Charity

Fight Hunger in San Francisco - Volunteer at the San Francisco Food Bank
When: Saturday, April 12th 2008, at 12:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Where: San Francisco Food Bank
900 Pennsylvania Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94107

Host: San Francisco Young Democrats and Democrats Work
Contact: info_at_democratswork.org

Join Democrats Work and the San Francisco Young Democrats at the San Francisco Food Bank on Saturday, April 12th from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Our work will mean that thousands of pounds of food will be distributed at meal and pantry programs throughout the city.

Be sure to wear your Democrats Work t-shirts!

Democrats Work: Food for Homeless Teens
Tuesday, February 19 at 5:00 PM

Urban Peak Shelter (Denver, CO)
1630 S. Acoma Street
Denver, CO 80223

Join the Democrats Work Convention Crew as we prepare and serve dinner at Denver's Urban Peak Shelter for homeless and runaway teens. Stick around, enjoy the dinner you helped prepare, and hang out with some of the shelter's clients.

Details at DemocratsWork.org

Host: Aaron Silverstein

Came across a site mentioned on BBC News website called "Free Rice." It is a slightly silly but addictive little thing that actually adds up to helping the UN feed people. Joy and I are obsessing on it today.

Basically, they get money from advertisers. They have vocabulary words and you pick the correct defination...for each one you get right, they donate money for 10 grains of rice to feed people through the UN. So far Joy and I made it to Vocab Level 50 (though we dropped back down to 48 as we got some wrong) and have gotten 4000 grains of rice....which may be only one good bowl of rice for someone out there, but what the hell. It's fun in a nerdy way and if enough of us do it, it can have a real effect.

Here is what they have to say for themselves:

FreeRice is a sister site of the world poverty site, Poverty.com.

FreeRice has two goals:

1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is made possible by the sponsors who advertise on this site.

Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.

Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide. Thank you.

If you see me in a suit it generally means one of two things: I am going to a wedding or I am invited to an event with Bill Clinton.

The work I have done for Kiva, both as a lender and a blogger, has gotten some attention. My Kiva diaries are among the more popular ones I write. A little while back I was interviewed by BBC World News as a lender. And most recently, I was invited to a private panel discussion for the release of Bill Clinton’s latest Book, GIVING: How Each of Us Can Change the World. I do not have a copy of this book as of yet so this is not a book review, though that might come. Instead I want to discuss the event and some of the individuals and organizations that were highlighted.

Three people I have had previous contact with were on the panel: Bill Clinton himself, who I got to meet at a fundraiser for Christine Jennings, Majora Carter, an awesome NYC rising star, and Premal Shah, President of Kiva, the organization I have been working with that got me invited to the event. Rounding out the panel were Geoffrey Canada of Harlem Children’s Zone (which hosted the event), Mark Grashow of U.S. - Africa Children’s Fellowship and a 6 year old girl named Mackenzie who organized a beach cleanup for her birthday. The panel discussion was moderated by Tavis Smiley.

Well, I just had another moment of fame and I want to use it to highlight some cool development work.

My first moment of fame was when a Spanish film crew from Canal+ wanted to film my efforts to protest the Republican Convention in NYC in 2004. I was one of a few people highlighted in the documentary, including Amy Goodman and a graffiti artist. I hear the documentary was well-watched in Spain.

My second moment was when BBC radio contacted me about some pieces I wrote about Somalia (I think this article is one of the ones they had picked up on). They asked me to be on a radio call in show as one of four panelists. I have to say that I wasn't as good as I would have liked to be live on radio. But they must have thought I did okay because they asked me to be on again...stupidly I said "no."

This last week I had another encounter with BBC, this time an interview for television about Kiva microlending.

I have written about Kiva several times and I think each time I do, they get a burst of activity on their site. I am never sure how directly responsible I ever am for their sudden increase in traffic to their site, but I notice each time I write about them they start filling loans faster than usual. Kiva is aware of my efforts on their behalf and have been very grateful. And they have kept me in mind as one of their most enthusiastic participants.

Many months after Katrina hit America's Gulf Coast, exposing the racist incompetence of the Bush Administration as they left thousands of poor, black American citizens to die, I talked to a former co-worker of mine from Mississippi whose parents lost a great deal in Katrina. She talked of her mother's post-traumatic syndrome and the way inadequate insurance payments were made and inadequate help came from the government and many people simply couldn't afford recovery and so had to sell cheap to real estate developers who were aiming to build luxury hotels. Her story, which I cannot do justice, was a pretty damned good summary of much of what is wrong with America under Bush and the extreme right wing branch of the Republican Party...the one that promised to reduce government until it could be drowned in a bathtub. Seemingly they didn't care that thousands of Americans would drown in the process.

Even as Katrina refugees are being faced with eviction from their trailers by a government that STILL doesn't give a shit about them, one tiny hopeful milestone has been reached...and we can help expand that tiny glimmer of hope. From Habitat for Humanity:

Habitat for Humanity reaches a milestone in the hurricane-recovery effort with the construction of its 500th hurricane-recovery home along the Gulf Coast.

Just months ago, Habitat for Humanity and the Operation Home Delivery program marked the anniversaries of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a commemoration that acknowledged the historic storms’ destruction and looked ahead with hope to continued progress along the Gulf Coast. Now, Habitat has reached a significant construction milestone in that recovery effort: This week, the walls were raised on Habitat’s 500th hurricane-recovery home, just outside Mobile, Ala.

Over at Feministe's No racism here, no sir!, Jill Filipovic is continuing a discussion about race, welfare and class at Jane Galt's blog that was based on another of Jill's posts : A Conservative Trifecta: Fat-shaming, welfare-state-hating, and victim-blaming.

I haven't asked Jill, but it seems she is doing some really interesting work at NYU Law that has led her to write now some really interesting posts about race and class. The conservative trifecta post is brilliant because it really deconstructs all the conservative bull around discussions of welfare; in particular the "work for food" rhetorical scam around welfare.

Yet ... and yet. I am always disatisfied with discussion like these.

As Jill rightly points out, poverty is almost always falsely equated with race. Yet, I feel the next step is to ask why is it necessary to propagate the myth that social class is somehow only the product of biology? Why is it important to have an Polish-American kid from Far Rockaway believe that doors will open to him just because his skin is "white" and his hair is maybe two shades away from a dirty blonde?

Hence, the discussions offered by naysayers end up being about why they should not blamed with having been borh with white skin. For example, one of her commenters, Henry, wrote some of the following :

I have no problem with welfare per se (although I’d prefer it be done at the state level as opposed to the federal level). My issue is with the idea that it’s my responsibility to provide for the poor, as opposed to an act of voluntary virtue, and that somehow I’m a selfish prick because I feel that I should have as much control over the money I earn as possible. I’m all for private charity, and the more, the better. The idea that I owe anyone anything is ridiculous. I didn’t cause poverty, I haven’t exploited anyone, and no one gave me or my family anything. My father worked 10-12 hour days turning a wrench for everything we had, and I’ve worked my whole life. Yet somehow, those of you who support using the power of the state to steal from some people to give it to others are more virtuous than people who give money privately. Which is nice, as it allows everyone to feel morally superior without affecting their wallet directly.

Lovely isn't. That's compassionate conservatism for you. This guy represents the common apolgists for economic apartheid. To him, whiteness is part of a Darwinian natural selection that he has not control over. It would never occur to this guy to go back through history and see how whiteness has been constructed in his country as a socio-economic tool of opression.

Here's what I have to say about that:

What is up with these avant-guard artist-wanna be's and the socially aware who constantly complain about our government's lack of charity yet can't spare a dime for a homeless person?

I live pay check to pay check but I seldom turn down a request from someone who asks for money, unless I really just don't have it. But I see this happen all the time. On the subway especially. Commuters discussing the need for change suddenly turn into in-transit Helen Kellers if approached by the homeless. The argument that you don't want to give money because they'll spend it on alcohol or drugs fails miserably. You don't want to give money because you are just as tight-assed as our current administration. Even when you give money to a "proper"---and probably mismanaged---charity, there's no telling how that money will be allocated. I choose not to worry about how a homeless person uses the money. Whether you donate to a charity or give someone cash hand to hand, the money will probably not be used as it was intended, except in the rarest of cases. But the proper charity does give you a tax writer off. Oh, I get it!

Think about living on the streets. I imagine it consists of one goddamn nightmare of violence and pain after the next. Many of us claim to be close to it. So how can you refuse to give assistance, even if it is going to be used for a bit of hallucinogenic or Night Train fueled escape? Hell, take the time to buy someone some food, if it won't make you late for some Lower East Side Happy Hour.