Wow

This article on Reuter’s about a teacher who faked stomach cancer and went on a spending spree with donations she received astounds me. On several levels.

I had cancer several times. I also had 2 extremely premature babies (both were 4 1/2 months early and both cost over a million dollars after insurance paid its share). I paid my bills on them, too – just in time for college expenses. I never even thought to ask for donations to help cover the costs. I incured the debts, I paid them. That’s what responsible adults do.

It astounds me that people would ask for donations to cover their medical expenses.

It pleases me that people are so good and generous that they will give to someone in need, in spite of bad press like this.

It astounds me that she only collected $37,000.00. Cancer costs far more than that to cure – at least judging by what my own cancers cost. The first cancer surgery alone cost more than that, and the follow-up radiation and chemo was way more than that. With more than one surgery and several years of radiation and chemo, the cost was staggering. On the plus side, though, I have a half-life of several million years and don’t expect to die anytime soon – and I no longer need night lights.

Still, I can’t see asking for donations for personal expenses, medical or otherwise. That anyone would do that simply astounds me.

I don’t have a problem with people donating to help others. That is what charity is about, after all, and if you’ve been reading me for any length of time, you know what I do.

It’s just that it would never occur to me to ask other people to help me with my bills, no matter how high they were or what caused them.

I guess it’s because I expect the community to be the ones to notice help is needed and to provide it. And I really should know better – community is so broken that we don’t know who in our midst truly needs help and who – like this woman – are conning us out of both our money and our goodwill.

Ask me about setting up small local community charities and I’m full of information and advice and experiences. I can ramble on for hours about how to set up a Sandwich Saturday deal, or Goodie Bags for the Homeless, or Power Projects for disasters, or any of a number of things like that. But online charities? No. That’s beyond me in too many ways.

I do sympathize with those who need more help than their local community can or will provide, and I admire anyone who can put up a donation jar online. I just can’t visualize doing it myself.  Online, I am – divided.  I still don’t think people should set out a donation jar for themseves for catastrophic events or illnesses – that, in my mind, is always a community act – something someone else does for the afflicted person or family.  It is a good way to let people in the community (and on-line interaction counts as community) know what’s needed, but I still cringe at a person doing so for themselves.  The community is – again, in my mind – the one responsible for setting up any collections.

People who set up “tip jars” to collect funds for work provided – stories, information, art, etc, that’s job-related employment and I have no problems with that at all because it’s a job.