Oh, yes - based on equal parts “help a good cause” and “fuck the OP,” I, too, will be donating money to this girl’s cause. Thanks for the heads-up, ** js_africanus**.
- Rick
The old “She’s an idiot because she isn’t using her money in the way I want her to use it” ploy, eh?
Tell me, how much money have you been pouring into that catch and release scam lately?
Should I tell you to change your priorities because there are starving and homeless kids in this country???
Just how much money have you pissed away on such luxuries as cheese and gasoline while there are starving people in the world?
JS, you are way off base here. The kid chose her charity. Regardless of whether or not it’s the best way to funnel her energy, she is learning a lesson of compassion and priority. She’s twelve fuckin’ years old. At that age, I wasn’t even slightly interested in giving to the needy. Kids relate to animals. She’s doing a good thing. Leave her alone.
By the way, there are about a million other charities that are way more deserving than your Sudanese slave issue. They wouldn’t even be on the first page of my list.
Actually, she’s ten (I thought she was older, too - upon going back to the article, she’s only ten) - which, imo, makes this even more of a good thing. What an awesome kid.
Ava
I think what she’s doing is commendable. Teach 'em charity at a young age and no telling where it will lead. Now maybe bulletproof vests for cats and canaries would be a little bit out there, I see nothing wrong with the case presented in the OP
Interesting; I grew up 45 minutes from that town. At 50,000 people, it was a “big” town we’d go to for shopping!
I also have to join the dopers who disagree with you. I think the wonderful thing here is that this girl found a cause which moved her, and she is now having the experience of working towards for the benefit of a cause. Who knows; in 20 years she could be the director of Doctors Without Borders or Save the Children.
I disagree with the idea that she’s siphoning money from other causes. Charity is not a zero-sum game. Different causes draw different people. Someone who loves dogs might open their wallet for this drive, and give money that wouldn’t have made it to any charitable cause otherwise.
While starving children are heart wrenching, and I could, like you, come up with a good dozen or so humanitarian crises which need immediate help, I don’t think this is a trival cause. Police dogs are incredible assets to a community. They can make some parts of officers’ jobs safer and easier, saving who knows how much money long-term. It is also good for officer morale, and is positive for public relations with the law-abiding element of the community.
As a side note, I’ll insert that rural areas in the Midwest are having increasing problems with drugs and gangs. If a police dog can help Grand Island and other places in Hall County forestall some of the violence & crime that comes with increased drug trade (I presume this dog may be trained at drug detection?), it can enhance the quality of life for a lot of people for a long time.
Not a lot of other problems are solved with $6000, good for the kid.
This is the dumbest OP I’ve read in awhile.
I was about to berate the OP but it seems I’m too late.
It’s quite a great philosophical point - is it good to do things when there are better things you aren’t? I’ve come to the tentative conclusion that thinking about it will just paralize me and its best to spend my worrying time doing anything worthwhile instead (improving as necessary).
That said, having read the article, WTF? It doesn’t say the police department is short of funding or anything, so why is she raising money for them? Maybe they are, but couldn’t someone have said that? And it’s doesn’t sound like any of this (apart from the vest) is going to benefit any dogs. Maybe she’s just pulic spirited?
My “granddaughter”* Amanda is 11. Two years ago, an element of the science part of her curriculum dealt with “the vanishing rain forests” – a fairly honest presentation, only slightly slanted, and scaled down to third-grade level.
Something about it hit home with her. While she’s a fairly normal 11-year-old, whose principal issues worth getting fired up about are the amount of chores she should be expected to do and what is an appropriate bedtime for a girl her age, the rain forests problem stuck with her. Every so often she gets moved to do a bit of activism on it – use it as her show-and-tell topic, send $1 or $2 from her birthday money to an environmental group, etc.
Her mother, grandmothers, uncles, and all but one of her aunts are not issues-oriented. Her father dabbles in local reform politics on a sporadic basis. The exceptional aunt is into elementary extracurricular education enhancement. You all know what my issues are; Barb is into fighting discrimination against the poor, their empowerment, and Franciscan witness. Not an environmental activist in the lot.
No matter. This is her issue – the one that moved her to try to do something about it. And we’re all very proud of her for having found something that matters enough to put herself into working for its improvement.
The girl in the OP has an issue that matters to her. Just because it’s not your or my hot-button we-need-to-work-on-this-problem issues doesn’t mean it’s not important. And I think she’s deserving of commendation not censure.
- If anyone needs or wants to know why the quotation marks, feel free to e-mail me. Explaining the relationship for the 108th time on the boards would probably be counterindicated.
I think it’s fantastic that she’s taking it upon herself to do some good. Shame on you for questioning her “priorities.” Her priorities are a hell of a lot better than most 10 year olds who can’t see past their X box or new bike.
I think it’s also wonderful that she picked a “small” project, as she’ll most likely get to see the end result of her particular cause. Hopefully, this will give her enough joy and satisfaction to continue with charity work throughout her adult life.
I’d also applaud the little girls parents, who are obviously teaching their daughter to be involved in her community and to take action when she feels it’s needed. She’s 10 years old. I couldn’t think of a more suitable charity to adopt.
Well…
I could use $6000.
[sub]Just saying[/sub]
OTOH, to the extent that criminals are attracted to the drug trade by the high profit margins, which are made possible by the illegality of drugs, this may actually do the opposite. More cops and drug sniffing dogs -> more crackdown -> more scarcity and risk -> more profit -> more crime.
I’ve gotta side with js_africanus on this. Kudos to the little girl in question who’s shown a hell of a lot more community spirit than I’ve shown…well, ever, but just because there is no strict “World Wide Charitable Institutions Official Order of Priority?” (jacquilynne) doesn’t mean that there aren’t some “worthy causes” that aren’t totally fucking stupid.
Sure, she raised the money and it’s hers to donate to whatever pointless cause she sees fit but while I commend her for having the compassion to raise that money, I’m not going to say that it’s money well spent.
This kinda reminds me of those human interest oddities you hear about on the news some time when eccentric billionaires leave cash sums equivalent to the GNP of a small island to their cats.
I think the parents should have use dthe opportunity to instill more of a sense of social awareness in their daughter and perhaps gently nudged her in the direction of Oxfam or something.
I think this shows good character on the part of the little girl, but to play devil’s advocate, I have to wonder: is there a point at which the parents should step in and prevent a waste of this girl’s hard-earned money? She is only 10, after all.
What if she was planning to do any of the following with the $6000:[list=1][li]give it to the neighbor kid because his parents told him he couldn’t have a bike for christmas, and she wants to buy him one[/li][li]give it to the next homeless guy who asks them for spare change[/li][li]buy the police department a doggy-sized police car for the police dog to drive[/li]/list=1 If the money truly is being wasted (and I suspect that a bullet-proof vest for a dog is a near-complete waste of money, but I’m no expert), shouldn’t her parents be teaching her that?
I think if I were her parents, I’d make a rule that she has to wait a few years and think about what she’d like to do with the money. I’m pretty sure that’s what my parents would have done if I had $6000 and wanted to give it away.
To me, this is an example of why the conservative ideal of leaving social problems in the hands of private charities is an extremely bad idea. People respond emotionally to certain issues, and the actions they take can be wasteful of time and money or even harmful to those they’re trying to help. If buying police dogs bullet-proof vests were a worthwhile expenditure, then the police department should pay for it. I agree with the OP that it’s mostly a waste of energy and money. I also think that this girl is more likely to grow up to be someone who recognizes that there are more worthy causes and continues to work to help her community.
While I agree that those efforts are probably misguided, charities are no where near the primary buyers of slaves. They’ve freed hundreds of slaves over the years, compared to tens of thousands who have been kidnapped and sold as slaves.
I would have to agree with the other posters who feel the OP is way off base here. Not only is she raising money for the vest but also to purchase the dog to begin with.
Police dogs serve a multitude of purposes (sorry no cites). A dog can sometimes be a criminal’s friend. I’m sure there are unfortunate situations where people do not act rationally when cornered by police. During these tense situations, particularly if the police feel the suspect is armed, a police dog can be sent in (and possibly sacrificed) to subdue the suspect, so that officers do not feel the need to use deadly force.
Also, I’m fairly certain that most police dogs are at least minimally trained to track scents. The article stated that this would be the county’s only police dog since the current one retired due to cancer. Consider the possibility of a missing child in a rural area. An alert is issued and the local police dog responds (instead of waiting for one from another county) and tracks through the woods. This could give authorities an incredible jump on finding the missing child.
It is conceivable that this dog may save lives. To me this is definitely a worthwhile cause and is not deserving of some of the negative comments listed here. This girl is ten years old and attempting to solve a problem that apparently adults couldn’t. Good for her.
I’m thinking of foregoing purchase of the latest Stargate SG-1 boxed set to send this girl 50 bucks - if I could find out how to get in touch with her.
Ntucker said, “I’m pretty sure that’s what my parents would have done if I had $6000 and wanted to give it away.”
She raised the money for this cause…I don’t believe she ponied up her own cash. The $6K came from people who wanted to give to the dog/dog vest cause. A quick scan of Google sites shows that she’s not the only kid doing this (most of the fund-raisers are little girls…). The vests not only help the dogs, but the cost is $5K for a new dog. Many communities don’t come by that kind of money easily. These dogs get stabbed and shot all the time. Think about it. If you were a bad guy and a dog clamped down on you, you’d do your best to kill it. This is a huge investment that’s being protected.
Actually, I’d say the dog can benefit from the vest as much as a human police officer. These dogs don’t just sniff drugs once in a while and spend the rest of their time lounging, you know. A lot of their work is non-violent, but so is that of human officers and nobody says their bullet-proof vests are a waste.
Think about it: a lot of these dogs are attack trained to protect their human partners, and in a violent situation, the dog’s gonna get to the criminal before the humans. Dogs are fast, as anyone who’s ever tried to chase one down knows. Given the choice between shooting the dog and letting it take him down, I’d say a criminal is probably going to shoot the dog. The most effective place to shoot a charging animal is the chest. If the dog’s vestless, he’s either dead or has some pretty big vet bills.
Spend $1000 on a vest, or $1500 on emergency vet care (plus losing the dog’s services during recovery), or $5000 for a new dog? Makes sense to me.
This kid started out trying to protect a police officer from harm. An officer with four legs and a tail, yes, but an officer nonetheless. Someone who serves and protects her community. Then she learned that the officer in question was dying, and she’s trying to make sure he has a replacement. If she was raising money for a human officer or a firefighter who had cancer, everyone would be going on about how wonderful it all is, with no mention of other, more worthy charities.
Quite a number of years ago, around the same time as the big Live Aid charity drive thing (here in the UK), I decided to shave off my shoulder-length hippy locks and go completely slaphead for charity, but for some reason, I chose to support a relatively small UK kidney dialysis charity.
I actually got into the local newpapers with it, but it was obvious that the reporter who came out to see me was just itching to write “LET 'EM STARVE! - LOCAL LAD SHUNS LIVE AID!” - seriously, the conversation went something like this:
Reporter: So you expect to raise about £400 for Live Aid?
Mangetout: About that, but it is actually going to the BKPA
R: So you don’t want to support Live Aid?
M: I’ll be supporting Live Aid in some other ways, I just chose to dedicate this particular act to a different charity.
R: So you think Live Aid is wrong, is that it? We shouldn’t be sending charitable donations abroad?
M: No, I don’t think that - Live Aid is a great cause, but we should remember that it isn’t the only cause.
R: So you think people shouldn’t give to Live Aid?
M: I’m not saying that, in fact I think they should give to Live Aid, I just happen to be doing this thing for a local charity.
R: I see, so you think local charities are more important than foreign aid, do you?
(and so on).
(there are times when only the words “Oh fuck off!” will do)