Just Give

After 911 and Banda Aceh it is easy to tell yourself that you've given all you can, or that you don't know what carity to trust- or at least it was easy for me. Now comes the news, (via Michelle Malkin here) that the UN is going to offer help and 8-10 other governments are offering help as well. So it is easy to think the government(s) will take of it, or at least it was easy for me to tell myself all those things.

“I’m sort of tapped out,” I told myself over and over every time a blog mentioned giving to help the victims of Katrina. I told myself that many times. Then I went over to sometimes UPC guest-blogger Eric’s site, and found this:

Think about it for a second from my chair… (I’m not whining but) I’m almost 40 years old…. Here is the sum total of all my worldly possessions: 4 pairs of shorts, 5 shirts, 2 pairs of shoes, 4 pairs of underwear, 1 pair of blue jeans, a box of family pictures, 2 flashlights, a piece of trench art my grandfather brought back from WWI and my father’s hammer. (Hey, it means a lot to me!) That’s it. Everything else is gone. And BTW, I’m unemployed.

I tell you that not to whine but to let you see the tree thru the forest. Multiply my situation by about a million. Stop and think about that… A million people homeless and unemployed.

If you’re a blogger then (by near definition) you’re a self proclaimed talented person. Prove it. They’ll be plenty of time for punditry and pontification next month… In the mean time there is work to be done. Figure out how to help the victims.

which is from this post by Paul at Wizbang.

Okay so I want to help. You had me at four pairs of underwear… you had me at four pairs of underwear. Then you always think “how much?” right? Well, Paul solved that one for me with this.

Every natural disaster I send the Red Cross my standard $100 donation. I have no idea how to get money from them. It is a grant or a loan?

Okay so I’ll drop a $100.00. It ain’t much but if everybody did it things would add up. But who to give it to? Eric says:

There’s not much I can do except give money, and fortunately, Glenn Reynolds made it easier by providing lots of links to the various charities. I decided to give to Catholic Charities, because I worked with them years ago in San Francisco (at the peak of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s), and they were great. I’m not Catholic, but I was impressed because they didn’t proselytize, and they didn’t judge anyone. On top of that, they didn’t have the lavish offices and big salaries which some of the other, more media-savvy charities have. New Orleans is a heavily Catholic city, so I figured my money would go farther if I gave through Catholic Charities.

Not that I’m trying to convince anyone to use Catholic Charities, mind you.

Just GIVE.

So Catholic Charities got my dough. Not that I’m trying to convince anyone to use Catholic Charities, mind you.

Just GIVE.

UPDATE: Captain's Quarters is also recommending Catholic Charities, which I think says quite a lot.

Another UPDATE: Click here for a huge Instapundit round-up, or here or here for Technorati info.