Take a second and tell the folks you care about how you feel about them.

I have a number of clients who have friends or relatives who died in the last week or so.

The lady who puts money on my account here just lost her son. I just found out a few hours ago that I'm going to cover for her the rest of the week. I'm sitting here trying to rearrange the rest of my week and getting a few nasty comments back because of it.

Only takes a few seconds and who knows when and/ or if you'll see them again.

Oh and if you see a Salvation Army or Volunteer of America bellringer, please don't make fun of them. For the last ten years, I've taken my vacation time and rang a bell for them the entire season. I could tell you some horror stories.

Thanks,
-drmike

Nice post; will definitely keep this in mind. Sorry about your lady friend's loss!

Don't donate to the Salvation Army; they are a paramilitary religious organization that has discriminated against LGBT. people.

https://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/5ewryp/friendly_reminder_to_not_donate_to_the_salvation/

https://thinkprogress.org/salvation-army-refuses-housing-shelter-to-transgender-woman-2660c79b4cd4/

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2017/07/salvation-army-busted-discriminating-transgender-people/

So, please don't donate to the Salvation Army. If you want to donate, choose an organization that doesn't discriminate against marginalized groups.

Volunteers of America, while also faith-based, does not appear to have problems with discrimination the way the Salvation Army does (though I, personally, would rather donate to or volunteer for a secular organization).

Edit: Could anybody explain why this post, in which I kindly warn of a problematic charity, is "low rated"?

I know I should tell my folks how I feel about them, but to be honest, I totally forgot where I hid their bodies.

In general it's best to do ones own research. I was refusing to give them money for years before I found out about that because of the incessant bell ringing would drive me nuts.

For the financial side of things, https://www.charitynavigator.org/ can be helpful in figuring out if the money is going where it's supposed to be going in with sufficient efficiency. Which is another problem, some charities just don't get much bang for the buck and others are seemingly infinitely resourceful.

Er, okay… Did you notice the last line of what you quoted of drmike? I don't think it was meant to be a challenge of horror stories.

I doubt any organization will appear to be perfect to everyone. I think your alternative suggestion of organizations would have stood on its own without the added derision. I think the request of drmike was to respect the person, and it seems to me like your expressed spite of their employer would invite unfriendliness towards the person working.

To me that seems similar to what happens when associating a person with a stereotype, and your underlying message of not promoting discrimination against people is weakened by you categorizing and disparaging their employer. What I mean is for me you've succeeded with inspiring some doubt about the employer (but who's perfect?), but in manner that encourages me to also doubt your perspective about what it means to not discriminate.

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Greene can't really complain when the government is taking tax money then using it in a discriminatory manner.

People with a heart, I guess?

Oh lookie. It's the Vampire giveaway all over again.

A good friend of mine going back to high school, just lost his son last week. 20 years old. Gonna try to fly out to see him after the holidays. That kind of loss is devastating alreaxy, and the timing of it just piles on. Figured I'd wait a couple weeks since that's often when the loss really hits.

We're out in LA area now, doing what drmike suggests: her Abuelita is 95 this week so we're celebrating that and reconnecting with relatives she hasn't seen in 30 years.

or Haley Joel Osment.

https://media.giphy.com/media/aLdiZJmmx4OVW/200.gif

and gay people have been doing a great job of discriminating against straight folks and doing some particularly nasty and/or stupid stuff recently. Nothing against gay folks, but act like an asshole and get treated like one. (I'm sure there is a tasteless joke in there somewhere).