Let me tug at your heart strings (in Off-topic)

Dear Fellow CB Players,

Lend me a minute to tug at your heart strings and bring something to light that has thus far been neglected.

Thousands of people have lost their lives, tens of thousands may, more than one hundred thousand people have felt a loss.

I ask something so simple of you, today before you go out and spend that extra five dollars on something small and simple, please stop and consider donating that money to the RedCross, Americares or another agency who will be aiding those who need it the most.

Take a night away from the Pub, the bar, the hangout or what have you, spend the night at home with your families, remind them what they mean to you. Send the money you would have spent to those who need water, ice, food, medicine, cots and diapers for the children who should not understand the meaning of suffering.

Even a simple donation of five dollars adds up over time,

to start this off I have gone first.

Today I cashed in my 401k and sent near $10,000 to Americares.

May the people of the United States and abroad watch over those who have nothing but hope left.

-Josh

wow.

/tips hat to mrwuss

You are to be commended for your generosity Josh. I myself have also donated almost 10K this year and almost 12K last year toward disaster relief efforts and those that have experienced the hardships of recent days. I feel strongly that anyone that can help those that are less fortunate than themselves, should lend a hand. Thank you Josh for being such a great example for all of us.

-Jared

Bravo MrWuss

I have donated five dollars per week to red cross through our companies payroll deduction plan for a long time.

- steve

I live in the city that, up 'til now, held the record for largest metropolitan area in the country ever to lose its water treatment facility. 12 days with no water. You might think you can reasonably live a long time on boosted Pepsi and Twinkies/Doritos, but the privation is truly unbelievable in a society accustomed to a certain standard of hygiene. No flushing, no washing your hands, no washing your clothes (assuming you have any), no showering, nothing with which to mix any baby formula you might have.

We didn't have near the current level of structural/material devastation as that which the Gulf Coast currently faces. People and supplies arrived by the ton -- our highway system, roads and airport were mostly untouched by the flood -- almost immediately. The country's brewers/bottlers quit bottling beer and sent truck load after truck load of bottled water. (when we cleaned out my grandparents house, we found 2 cases of beer bottles filled with water -- saved for "just in case"!) It was a few miles of driving, and a few hours of standing in line, but you could go to the National Guard facility for a shower.

We've sent our "flood experts" to lend their experience/expertise on how to restore water and electricity. Most importantly we've sent a team of volunteer ... wait for it ... journalists! (our volunteer lawyers are still working out the logistics of their trip) No story of personal suffering and material devastation would be complete without them!

Seriously, our own local news teams are working overtime, so a few of our local anchors could go sit the newsdesks down there -- so their news teams, n turn, are free to go about finding and compiling information for the victims.

It takes a lot of "volunteer" to make up for the basic social services lost in these instances. Water, food, electricity, relief from the heat, a place to live, something to wear. Diabetics are without insulin, and if they have it they can't refrigerate it. The hospitals can't evacuate their critical patients quickly enough, the rescue efforts for those still alive but stranded are hampered by the damage, the shelters are already well beyond the point where basic civility fails, and the fatalities will soon become an enormous health risk to the survivors.

That being said, I've already pledged my car insurance settlement to helping out -- Wuss suggests I get a bicycle instead, anyway. :) If you have _anything_ to give, every little bit helps those who have (quite literally) nothing. My best to all those awaiting word on friends, family, & loved ones.

Short version: I don't care about your heart strings, loosen up those purse strings! This is where giving actually matters! :)

Amen Bast, preach on my sister! :)

Okay, when I get a paycheck, and money for food, I'll consider it. No, really, I mean it, I'll put some thought into it and give what I can.

What do they need ice for? I can't think of anything.

Keeping medicine cold, keeping what food they can get fresh, staying cool.

Melting it into water to drink.

Think harder next time ;/

Okay, perfect sense. I'd forgotten that some medicine has to stay cold.

Hey, yo. I can't give much. I'm up to my ears in debt, and I haven't had money for gas or food in almost a month.

But I was gonna use my first paycheck to buy Civ IV.

Maybe Diablo 2 will hold me over, you know?

How about another Toys for Tots esk fund raiser? I don't have the economic capacity (or honestly possibly even the morality) to pull it off, but others do.

Here's a dare... I'm on my way to donate my PayPal account (a bit over 200 bucks from CB proceeds,,,not even close to Bast's generosity), and I would ask anyone else who has "fun money" to do the same. Better yet, the next time you think you need that extra 5 million $CB2 to quest for the top spot, spend the $60 on charity.

If nothing else, Bast will thank you. *grin*

It is not about beating each other's donation, as I said above, even $5 is more than nothing.

Oh, I know it's not. But we built this city on Rock and Ro--, er Capitalism.

As Bast said, screw the heart strings -- I'm shooting directly for the purse strings. *smile*

And of course no one can beat a donation based on the sale of Cougars -- greatest CB character EVER! DUH!

*smile*

woot, there is my contribution. Buying Cougars.

Well, I'm a high school student without much money, but I still find ways to help out. Contact your local American Red Cross, and I'm sure they'd be happy to enlist you as a volunteer.

Donate Blood. They ALWAYS need blood. I've donated 6 or 7 times. I think it was within the last 8 weeks though :(

/me wonders where our tax dollars are going to.

I don't get it, we end up giving ton of our money in taxes to the government and we still gotta give more in donations to this disaster? Shoudn't the government cover the expenses instead of having us dig into our pockets to cover it, ohwait we already did with our taxes. Point is I don't mind donations being around but seriously though, the federal and state government should have been the one supplying all the money.

I mostly just don't like giving money to the charity since they take some of the money for themselves, as most donation companies do, they take like what 90% of the money really goes to help those people? Maybe 50... Gotta love non profit organizations.

anybody have paypal or something for those of us that are not old enough to do paypal..... that we could all send money to or something?..... something could be certainly worked out right?