able to send in some additional money to worthy causes when I received a plea in the mail (Keep your pleas....you will see why they are no longer honored or honorable). This weekend, I get my mail and its the same as its been every day for months now, since the seemingly charitable act....3 separate bulky envelopes stuffed with more freakin address labels than I could ever use in a lifetime!! But this time is an added bonus I have seen no less than 4 times prior to today. Children's ______ Research Fund has sent me a shiny nickel stuck to the letter with the words on the envelope "How can the enclosed nickel bring us closer to a cure for childhood cancer?".... of course in addition to the multitudes of address labels and stickers. I know! You could allocate the damn nickels to actual research not to mention the money it costs to sticky glue them to every letter or the extra cost in postage because of the weight of the damn nickel. I'm sure to some people this speaks volumes to their guilt and they feel they must pay for these labels and/or change....for the children. But this also speaks volumes to their retarditude. I get the concept of spending money to make money, but seriously folks! How many of you actually use enough snail mail anymore to ever get good use out of 50 address labels per charity per week!?! I got 3 of these in the mail on the same day (That's 150 labels + bonus stickers!), and I guarantee you that there will be at least 1 or 2 more in the mail tonight. One of these 3 was the Olympic Fund. THE OLYMPIC FUND!! Out of all the charities that obviously desperately need my help, I'm sure as hell not going to donate to the Olympic Fund. I enjoy the Olympics as much as the next guy, but before the American Heart Association, or breast cancer research, or diabetes, juvenile diabetes, the homeless children or Outreach International? I don't think so. And how dare the original recipients of my thoughtful charitable contributions allow my name and address to be broadcast to every freakin organization out there soliciting for donations. Here's an idea. Why don't you stop selling people's names and personal info and spending their donations on sailboat and fish labels and Americana stickers and actually start spending it on research!?! I don't want anything in return! That wouldn't be a total selfless act. It would be a retail transaction, and then you might as well tax me. You try to do a good thing and get harrassed for it! What also sickens me is the multitude of paper that is used and I can't even recycle the damn stickers.
I hear you- I had to convince the people at WWF that I didn't want the gift coffee mug, tee-shirt showing my support & thoughtful handy tote. That I'd rather they just take the money I gave them & NOT spend half of it on shipping just so I could broadcast to others my charitable nature & concern for polar bears & penguins. Needless to say they thought I was nuts- even asking me if I wanted said tote, mug, tee-shirt ensemble to go to someone else of my choosing.
ReplyDeleteAndy & I had to invest in an upgraded paper to shred all our junk mail so at least we could recycle the bulk of it. We do use the stickers (the address labels we'll never get through) to affix to Andy's invoices, preferably in groups of 5-6. We think it sends a cheery-please-pay-us-sooner-warm-fuzzy kind of message.... ;)
Very good use of the stickers! I thought about making them into some sort of collage, or decoupage art. For the childern, of course!
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