This is the story of how I started and stopped ringing the bell for the Salvation Army, and how it reminds me of the Meta going on here.
For three years, I was one of the kettle workers - the official term - for the Salvation Army during the holiday season in my town. I learned a lot over those three years about the kind of town I lived in, the kind of people that lived around me, and about the way that religion and charity often mix. Or don't. I rang the bell not because I'm religious - I'm not particularly - but because the Salvation Army had helped me and my family with a utility bill here, or a bit towards rent there, and I wanted to help them back. Also, to be completely honest, I needed the money. Being in a wheelchair in the small town greatly limits your job opportunities, and even if it was only for a few weeks it was an infusion of cash that allowed us to actually have some money for our own gift giving.
I stopped because they stopped, right as the recession started to kick in back in 2008. They stopped all services except for their food bank, and not because of money - the United Way funded the utility assistance program - but because handling all of the requests was taking too much time in the office and preventing them from doing Army business.
Running a charity that actually helped people had become inconvenient, right when people were starting to need it most. Their office worker was spending too many hours helping people pay their utility bills and not get evicted, and that was cutting into the time needed to do other things. This was not a regional decision as far as I know, but was a local one, made at the local office to prioritize the local assistance that they give. For all of the problems and all of the political disagreements that I have with the organization, this was one that I could not get past, even if it meant giving up the money that I made and desperately needed. I could accept my disagreements because they were doing good in our community that needed to be done and needed to be supported. With that gone and only the family store - higher priced than any of the other charity thrift stores in town - and the food bank - the stingiest and least giving of the Food Banks in town - I could no longer support the organization on a local level.
As I said, I learned a lot during those three years. I learned that disproportionately it was the poor that gave at the kettles, those who could least afford to and many of whom had stories of how the local branch had helped them in recent times. I learned that the nicer one dressed the less likely they were to even look at you as they passed by. That's not to say that every wealthy person ignored me, and to be sure some of the bigger donations came from those who could afford to give them, but on the average I had a pretty good idea whether or not a person was going to give or even acknowledge my existence based on little more than the car they drove and the way they dressed. I also learned that those who most prominently displayed their religion were usually the least likely to give.
In essence, I learned what many polls and studies have shown: in a conservative, religious, largely white community, it was the poor, the working class and the minorities that were the most generous and charitable. It was the people that often needed the services that were most likely to support it. Just as we see retirees in their Medicare scooters at Tea Parties insisting that most people don't need Medicare like they do, those who had never truly known poverty didn't feel the need to help others.
I felt good about what I did and I was one of the highest earners they had, and looking back now I'm honestly still glad that I stopped even though I desperately could use the money right now, because the people who are still giving - they couldn't afford it any more then than they can now - are the ones were no longer being served. I can't count the number of times I comforted someone who wanted to give but couldn't afford to, or felt a bit awkward when some of them gave anyway, but I did it knowing that they were supporting a group that had helped them, was still helping them. I can no longer say that were feel that way.
I write all of this not because I want you to stop giving at the kettles if you do, or because I want you to boycott the organization. Far from it. I know many here have already expressed the feelings that the Salvation Army is one charity they won't give to, and while I understand that sentiment it does make me sad because in many communities they still do offer all of the services that people need, and often they are the only ones doing it in those communities. I urge you to do what you can where you can. For many people, that organization is the only one that's there for them.
I write this because in the heat of Meta and politics and everything else, we often forget why we originally came here in the first place. We came here because we are progressives who believe in helping our fellow man and electing people who will try to do the same. We all disagree about how to do it, who does it best, or whether certain people are truly trying, but at the end of the day we all want the same things.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't leave in huff, don't check out of the cause, don't stop fighting the fight to both shine a light on what Obama and the Democratic party have done for people or hold their feet to the fire when they aren't doing enough. The fact of the matter is they have done a lot, and they haven't done nearly enough. Don't become like the local office here that stopped helping people because it became inconvenient to do so. Don't leave or give up or turn on each other because one of you cheers too loudly or the other doesn't cheer enough. Don't lose sight of why we're really here. We need both the pragmatists and the idealists, we need to praise the administration and Congress when they do the right thing - such as the recent FDA breakthrough - and we need to demand better of them when they don't - such as the payroll freeze. I see too many people here who only do one or the other, sing praises or hurl condemnation.
We need both groups ringing the bell and working together rather than against each other, and as more and more people fall between the cracks we need them now more than ever.