On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 14:56:51 -0500, * wrote:

Let's see......
They take your blood without compensation and sell it for .....how much????

Right. Because they _force bleed_ people on the streets. Why, those
press gangs of wandering phlebotomists are a right menace, they are.
And of course, testing, storing, testing, delivery, and testing of the
blood supply doesn't cost a thing.

There are few - if any - ex-military people (especially WW II vets) who
have anything good to say about the way the Red Cross "helped" them.

Hm. We've had quite a few housefires where the families, and our
department, were helped out quite a bit during and after the fire.
By the Red Cross. Who also trains our EMTs... You know, EMTs? The
people you might need help from some day?

My dad was a POW in Stalag 17 for 19 months and received toilet paper - not
food - from the Red Cross. He cursed them until the day he died. I would
feel very disrespectful to my father's memory if I gave money to the Red
Cross.

So, because the nazis may have picked through the packages before they
gave them to the POWs, ah, never mind. Obviously your mind is made up.

Salvation Army
I chose the Salvation Army ONCE for a donation of a few hundred dollars,
and was solicited at least six times per year for several years after that.
They will not ever get another cent from me.

I see a pattern here. You're impossible to please. Funny, isn't it,
how people who hide behind anonymity are often the ones who are the
hardest to deal with.

What my wife and I have done for the last several years is to go down to
the local chain supermarket, buy a bunch of gift certificates, then give
them to leaders of local, well-established churches to distribute to the
less fortunate among their parishoners.
We've also given some certificates to the local homeless shelter and the
local food bank to buy necessary items.

Some of us just do our charitable deeds and don't see the need to crow
about them on the Internet.