From another froup

Men can take care of themselves. I just love that. Poor, poor helpless
women but men don't need any charity because "men don't deserve anything
extra". What a load of crap.

~AZ~


"We were in a staff meeting, discussing which charity we were
going to raise money for, something we do annually during Christmas.
My department consists of 12 women...I am the only childfree one of
the bunch.

Last year we "adopted" a family from the Rescue Mission, an
organization that helps the homeless and hungry...they gave us the
names of all the family members, and we bought or donated gifts for
them. I was OK with that, as it wasn't totally kid-oriented. You
could also buy for the adults. And they really weren't asking for
much, just basic necessities like soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes. I
made a nice gift basket for one of the women, and gave her some extras
like handcream, shampoo, perfume samples, etc.

Well, this year no one wanted to do anything for the Rescue Mission
because their focus is on homeless men this year. Apparently homeless
men are their largest population. You would not beleive the groans
that came from the group when this was mentioned, they seemed to feel
that these homeless men do not deserve anything extra, they don't need
any help. Someone actually said, somewhat sarcastically, "You know,
as hard as it is to believe, men are people too."

So the secretary went on to the next topic, which was another charity,
which I do also think is worthwhile and does a lot of good in our
community. This charity temporarily shelters battered women who have
fled their homes, often leaving with nothing. Their children also
live there. Immediately someone said "Christmas is for the
children.", indicating they wanted the money to go to this charity.

Again, I have no problem with this charity, in fact I would like to
help them out. However, I do have a problem with the attitudes
displayed towards the homeless men, then a complete turnaround for the
women and children. I even heard the term "defenseless women and
children" bandied about, and that "men can take care of themselves".

Even though I am normally quiet, I was so angry I could not keep my
opinions to myself. I did state that they were wrong in thinking that
Christmas is for children only. I pointed out that while many of the
children at least have a parent (though that may not be a blessing in
all cases), there are many adults who have no-one. Ironically, I work
for a Medicare contractor, and no one even mentioned donating to
nursing homes!

After I brought this up, one other person agreed, and said we should
try to find something that benefits all kinds of people, not just
children (this is the same person who reminded them that men are
people too). One other person suggested developmentally disabled
adults, so maybe that was a step in the right direction.

Anyway, this is still up for grabs, it's going to go up for a
consensus vote. And by the way, the other thing that is strange, is
that they keep talking about Christmas only, and though the majority
of our department is of some Xtian faction, there are some who are
not, and assumptions are being made that they will be happy to go
along."