Fund Raising

To my son Tommy,

I was scrolling through some of my various twitter feeds this morning and came upon a tweet that said, "...I see you're not fond of someone. Why not make a contribution to his opponent? ..." and gave a link to do just that. I chuckled at the boldness of this fund raising tactic. I get the concept, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" whole thing.

Then I started thinking perhaps this tweet has a bit of truth to it. Perhaps I should give money to counteract the demons in politics. But handing money to a devil to defeat a demon is not quite what I think of as a good solution. And in politics, angels are so far and few between. And you can't really be diametrically opposed if you are in the same political arena.

So if you want to monetarily support that which opposes the demons and devils in politics, find a good humble soup kitchen or shelter to give to. My Brother's Keeper Baltimore is a good place to donate. (I picked them because your Grandmom Roro sends them a casserole or two every week, but you can find your own cause or organization) Go out and buy a bunch of food and send it their way. Or go donate to a school. Better yet, hit a school bake sale and then take the desserts you bought down to a homeless shelter. Find those people and groups in the world that are spreading love and hope, and avoid contributing to those who seek power no matter how much you hate their political opponent. Find a group that accepts your money but would rather have your time and effort to affect change.

Find those organizations that you see the actual effect of your contribution rather than getting just a vague political promise for change. I have lived a life seeing so many political people promising how they will make things better. But after 40 years of life, I have seen too few promises come to fruition. But if you ever worked a soup kitchen, you see people come in hungry and defeated, and you see them leave sated and with a glimmer of gratefulness and hope. That is real change even if the next day you have to do it again, and again.

Sincerely with love from your dad,
Leo