Ah the Stingy Americans!

As I was saying. . .

The Command Post has a roundup:

December 30, 2004
Those Stingy Americans I think not.

Pfizer: $35 million
Coca Cola: $10 million
Exxon Mobil Corp: $5 million
Citigroup Inc.: $3 million
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: $3 million
Merck & Co. Inc. is giving $3 million in cash
while Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories Inc. are each donating $2 million;
each of the three are also sending drugs and other health care supplies to the region.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. is donating $1 million in cash and $4 million in antibiotics and antifungal drugs. Roche Group and GlaxoSmithKline PLC were also planning to donate supplies and/or cash.
Nike Inc., American Express Co., General Electric Co. and First Data Corp. are each giving $1 million.
Amazon.com had collected about 87,000 donations totaling more than $5.4 million for the American Red Cross as of Thursday afternoon. [Now $6,286,000]
Wal-Mart Inc. is setting up collection containers at all of its stores, in addition to a $2 million donation from its foundation.
AOL members donated more than $1 million in less than 48 hours, according to spokesman Nicholas Graham.LINK
Catholic Relief Services is pledging $25 millionLINK
By my count, that right there is $107,000,000 U.S. dollars. From private sources. Don't forget, the people of the United States are the most generous people in the world. We don't expect our Government to spend our money for us. We take care of that ourselves.
More:
U.S. rap/rock quartet Linkin Park: $100,000
American Red Cross and CARE:
The American Red Cross reported $18 million in donations over the past three days while CARE USA has taken in $6.5 million
Times Daily:
Wells Fargo & Co. donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross, as did Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Kaiser also pledged to send doctors to needed areas.[snip]
Cisco Systems and its employees have pledged $2.5 million and will also provide communications equipment in disaster areas.[snip]
San Mateo-based tech company SuccessFactors said it would match donations made by its 100 workers, which so far amounted to $10,000. San Jose-based software company Realization Technologies Inc. has donated $10,000 so far and said one of its consultants in India will be committed to the relief effort for six months while donating use of its business software for 18 months.
The list goes on and on. We don't need the Government of the United States to take our money and give it away. We are perfectly capable of taking care of our charitable choices ourselves.

So as Americans give from their hearts, in the hundreds of millions of dollars, don't call us stingy. We are not. And don't tell us we don't care. We do.
The total, in this compilation alone is over $127 million dollars U.S. Posted by Chuck Simmins at December 30, 2004 08:59 PM TrackBack

Here's What I Mean

Just a Baltimore based group, donating nearly as much as US 'total'. Gibberish. American public is generous and compassionate. Just wish to make our own choices, which the government of the US understands.

Update: Baltimore/Boston I know it's in the East

Can't We All Get Along? Guess Not.

Davids Medienkritik has several links that illustrate US problems with Europe in general, and Germany in particular.

There Is No Way To Say This Better

Captain Ed has said what needs to be said.

Chintzy? I Don't Think So. . .

Unfortunately I have had little time to write or even read the news, grabbing what I can from FOX or CNN, thus I’m way behind the curve. I have caught onto the flak caused by one of the myriad of idiots at the UN, saying then trying to unsay that the US has been ‘chintzy’ in aid to countries in need. The argument for pulling out of the UN can wait for another day, but I saw this in the Trib this morning:

As of Wednesday, countries around the world had offered more than $250 million in assistance to help areas ravaged by Sunday's tsunami.

Spain $68 million
United States $35 million
Japan $30 million
Britain $28.9 million
Australia $27.6 million
Germany $27 million
France $20.5 million
Source: Associated Press

I’ve noticed that France has upped its contribution from the slightly more than 100k noted yesterday. Without being overly self-righteous here, it should be noticed that the American people have given to charities more than the US government for many years. That is not criticizing our government; rather it is a commentary on how our culture differs from most, including other democracies. We do not have to be taxed to give to those in need, we do so willingly.

Amazon has already collected nearly 6M in pledges for Southern Asia, which is not a ‘traditional’ charity collector. I cannot find the figures for Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, etc., all of which are involved in collecting and distributing money and goods.

For that UN official to dis the US people, NOT George Bush, but the people, is a travesty. My hope is that the people will prove him wrong and not figure, “If you have the name, why not play the game?”

Resting and Working on Resume

It's that time of year. Tomorrow doing shopping and lunch with a friend. Haven't left pajamas for a couple of days. Working on lesson plans and resume for next year. Funny, have time to blog but relaxing. Granted lots of guilt with bin Laden and tsunamis, but not much I can do about either.

And A Happy New Year, Back to the News

Found this via Instapundit. The article from Strategypage is also a must read. Now back to the Belmont post; this is a problem for any middle school or high school teacher, what to ‘share’ and what to ‘protect’ students from. Obviously the brighter students already are reading the paper and know this information, so we are talking about average and below. Is it our job to ‘awaken them’? If so, to what degree when they may be disturbed by the information?

Again, thank you for the well wishes, I had a wonderful Christmas and hope you all did also. My back is better and my toe is no longer causing me to limp, though my foot is mult-hued!

I do have some interesting stories on the kid side, but still deciding if I should write about them.

My favorite gifts: My three children got together and gave me a massage, haircut, and facial to the most luxurious locale available. Can’t figure out if they are trying to have me relax or trying to get me a date. My dad gave me a generous gift card to the grill/bar frequented by my teacher friends and yours truly. What a family!