Justice
Next Entries »Letter About Prisoner Medical Care
Senator Constance N. Johnson
Oklahoma State Senate, District 48
Senator Johnson,
I am concerned about legislation introduced and planned for introduction in 2008 by State Senator Owen Laughlin of Woodward and others. The legislation concerns inmates in county jails and financial responsibilities for pre-existing medical conditions. Links at the bottom of this letter include the recent court decision and area news articles on this matter.
On the surface it makes a great deal of sense that counties shouldn’t be responsible for a candidate’s cancer because he happens to get incarcerated. . . .
To the United Nations
I’m writing to ask that you intervene early, not wait, in the erupting situation in Kenya. I am deeply and personally concerned.
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Customizing Gifts of Charity
One way of giving on behalf of colleagues and other professionals during the Holidays, is to give something related to their field of endeavour. For instance, for a training and education professional, you might give on their behalf to a school in Cambodia.
Organizations like globalgiving.org and givemeaning.org make it easy to target a sector of charity (medicine, education, justice and human rights, racial justice, etc.) that’s within the sphere of daily life and work of your colleague or loved one.
It’s a creative and appropriate way to give on occasions where giving to the world is precisely the point.
Selecting Charities
This is an excerpted letter of response I wrote to the COO of globalgiving.org — she’d written to thank me for participation, mention some web traffic coming from my site, and ask how I’d learned of their organization. I responded to explain how, personally, I select the charities that suit my interests.
Hi Donna,
Here’s the deal: It was a process. Like many people, I’ve gone years wanting to help the poor but feeling paralyzed – unable to find a way to do it effectively, for several reasons:
Letters to Congress
I’m not political. But recently, I sent letters to each of my senators, and the representative for my district. This is an example of one such letter:
Representative Fallin,
I’ve lived in your district for about three years, but I’m less familiar with your work than I’d like to be; I’m writing to find out what you’re doing about two things in particular – Sudan and Burma. And I’d like to urge you to do everything humanly possible.
You remember at the end of the film Schindler’s List, when he took off his watch and said “This could have bought several more lives. I could have done more…” That’s a man summing up the meaning of his life.
Holiday Generosity
Instead of gift cards this year, consider giving a charitable donation in the name of each recipient to kiva.org or oxfam.org. With kiva, you can print the photo and information about the 
recipient (and it will indeed be that exact person who receives your help) – it makes a wonderful card insert, and they will actually see your profile next to the person you helped when they go to the site. With oxfam, you are acting as St. Nicholas to a world that cannot afford for their children to eat anything this Christmas. Let’s love the poor together. Give.
How Can I Help?
- New Futures orphanage in Cambodia [some more info].
- Dazzline Stone School in Chennai, India [more ].
- Warm Hearth orphanage and group home in Armenia [ more].
- Others of our brothers, the poor.
- globalgiving.org and givemeaning.org: Promoting direct giving to the exceedingly poor
- kiva.org: Promoting direct, responsible microloans to raise the working poor out of poverty
- oxfam.org: Promoting responsible allocation of resources to relieve mass hunger
“The true religion is rescuing the orphan and widow in their distress.” – St. James, Patriarch of Jerusalem, Brother of God
The Poor
- Teach us to be responsible for one another.
- Enrich us with opportunities for compassion.
- Demonstrate for us the basic dignity of human survival.
The poor are the orphan, the widow, the neglected, the enslaved, the kidnapped, the tortured, the trafficked, the impoverished, the abandoned and alone, the sick, the imprisoned, the immigrant (the stranger), and all who anywhere suffer or are in need. The poor give us the opportunity to rise by giving. They save us. They make us whole, by letting us do the same for them.
“Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours but theirs.” – St. John Chrysostom
From the Rules of Work
“Money is good for a few things: protect your family, liberate the poor, and make more money.” — Daniel DiGriz
Worthy Causes
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