I think I have a good heart. I want to help out the needy and down trodden how I can. I have insulated myself with researched and reassuring charities that I give to regularly. Now Mistress totally disagrees with me but, I do not however buy girl scout cookies from those little moppets outside grocery stores. I actually made one of those girls cry once because I said no five time and figured one was enough. Little drama queen thought a good fake cry in public would convince (bribe) me, yet when I told her those things will make her fat she really had a good cry and was gone when I came back out. I take solace in that I saved other unsuspecting men from this darling princess that day.
I hesitate even mentioning this one but I own up to my past, I used to be a scrapper and realize now that I was way to keyed up to be around normal people. I was on a quick military leave in Victoria, British Columbia and a street guy asked for a couple of bucks. I asked him what it was for and he said food. So I gave him $5. I then watched him go inside a store and buy cigarettes with my $5, right in front of my face. Once outside I beat him up, took the cigarettes and crushed them in front of his face, I would have started feeding them to him if I had not been pulled off him by my friends. Like said, I had just spent a considerable amount of time in the bush overseas now I have a much calmer disposition.
A few years later and with radar firmly in place, I got cornered by a comely girl selling magazines, "It's for college mister." I had some subscriptions I wanted anyway and gave her about $100 for four or five magazines. I never got them, never saw her again.
Oh there are plenty more offers like that. I still get hit in parking lots and gas stations routinely but now I pretty much play these 'Users' by making them show me their arms to see if they have needle tracks, (about 1/3 do), have them show me their teeth to see if they rock the pipe, have them pull out their pockets and wallets to see how much money they really have or whatever else I can think of. After a few of these moves they generally give up on me. Those that stick around I don't give money too, I give them the card of my pastor so they can get cleaned up. None have ever called him.
Sometimes even a good cause goes wrong and again I have learned a lesson. Saturday after a brick my team went to a smoothie shop we usually hit and a nice looking, mature looking mid-20's female was selling items for her cause-missing children, she was selling books for the cause, selling ID kits for children. I can get behind that and without much hesitation purchased a $15 chalk book for Mo to practice his numbers and letters; the pages are 'slate' and it comes with chalk and a wipe.
I doesn't work. The provided chalk or chalk we had around the house does not rub onto the hard pages. Stiffed again. I mean really I understand charities go with the cheapest item they can sell for the profit, but it should at least work. Once. Maybe twice. I do know, (at least I believe) that the money will actually be going to a charity they have terrible products to sell for it.
What was that that Joe Pesci said in Lethal Weapon 2 about the Drive Thru. (NSFW)
I hesitate even mentioning this one but I own up to my past, I used to be a scrapper and realize now that I was way to keyed up to be around normal people. I was on a quick military leave in Victoria, British Columbia and a street guy asked for a couple of bucks. I asked him what it was for and he said food. So I gave him $5. I then watched him go inside a store and buy cigarettes with my $5, right in front of my face. Once outside I beat him up, took the cigarettes and crushed them in front of his face, I would have started feeding them to him if I had not been pulled off him by my friends. Like said, I had just spent a considerable amount of time in the bush overseas now I have a much calmer disposition.
A few years later and with radar firmly in place, I got cornered by a comely girl selling magazines, "It's for college mister." I had some subscriptions I wanted anyway and gave her about $100 for four or five magazines. I never got them, never saw her again.
Oh there are plenty more offers like that. I still get hit in parking lots and gas stations routinely but now I pretty much play these 'Users' by making them show me their arms to see if they have needle tracks, (about 1/3 do), have them show me their teeth to see if they rock the pipe, have them pull out their pockets and wallets to see how much money they really have or whatever else I can think of. After a few of these moves they generally give up on me. Those that stick around I don't give money too, I give them the card of my pastor so they can get cleaned up. None have ever called him.
Sometimes even a good cause goes wrong and again I have learned a lesson. Saturday after a brick my team went to a smoothie shop we usually hit and a nice looking, mature looking mid-20's female was selling items for her cause-missing children, she was selling books for the cause, selling ID kits for children. I can get behind that and without much hesitation purchased a $15 chalk book for Mo to practice his numbers and letters; the pages are 'slate' and it comes with chalk and a wipe.
I doesn't work. The provided chalk or chalk we had around the house does not rub onto the hard pages. Stiffed again. I mean really I understand charities go with the cheapest item they can sell for the profit, but it should at least work. Once. Maybe twice. I do know, (at least I believe) that the money will actually be going to a charity they have terrible products to sell for it.
What was that that Joe Pesci said in Lethal Weapon 2 about the Drive Thru. (NSFW)
8 comments:
There's a lot of anger in this post. I'm afraid to say anymore.
comm, you and I share more then I ever thought.
Ah c'mon Wylee. You read my post too fast, I am not angry today, just disappointed in a way. I know the money will go to a good cause but without the book which Mo can not use, I would have given it to my own charities and felt better.
I will admit that when I was much younger and immature I did things that today I wouldn't normally do. I was much shorter on the fuse. I think most all men can claim that, especially those that served in combat arms.
As for the girl scouts, I will get my cookies from the girls who go door to door before I get them from the squatters in front of Safeway.
I posted during Christmas about how I was constantly made to feel bad because I wouldn't donate to someones cause, even though I give generously to my own. Some people just don't take no for an answer.
mmmmm, girl scout cookies - somehow, mysteriously, Mrs. Bigun popped open a box of thin mints today after the race - mmmphf - you have to love thin mints....you heartless bastard! HA!
Comm,
They would have all been melted anyway. Don't you live in AZ? What is it about 80 degees? The cookies have been sitting in their cars so it would have been a big blob anyway.
Ah, c'mon, Comm - Sometimes it's just about the receiver and not the giver. ...;-)
But I am with you regarding the GirlScout cookies! Give me a real chocolate chip from the bakery - too soft, too large, greasier..... mmmmm.
I've had to totally revisit my charitable giving after it was recently uncovered that a majority of the charities use telemarketing companies to make calls. In this state, at least, most of those companies receive payment of 80% of what they generate.
And unfortunately, you can't ask the questions that count. I would normally ask, "How much of my contribution goes to the charity?" They can legally say "All of it," as that is technically true. 100% goes to the charity, which then cuts a check to the marketing firm for 80%.
It makes giving difficult when I know that as little as 20% actually goes where I want it to go.
The little "moppets" that "squat" in front of Safeway, as you so elequently put it, have gone door to door, have gone to offices with their parents...ME....and are trying to raise a few more bucks for their respective troops, to go to camp, whatever....I serously dobt this girl harrassed you 5 times for cookies Commodore. But if she did, then as proud Father of a Brownie/Girl Scout. I apologize. But making her cry? and telling her she's gonna get fat? Jesus Commodore, lighten up man....she's 8!
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