A good survivalist comments on Red Cross. From another list.
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
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My father was a soldier during WW2. New Guinea, Bouganville, Borneo... that whole area. 2/2 Pioneer Battalion.
When I was growing up, he regarded charity collectors with disdain, particularly the Red Cross. One exception. The Salvation Army.
I asked him why once. He sat and thought for while, clearly remembering. Dad was someone that spoke very little of his wartime experiences and I'd learned not to ask, it didn't occur to me at the time that it was because of a wartime experience.
"When I was in New Guinea, we always knew where the Red Cross were. Back behind the lines, around HQ somewhere. Diggers on the front line never saw the buggers until they rotated back to the rear echelon. The Salvos, well, they were usually up there with us. Where the front line was, where the troops were in most need. Quite a few got wounded or killed. But they were always there, with a bit of soap, or some hot tea, razor blades, or just a pencil and some paper to write letters home. So I'll give to them, but not these other useless b......s."
My great-uncle Joseph Reisacker served as a Ameerican doughboy in WWI. He fought in several battles and was severely wounded just before the Armistice.
I never saw Uncle Joe pass a Salvation Army bellringer without making a donation. He said that the "Sallies" were always right up at the front, providing coffee, food and spiritual comfort to the combat troops, well within range of the German artillery. Meanwhile the Red Cross was posturing and posing for pictures back in the rear areas where it was safe. His high regard for the Sallies was equaled only by his utter comtempt for the Red Cross.
Many Sallies also served as volunteer stretcher bearers and I once read an article about their courageous exploits. The author recounted how one night a lone Sally crawled out in No Mans' Land where he found a critically wounded American sergeant in a half-flooded shell hole. He gave the casualty first aid and then carried him back through artillery and machinegun fire to safety.
The author ended his article with these words - "And to that unknown hero from the Salvation Army, thank you - thank you for saving the life of the man who would live to become my grandfather."
---- Diogenes
The wars are long, the peace is frail The madmen come again . . . .
My high school history and civics teachers, both veterans of front line fighting in WW2, said the same thing.
Read the following - cookies and hot chocolate instead of blankets - and then remember the CEO of Red Cross takes home about 3/4 of a million per year. Cookies are a lot cheaper than blankets. That's lets enough for the CEO paycheck. WS
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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) ? Staten Island residents are furious. They feel that in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy they?ve been ignored and left to fend for themselves. ... It?s that type of apparent neglect that has left residents saying they haven?t received the attention or help they so desperately need. ?Red Cross is here with hot chocolate and cookies. We need blankets, we need pillows, we need clothing. We can get hot chocolate and cookies, we need help!? resident Jodi Hannula said.
Many years back we were part of a hurricane rescue group hauling people from flooded areas to dry land.
After near 36 hours with no sleep and less food we pulled up on a levee with a RC canteen. We were offered a cup of coffee with one hand and then asked for $1 to pay for the coffee with the other. We had no money with us. So we passed.
Walking back to the boats we met a lady from the SA. Who also offered us coffee. We begged off with the excuse we had no money.
Not a problem said she. So we followed her to the tent. We were given coffee and a hot meal and DRUM ROLL tea with REAL ICE.
Again without request for $$$.
I have many such first person stories, RC on the down side ... SA on the up.
39 cents of every donated dollar goes to charity. The rest is salaries.
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Staten Island Borough President: Don't Give Money to the Red Cross
And, although many pols spoke, no one was more impassioned than Borough President James Molinaro, who called the Red Cross an ?absolute disgrace? and even urged the public to cease giving them contributions.
?Because the devastation in Staten Island, the lack of a response,? Mr. Molinaro said to explain his comment to NBC after the press conference. ?You know, I went to a shelter Monday night after the storm. People were coming in with no socks, with no shoes. They were in desperate need. Their housing was destroyed. They were crying. Where was the Red Cross? Isn?t that their function?
They collect millions of dollars. Whenever there?s a drive in Staten Island, we give openly and honestly. Where are they? Where are they? I was at the South Shore yesterday, people were buried in their homes. There the dogs are trying to find bodies. The people there, the neighbors who had no electricity, were making soup. Making soup. It?s very emotional because the lack of a response. The lack of a response. They?re supposed to be here?.They should be on the front lines fighting, and helping the people.?
Many years back we were part of a hurricane rescue group hauling people from flooded areas to dry land.
After near 36 hours with no sleep and less food we pulled up on a levee with a RC canteen. We were offered a cup of coffee with one hand and then asked for $1 to pay for the coffee with the other. We had no money with us. So we passed.
Walking back to the boats we met a lady from the SA. Who also offered us coffee. We begged off with the excuse we had no money.
Not a problem said she. So we followed her to the tent. We were given coffee and a hot meal and DRUM ROLL tea with REAL ICE.
Again without request for $$$.
I have many such first person stories, RC on the down side ... SA on the up.
The red cross is about making money for the red cross. Their salaries are staggering.
Back in December of 2001, (yeah, that year) I took an instructor course for Red Cross First Aid / CPR. They claimed they wanted to have more instructors to train more people - why, well, probably not the reasons you might hope for at that time, though they were certainly trading upon people's good intentions (not their own, as it soon appeared.)
What did the Red Cross care about? Getting paid. Teaching people first aid they could give a rats posterior for - show them the money was the name of the game. They charged me to take a course to become an unpaid instructor to charge people to take courses to get a stupid card from them. Quite the racket.
The American Heart Association seems to get it - as best I recall, 2001 costs of about $3 for an AHA CPR class, where ARC was $35 for CPR and $45 for first aid and CPR. Of course, AHA doesn't have a first aid "certification", while ARC does. No doubt they have jacked the rates. I don't give those bloodsuckers money, or blood, anymore. They are one of the least-cost-effective ways of bungling "charity" donations into fat-cat coffers. And for some reason I let my instructor certificate with them expire...
Unfortunately, they continue to do fine off of well-meaning, poorly informed donors.
Same thing here. The RC wants 75 bucks for CPR now. Add on some more for FA
I am working with the AHA to get some more people involved locally. The current card is 5.00 + whatever the instructor charges for printed materials. I print cheat sheets instead of a book. Much easier and faster. Trying to get them to make a folding card with a cheat list on the back.
So who is responsible for that? Organisations only do what they can. It is the churches that have the second hand garment trade sewn up out here. the Red Cross has only ever been a tea, bikkies and first aid organisation.
As every worker in this state (Australia) has to do a "first aid" certification every few years, which if government mandated, it is a "racket" they might as well join to make some funds for their organisation, whilst making it easier for workers to get yet another piece of paper so they can get emloyment. The private mobs here charge up to $105 each.
I call fake and challenge you to provide the complete message from the other list. Headers and all.
Remember this is the AUSTRALIAN Red Cross and not the USA version.
Bullshit. No one is allowed to wander around the front lines, or any military action or establishment unless they were part of the military or condoned and supported by the military. So that person had to be either a individual solider or a chaplain.
That was standard stuff sent overseas by many Australians in kits for the soliders. My mother told me stories of preparing tins of biscuits and stuff to send to soldiers on the front line.
There is also the issue of how in hell that stuff got there when military supplies struggled, During WWII, if you sent anything of size overseas, you had to have a very good reason. you didn't just rock down to the Post Office and send off your sealed parcel.
We've asked around and no one in our families every remembers the five people who served in that area ever saying a bad word about the Australian Red Cross in that zone. There was nothing but complimentary comments.
Don't you know, that is the American way. Another older comment from WWII was that in priosn camps, the English perpetuated their class system, the Australian helped each other and the Americans just worked out ways to get rich from each other.
Have you ever been in a Salvation Army Thrift Store? Sure you have. But have you ever seen a refrigerator? A washer? An automobile? Riding lawnmowers?
Trust me, those get donated too.
The question for you, then, is what does the Salvation Army actually DO with the stuff you don't see in their thrift stores?
In my town, they auction it off. Every day. Each evening, they tell me, five or more trucks unload a mountain of stuff into the warehouse where it's sorted. The big stuff goes to the auction area. Here's a sample of the stuff I've scored:
GE front-loading washer & dryer on pedestals. Original retail, 00. I paid 0.
650 garage floor tiles - the plastic kind that snap together. I paid for the lot and sold about half for 0 at a yard sale. There were enough left over to tile my patio.
Much of the stuff they sell is in bins roughly the same size as the large canvas letter bins you see at the post office. The most amazing, to me, is a bin about 4x4', seven feet high, filled with SHOES. This bin usually goes for about $150. I figure the new buyer sorts the shoes into junk and keepers. The keepers move to a table at a flea market where they go for $20+ a pair. Even if there are only 50 pair of little used, high end shoes, the buyer is making out like a bandit!
I've seen bins full of golf clubs, lamps, framed art work, toys, stuffed animals, bedding and linens, computers and computer-related things (monitors, fax machines, printers, etc.), kitchen appliances, books, more books, video tapes, luggage, whatever. Stand alone are outdoor grills, lawnmowers, crutches, mirrors, organs, pianos,...
In one of the bins (at the bottom, out of sight) I bought for $25 was a
14x25" stained glass window hanging. I cut out a hole in the door to my library and mounted the stained glass there. Quite dazzling and a fun project. Also in the bin was an antique pedestal-mounted gum-ball machine. The previous owner had replaced the gum-balls with small sea shells. Again, a clever piece.
I saw eleven king-sized mattress (name brands) go for $900. A lot of about
25 smallish bicycles at $100.
And we haven't even gotten to the furniture! I did buy a Henrendon sofa, brocade covering, with a full set of pillows and arm covers. $15 (plus ten dollars "tip" to a helper to assist in loading it in my truck. The wife was out of town at the time, and said it didn't exactly match our motif. Gave it to my son. His cats just LOVE it. We no longer care if the kitties shred the thing - a replacement sofa can be had for less than the price of a cat-scratching-post!
Once a week, my SA has a "high-value" auction. This includes large-screen TVs, working computers, slot machines, musical instruments, and the like. (I picked up a Yamaha electronic keyboard for $15 - retail $145.) Once a month, they auction vehicles - last month they had a '93 Lexus.
One of the workers tells me they average about five thousand in sales every day. The highest he can remember is something in excess of ten thousand dollars.
If you think on it, there have to be similar situations for Goodwill and other charitable groups, plus unclaimed freight from UPS or FedEx.
They closed the SA auction/warehouse in Bakersfield last year for some reason. I spent a significant amount of cash in there over the years.
My Maitland-Smith dining room table came from there, for $35. It retailed for $8000
Nearly all of my luggage came from there. Good stuff. My personal luggage set (4 pieces) is high end Rimowa and Ive got about 15 other pieces..mostly matching sets of Heys and Samsonite. All hard sided.
Id be terribly surprised if I had $100 in the entire lot.
The area has a lot of oil company travelers who have some money to spend when they buy traveling hardware.
We never give to the ARC but for very different reasons than stated in your post. Far more of the donations to the SA get to where they're supposed to go and they don't play games with the money. If it's given for a purpose, it's used for that purpose.
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