{"id":10322,"date":"2008-11-27T09:20:18","date_gmt":"2008-11-27T14:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/?p=10322"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:15","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:15","slug":"the-charitable-curmudgeon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/11\/27\/the-charitable-curmudgeon\/","title":{"rendered":"the charitable curmudgeon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/assets.aarp.org\/www.aarpmagazine.org_\/articles\/people\/curms.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"103\" height=\"81\" \/> <strong><em>W<\/em><\/strong>e&#8217;ve long <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2003\/10\/08\/making-the-world-safe-for-curmudgeons\/\">asserted around here<\/a>, along with <span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><em>60 Minutes<\/em> commentator Andy Rooney and grump-expert <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aarpmagazine.org\/people\/a2003-09-23-goodrumps.html\">Jon Winokur<\/a>,<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"> <\/span><\/span>that:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;text-align: center\">&#8220;<em>Curmudgeons are idealists at heart.<\/em>&#8220;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><em><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>S<\/strong><\/em>cott Greenfield is one of my favorite fellow curmdugeons.\u00a0 He makes a good case this Thanksgiving morning at his <em>Simple Justice<\/em> weblog that it is more important than ever in this season of economic distress that those able to do so give generously to charities, but &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.simplejustice.us\/2008\/11\/27\/give-thanks-but-give-wisely.aspx\">Give Wisely<\/a>.&#8221;\u00a0 A little curmudgeonly skepticism is needed when we choose our charities this year.\u00a0 That means:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Given that charities may well die this year from lack of donations, it is critical that you know that your contributions are being put to the use that you intend, to help the cause the charity purports to represent.\u00a0 This may require a little digging, perhaps spending a few minutes to check out <a href=\"http:\/\/charitywatch.org\/\">CharityWatch.org<\/a>, the website of the American Institute of Philanthropy, to see what percentage of donations actually make it to the cause.\u00a0 However, many smaller or local charities are not included, so you may have to do the legwork yourself.&#8221;\u00a0 And,<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The mission of a charity may well be important and worthwhile, but it has to be viewed in relation to the irreparable harm that will result should the charity fail to fulfill its mission.\u00a0 This year, it means that people will die for lack of food, shelter, medical care, warm clothing and other necessities of survival.\u00a0 Not to denigrate many other worthy purposes, but imminent death trumps a lot of good causes.&#8221;\u00a0 Therefore,<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<em>No matter how important other causes may be, and they are important, this is a year for charitable triage<\/em>.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Please open your hearts and your checkbooks, but please do it with your eyes wide open &#8212; do it with the idealistic cunning of a skeptical curmudgeon.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/11\/turkeywine.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"78\" height=\"70\" \/> <em>W<\/em>e already said sentimental stuff wishing everyone a <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/11\/26\/a-little-thanksgiving-conversation\/\">Happy Thanksgiving yesterday<\/a>.\u00a0 All there is to do today, then, is offer a few haiku appetizers as a prelude to your feast of gratitude with your loved ones.<\/p>\n<p>Thanksgiving<br \/>\nwithout him<br \/>\nthree-quarter moon<\/p>\n<p>&#8230; w.f. owen &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lulu.com\/content\/567504\">Haiku Notebook<\/a> (Lulu Press, 2007)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\">laid off<br \/>\nshe asks the mall santa to<br \/>\nbring dad a job<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 120px\">snow<br \/>\nthe beggar&#8217;s<br \/>\nbare hands<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\">.. by <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/01\/17\/ed-markowski-archive-part-ii\/\">Ed Markowski<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;text-align: center\">in the glow<br \/>\nof the red maple<br \/>\nautumn&#8217;s end<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">&#8230;&#8230; by Roberta Beary (1st Place tie [Kigo], <a href=\"http:\/\/www.haikuworld.org\/kukai\/\">Shiki Kukai<\/a>, Nov. 2008)<\/p>\n<p>wet snow <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/08\/haikuworld.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"41\" height=\"67\" \/><br \/>\nanother year weighs<br \/>\non the century oak<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;.. by tom painting\u00a0 (3rd place [Kigo], <a href=\"http:\/\/www.haikuworld.org\/kukai\/\">Shiki Kukai<\/a>, Nov. 2008)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;text-align: center\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;text-align: right\">home for Thanksgiving \u2014<br \/>\nmy old bed<br \/>\nin the guest room<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;text-align: right\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;text-align: right\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2006\/11\/turkeySil.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"38\" height=\"51\" \/> mom makes<br \/>\ngrandma\u2019s holiday soup &#8211;<br \/>\nsteam and tears<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">&#8230; by <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/dagosans-archives\/\">dagosan<\/a><\/p>\n<p>First snow<br \/>\nthe white mounds of coal<br \/>\nbeside the closed station<\/p>\n<p>.. by Rebecca Lilly &#8211;\u00a0 from <em>A New Resonance 2<\/em> (2001); <em>Brussels Sprout <\/em>9:3<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>cutting the moon cake<br \/>\njust like my mother<br \/>\nMid Autumn Festival<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\">\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026. Yu Chang from <em>Upstate Dim Sum<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;padding-left: 30px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randomhouse.com\/catalog\/covers\/0-7679-0592-X.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"47\" height=\"69\" \/><em><strong> p.s.<\/strong><\/em> Looking for a little inspiration and nudge toward Thanksgiving gratitude?\u00a0 See our post about Morrie Schwartz (of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.randomhouse.com\/features\/morrie\/\"><em>Tuesdays with Morrie<\/em><\/a> fame), &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2005\/11\/23\/self-pity-the-opposite-of-thanksgiving\/\">self-pity: the opposite of Thanksgiving<\/a>&#8220;.\u00a0 I<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;padding-left: 30px\">On the other hand, if you need a curmudgeonly smile, check out and maybe even print out the amusing \u201c<strong><strong><a href=\"..\/2007\/11\/15\/not-your-typical-mid-argument-murder\/\">Thanksgiving Guest Liability and Indemnification Agreement<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>,&#8221; prepared by The Center for Consumer Freedom, who say \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.consumerfreedom.com\/news_detail.cfm\/headline\/3494\">Don\u2019t Let Lawyers Sue The Stuffing Out Of You This Thanksgiving<\/a>\u201d (Nov. 16, 2007; via Stephanie at <em><a href=\"http:\/\/westallen.typepad.com\/idealawg\/2007\/11\/thanksgiving-gu.html\">Idealawg<\/a><\/em>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;ve long asserted around here, along with 60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney and grump-expert Jon Winokur, that: &#8220;Curmudgeons are idealists at heart.&#8220; Scott Greenfield is one of my favorite fellow curmdugeons.\u00a0 He makes a good case this Thanksgiving morning at his Simple Justice weblog that it is more important than ever in this season of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[555,1414],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haiku-or-senryu","category-qs-quickies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-2Gu","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12107,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10322\/revisions\/12107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}