I know this makes me a total asshole, but someone’s gotta say it. And it’s a measure of my annoyance that the first day of the red bucket campaign has not even begun yet and I’m already bitching and moaning. But here goes:
God I HATE those damn Salvation Army bell ringers!!
I appreciate their cause and all that. Yes yes, sharing is caring, yadda yadda yadda, even more important this year mm-hmmm, I get it, I support it. But I hate how they are parked in front of every fricking store in town. Say you’re running errands or doing some holiday shopping, you could pass six of these buckets in an afternoon. And given that you pass ‘em once going in and once going out, that’s 12 times you either give or slink by guiltily. I also work next door to a Borders’ that allows the ringers, which means I pass that bucket four times every single fucking workday between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Sigh.
I suppose this is a personal failing of mine, that it’s not enough for ME to know that I gave at the last bucket I passed or wrote a single check to stuff into one bucket to cover a season’s worth of giving… I still feel like some uncharitable ratfink when I pass one by. I feel like I’m also setting a bad example for others (especially kids) when they see one more adult just shimmy by without opening the wallet. But what’s the alternative? Keep a roll of quarters and slip one cheapo thin coin into each bucket? That feels even worse, to hear that little plink that screams “CHEAPSKATE.”
I hate anything that makes me feel pressured and like a Scrooge. Those goddamned red buckets make me feel both.
And you just know they’re gonna put more fully-outfitted firefighters on bucket duty this year than last. How guilty will I feel then?
One of these days I am going to jump one of them and grab the bell and stuff it down his or her neck. While some bystanders might cheer, I doubt they’ll testify on my behalf at the trial.
I, too, feel the guilt when I walk by one of those damn buckets without putting something in, regardless of the fact that I donate to other charities on top of living paycheck-to-paycheck. My new approach is to stuff a bunch of loose change into my pocket. If I’m out running errands, I drop a small portion of the change in my pocket into each bucket I pass. That way, I don’t get the forgiving or judgmental looks from the bell-ringers, and everyone’s happy. Cheap? Hell yes. Makes running errands in SA season bearable? Yes also.
Until Bush was pushing his plan for faith based organizations to participate in the government more, and it was revealed that the Salvation Army was going to spend lots of money lobbying in order that they would be guaranteed that they wouldn’t have to adhere to anti discrimination laws that cover sexual orientation. It really ticks me off that they would use the money they raised for government lobbying of any kind. Also, just recently, the national organization overrode the western regions decision to offer health benefits to domestic partnes. I believe that they should have the right to make those decisions, but I am going to withhold my money from them, and give to another charity.
Jeeves
I love the Salvation Army bellringers (there’s one outside my building too) because they are such a symbol and sound of the season.
But I never give them any money – I just think of them as part of the Christmas decorations. You should feel free to give to whichever charities you want to support without feeling guilt about those you don’t support, even if they are standing on the sidewalk shilling for your spare change.
FUCK THEM. You wanna wear an American Flag on your body and present yourself to me as a real American, then dammit to hell- you’d better act like one. Freedom. Autonomy. Respect. Support of the rights of others. You wanna play your facist exclusionary games? Good. Go fucking ring that homophobic bell under someone else’s nose, God help you if you ring it under mine.
I’ve so little patience for hypocritical beggars. What are they gonna do, outfit firefighters with money raised by their group, but demand in return that firefighters not save gay victims of fires? Logical next step !!!
I think that perhaps my money might be spent more wisely if I donated to another cause. I cannot WAIT for the first bell-ringer to get in MY face.
FWIW, I have never donated to them in the past. Guilt-based charity isn’t charity at all, it’s bowing to mob mentality. I refuse to do that.
That’s strange. I feel like I’m setting a good example. What these people are doing is no better than telemarketing. If I give them money, I’m paying them money to annoy people. Even if I felt like giving money to a charity, I’d give it to a charity that actually uses the money to help people, rather than to annoy them. If there are a hundred cities with an average of one hundred bell ringers working 40 hours a week for six weeks, that’s 2.4 million hours spent annoying people. Think about how much money they could put to worthwhile causes if they quit paying people to annoy other people.
Umm, I just want to make clear that I don’t support the Salvation Army. Besides being annoying, they are homophobic assholes. My post wasn’t very clear. Also, I want email notification for this thread.
Jeeves
Who strangely enough has not seen any of the noise pollution makers yet here in SoCal.
They’re not getting anything from me this year. I had to say no to the United Way through work this year because I found out they give money to the Boy Scouts. When my boss asked why, I told him. He understood.
I guess I’m just going to give more to the non-homophobic organizations this year.
The bellringers are popping up around town, but they haven’t set up shop in front of the store where I work yet. I have my hopes up.
Well, fuck. Someone (not me, I’m too fucking busy not getting my piece-of-shit dissertation done) needs to print up some little cards that we can hand to the bell-ringers. You know, to say “I will be giving to other charities this holiday season because of your decision to do x and y.” Or you could stuff them in the slot. They might ignore a few of those cards, but imagine them appearing in collection buckets all over the country–a little hard to ignore a nationwide trend of people saying “Sorry, bigotry means no cashola from me.”
I’m already sick of them. I work as a bike messenger, so I spend a lot of time within earshot of that damn bell-ringing. Luckily, I don’t feel guilty about not giving them anything.
Alas, they do go further to say that gays should remain celibate, as should all unmarried people. They don’t refuse to serve homosexuals, they just think they shouldn’t be bumping the fuzz, apparently. On the one hand, I think this is laughable. On the other hand, a heckofalot of faith-based organizations, when pushed, would probably also advocate celibacy except in marriage. Of course, the fact that gays can’t get married (in the eyes of these same conservative churches) is a bit of an unfair thing:
Okay, so where do I come out on all of this? I’m not thrilled with their stance, which I think is not humanist in the way I’d want a social-service organization to be. However, I wonder how many of the other charities I support would be found to have similar policies, if I scrutinized them? I think more than anything the Salvation Army is suffering (perhaps rightfully) from publicity about their policies when equally-conservative charities probably have the same policies but have escaped notice. Does the good they do outweigh their backwards view on gays? I dunno. It’s gonna take some thought.
Well, I still hate the fucking ringing bells. Not sure where I stand now on putting money in.
Ran into them last Friday here, Nov 16th. Seems they are out earlier and earlier.
My way to get around it is to give my 2 kids each a quarter, then have them put it in the bucket. Even with that we could end up giving a few dollars a day during the holiday season, according to what errands we run.
I really don’t see why anyone feels the need to explain why they don’t give to SA. I don’t give to the Catholics. Or to the Mormoms. Or the Baptists. Or the Episcoplians. Why is it that out of all the religions, SA has managed to convince so many people that they need a reason to give to them?
Um, all the gay and lesbian Dopers had a meeting and they elected me to say thanks to those of you who are taking homophobia seriously. We really appreciate it.
Weird…you mean some of you guys have had Salvation Army people get in your face and try to guilt you into giving? I have never had that happen to me! I just see them near the walkways of stores ringing their bells. They never get in my way or shout “Give to the Salvation Army!” or “Help the poor you selfish bastard!” or anything like that. They just stand in one place, ring their bells, and if I plunk in some money they’ll say “thank you” and keep ringing…
No, the guilt is all my own. I like TheRyan’s thinking though. And if pressed, I will tell any bellringer that I can’t give until I have resolved my issues with their stance against homosexuality.
Or I might go back to Plan A and ram the bell down their throat. It’ll depend on my mood.
Why feel guilty? Because there is a human being looking at you?
Do you feel guilty when you walk out of a store without dropping anything in the MDA or Lions donation jar? Do you feel guilty when you leave McD’s drive-through without dropping your change in the box for the Ronald McDonald House?
Anybody but me think the title to this thread was “Red buckets, ringing bells and Cranky’s ass”, and try to figure out what happened?
Let’s see… she tripped and fell, and got her butt stuck in a red bucket… no, she was riding in a sports car with red bucket seats, and there was this bell… no, she was at a prize fight, they had the red water bucket, they rang the bell, and…
Just me? Okay. I’ll be going now.
Oh, and I stopped giving to SA a long time ago. I used to give when they would dress people up as Santa Claus, but they phased that out over time so it looked like it was all just bus drivers ringing the bells, and then one day I passed a bucket and sign and I heard the ringing bell but there was nobody standing there–they had a street person ringing the bell, and that person (couldn’t tell if male or female) was huddled in the corner covered in rags, ringing the bell… creepy. Too creepy to foster feelings of monetary responsibility and altruism.
FYI, with United Way you can specify a designee when you give. That way if you don’t want to give to the Boy Scouts, you don’t have to. If another person doesn’t want to give to Planned Parenthood, they don’t have to.
